You Can't Shoot A Virus With a Gun

We will worship together via zoom at 500 on Sunday. Click here to participate.

Our midtown parish group (hosted by the Thompsons and Soren) will meet for prayer at 8 pm on Thursday (today). Click here to participate, even if you never have before!

Our downtown parish group will meet for prayer next week (details to be announced).

To see the rest of our daily devotionals, with prayers, songs and reflections, click here. To sign up for daily emails, click here. 

Prayers

1. Morning

   1. Readings

      1. Old Testament: Isaiah 40:6-8

      2. Psalm: 69:1-23

   2. Prayer: The Lord's Prayer

   3. Hymn: Come Thou Fount

2. Evening

   1. Readings

      1. New Testament: Mark 8:27-9:1

      2. Psalm: 73

   2. Hymn: Abide With Me

   3. Prayer: Psalm 138:7-8 (below)

Devotional on Isaiah 40:6-8, from Rev. Martin Antoon:
If there is one word that encapsulates how we feel about our current patterns and expectations of life, it is “uncertainty.”   It isn’t just that we don’t know how long things are going to last or how far along doctors and scientists are developing vaccines or learning new information, we don’t even know what big announcement might even come tomorrow that will even more drastically shape our lives.  Our routines are different as we stay at home.  Our jobs look different.  School looks different.  Relationships look different.  If you walk outside, our city has an eerie aura that simultaneously feels part ghost town and part apocalyptic hysteria.  We want to do even the simple things that accompany the feeling of stability – sitting at our favorite coffee shop, going to the beach, even going to church – but we can’t.  We can’t plan because we don’t even know what changes might happen.  Life is uncertain right now. Maybe that's why we are buying all the guns?

If we were to rewind about 3,700 years, we would find a lot in common with the Israelites.  Their uncertainty wasn’t in the form of pandemic.  It was the Assyrians.  The foreign power was closing in, and exile was on the horizon.  Just like us, they were filled with questions that had no answers.  “Where will we go?”  “How will I care for my family?”  “How does God’s goodness fit into this situation?”  Perhaps the setting feels familiar to you.  It is into these questions the prophet Isaiah writes.  After 39 chapters of exposing Israel’s idolatry of security, Isaiah brings a glorious promise of hope.  He recognizes what we are currently experiencing alongside the Israelites.  The grass withers and the flower fades.  Or maybe for our purposes, “the global health withers and economic security fades.”  But the word of our God will stand forever.  There is security in the promised word of God because the promised word becomes flesh.  The promise isn’t an abstract ideology, but rather, a crucified savior.  The uncertainty of our current lives is no more real than the certainty of the empty tomb. 

What if we could, in spite of all the difficulties, embrace the uncertainty?  I wonder how that would shape our belief that the word of God will stand forever.  Is it possible that we could practice what we have taught ourselves to profess?  If you’ve ever been in the exciting-yet-terrifying position of buying an engagement ring, you probably experienced something interesting.  The jeweler shows a few diamonds at first, and to the untrained eye (which happens to be 100% of prospective grooms), they look pretty good.  But then she brings out the real deal, and its shine reveals the others as vastly inferior.  It’s not that the other diamonds weren’t good, they just don’t compare to the real deal.  It’s not that our familiar sources of comfort aren’t good, they are now simply being compared to the real thing.  By embracing our current uncertainty, we can begin to see what it truly means to have perfect security united to Christ.  


For discussion:
1. What am I tempted to clutch at in the midst of uncertainty? Sometimes this comes out in "at least..." as in, "At least I still have ____"?
2. How do we respond to others who are feeling uncertain? Why is it so tempting to point them to false certainties?
3. How might trust in Jesus empower us to let go of "at least?"

A prayer for presence, from Psalm 138:

    [7] Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
        you preserve my life;
    you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
        and your right hand delivers me.
    [8] The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
        your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
        Do not forsake the work of your hands. (ESV)

The City of Ghosts

Join us for our weekly time of guided prayer and worship via Zoom ( a link will be provided later this week).To see the rest of our daily devotionals, with prayers, songs and reflections, click here. To sign up for daily emails, click here. 

