Church newsletter pastoral column for St. Peter Lutheran Church, Greene, Iowa, for June, 2020.
Looking Ahead to the Pandemic’s Aftermath
“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
– Romans 8:28
God willing, it seems possible we may be nearing the end of this pandemic, this time of physical distancing from one another. (Or, perhaps I’ll look back at that sentence in a few months or years and realize how naively optimistic I am right now!) We do seem to be entering a new stage of re-opening and returning to something closer to normal life. I pray these are the right decisions and will not lead to a more aggressive return of the virus later. But whether the end is near or months or even years away, at some point, this crisis will be behind us.
Whenever it is we’re able to resume our normal patterns, what do you want to take away from this pandemic? What of the myriad of changes and disruptions we’ve experienced since we last gathered for worship on March 15 do you want to carry forward?
In asking these questions, I am not trying to find a silver lining. I do not believe God caused this pandemic to get our attention, or to teach us a lesson. I encourage all of us to not minimize the tragedy faced by those whose family members have died, or who have lost jobs or had their livelihoods threatened. But I do believe the tragedy is never the end of the story. As the cross shows, our God can bring good out of even the worst tragedies. So what good things can come out of this disruption?
For our world, one of the bright spots is surely the environment. Seeing what a difference just a few weeks of much less consumption has made, perhaps some of us will learn to live with less stuff, burn less fuel, and use less energy than before. Another bright spot for many is that more time at home has meant more time with family. As I write this, I’ve just read that Twitter will allow most employees to keep working from home permanently, even after the pandemic is over. Many other companies, especially big companies like banks and tech companies are also re-assessing whether people really need to be in an office every day to be productive at work. (I even wonder if that will help rural areas like ours, if remote working becomes more common and can be done from places with lower costs of living.) Personally, I’ve had the chance to read and study more, and to connect with more people over the phone and video chat.
On a congregational level, I think this has taught us worship does not depend on being gathered together in one room, and—paradoxically—that there is something essential about being together. In these weeks of online worship, we’ve discovered some of the parts of worship we may have thought were necessary are not as important as the core of hearing God’s Word read and proclaimed, praying, and praising God, yet we’ve also discovered how much we value coming together to sing and pray as one body.
One of my favorite parts of this whole experience is that we’ve had people in our congregation who haven’t attended worship in-person in years who have been able to worship with us online, even participating by reading Scripture lessons. Although I’m not going to continue producing full online services when we resume in-person worship, I do plan to continue recording sermons to share online, perhaps even occasional devotional videos or a sermon podcast. What else should we continue or start?
Most importantly, we’ve been forced to live our faith outside of the church building. Making masks, giving food, supporting local businesses, calling to check on and encourage neighbors, all of these express faith in real life. May God bless you as you consider what to carry forward from this strange time.
In Christ,
-Pastor Daniel Flucke