Prayers

1. Morning

   1. Readings

      1. Old Testament: Isaiah 52:7-12

      2. Psalm: 82

   2. Prayer: The Lord's Prayer

   3. Hymn: Come Thou Fount

2. Evening

   1. Readings

      1. New Testament: John 1:9-14

      2. Psalm: 87

   2. Hymn: Abide With Me

   3. Prayer: Psalm 138:7-8 (below)

Devotional on Psalm 87
Shelter in place. The order has been coming for awhile now. But in many ways the declaration merely makes official what has happened to our city over the last two weeks. It hit me on St. Patrick's day Eve, more than any other day: we have become a city of ghosts. Sitting in an ancient square outside an empty cathedral on deathly quiet streets made it obvious. Though the buildings were made of brick, for an instant it felt as if the more solid thing was in the past. The energy was gone. The moment was more than real; it was metaphorical.

Scripture teaches us that the longing we feel for our city to return to its previous life, its previous energy, is itself evidence of a deeper longing.This is really a longing for the city of God. Psalm 87 describes a city full of life, full of energy, full of creativity (v.7-8). The city is famous for the life and joy that stream out of it. This is not just a description of Jerusalem ("Zion")... its a description of New Jerusalem, the city of our fathers and the city of our hope. 

How do we get that city back. In the near-term, of course it means waiting for the presence of people to return; what a joyous, energetic day that will be. But the city isn't just brought to a recognition of its former glory by the presence of men, but by the presence of Man. The kingdom returns in the presence of the King. As we look forward with longing to the return of life to our city of ghosts, lets prepare ourselves for the descent of the city that, if we have Jesus as our king, is our hometown, our city of origin. Maybe then people would ask, "Wow. You are from there?"

A quote:
"Happiness is not just a hope, but also in some strange way a memory, and we are all kings in exile." - GK Chesterton

For discussion:
1. What do you miss most about the city of Savannah as it was five days ago?
2. Does that longing point to a deeper longing, for another city?
3. When the order is lifted, what would it look like to start making Savannah look more like Zion? Do your longings provide any evidence as to where you might could start?

A prayer for presence, from Psalm 138:

    [7] Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
        you preserve my life;
    you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
        and your right hand delivers me.
    [8] The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
        your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
        Do not forsake the work of your hands. (ESV)

The Day the World Stopped... or Did It?

Join us for our weekly time of guided prayer and worship via Zoom ( a link will be provided later this week).To see the rest of our daily devotionals, with prayers, songs and reflections, click here. To sign up for daily emails, click here. 

Prayers

1. Morning

   1. Readings

      1. Old Testament: Genesis 3:1-15

      2. Psalm: 8

   2. Prayer: The Lord's Prayer

   3. Hymn: Come Thou Fount

2. Evening

   1. Readings

      1. New Testament: Romans 5:12-21

      2. Psalm 138

   2. Hymn: Abide With Me

   3. Prayer: Psalm 138:7-8 (below)

Devotional on Psalm 138

The cover story of my copy of Time Magazine this month reads, “The Day the World Stopped.” The last couple of days have felt like it, haven’t they? Jobs, social engagements, entertainment, worship… all the old routines and rituals and structures that seemed to power our lives and give us meaning have ground to a halt. We can’t even do the things we used to do on days when our own personal lives stopped, because the rest of the world has. We find ourselves asking, “When will the world start up again? When it starts up again, what kind of world will it be?” Because it has shut down.

Or so it seems. 

In Psalm 138, one of our Scripture readings for today, life with God is roaring along. The author David feels as if his life with/before God gives him meaning and power and purpose, though every authority is arrayed against him. The world is moving (v. 1-6). And then it slams to a halt. Trouble comes, the wrath of enemies is arrayed against him. Where is the progress? Where is the movement? Where is the growth? The world has stopped. Life with God has stopped (v. 7-8).

Or so it seems. 

We have been planting Christ the King- Savannah for almost two years, and I have spent much of that time waiting for the trouble to end, for challenges to cease… And then we had a plague that made the whole world stop. Now what? Wait around for ministry can start again? For the world to start again? For life with God to start again? Surely you know the feeling? “If I just get over this challenge, then the life I wanted to live will start up.”

Or so it seems.

But the psalmist sees with the eyes of faith. He sees trouble and challenge, not as a barrier to knowing God, but as the pathway to knowing God. In the places of difficulty, we find that our walk with God has begun. His steadfast love is with us, and he reveals that love to us as he is present with us in the challenge (v. 7-8). Trouble is the name of the street that we walk on when we meet God; its the stage for his drama of redemption. So we can’t, as Christians, pretend like there is no trouble. We can’t simply try to live on as normal, or as close to normal as we can. Because then we might miss the grace in the midst of trouble. But we also can’t sit around waiting for the world start again. Because it has started already. It never really stopped. God was present to us, in sickness and in health.

So what do we do? We live the life of faith as a prayer. Boldly entering into the times of trouble, confident in the presence of God with us, wanting to know him more. Pleading that he would be with us. “O Lord, do not forsake the work of my hands” (v. 8).

For discussion:
1. What hurt the most when the world seemed to stop?
2. How is God revealing himself to you in the midst of that stopping?

A prayer for presence, from Psalm 138:

    [7] Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
        you preserve my life;
    you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
        and your right hand delivers me.
    [8] The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
        your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
        Do not forsake the work of your hands. (ESV)

Christ, Calendars, and Coronavirus

“Come Thou Fount” is a hymn that asks God to “tune our hearts to sing thy praise.” What if he used our calendars to do it?

To see the rest of our daily devotionals, with prayers, songs and reflections, click here. To sign up for daily emails, click here.

Announcement
In an effort to discuss churchwide strategies for community building and spiritual growth during this strange time, we are going to gather online for a zoom video conference at 5 pm on Sunday. To join the meeting, click here from your computer or phone (you will need to download an application, but it is so simple). We would love to get 100% participation, so please digitally attend. We only have 40 minutes of free meeting time, so begin the login process at 445 on Sunday. I'll send out another invitation email on Sunday if you misplace this one. Thanks, and looking forward to speaking with you!

Devotional
When did it home for you that this was real? What was the moment that you recognized, regardless of your opinions on the virus or our social response to it, that this would be a major disruption to your life? When did it first make you angry?

For me, it was when I went to espn.com as a part of my daily morning ritual, and I read these fateful words: "March Madness is Cancelled."
What? March Madness? What am I going to do in March? And thats when it hit me- we do not cancel sports in America. The rhythms of sport are the rhythms of our life, from football on Saturdays (you're welcome UGA fans) and Sundays in the fall, to baseball in the spring, to basketball on a weeknights (the music elicits a visceral response), to all the practices and games that we play ourselves or put our children through. The sporting calendar is life. And thats when I realized how disruptive this virus would be- when we cancelled life. And thats also when I wondered, "What sort of people has our calendar made us into?"

Psalm 90:12 asks that God would "teach us to number our days rightly, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." The people of God have always celebrated certain times of the year to "number their days" in such a way that they remembered God, and his love for them. From the Passover feast in the Old Testament, to the Easter feast in the New Testament age, our calendar has helped us remember who we are.

Now that we have been stripped of our American calendars and schedules in so many ways, what if now is a great time to reclaim a Christian rhythm of living in our day-to-day. We will each have tons of time over the next couple weeks; that time will be shaping and changing you. What would it look like to impose a structure on your time so that, when this is all over, we would have actually grown spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally into the image of God we were made to be? Here is an article from the Gospel Coalition that would help you create a rule of life just like this. It may be a more productive (but less hilarious) usage of your time than this. Don't worry if it isnt perfect. Lets start taking small steps towards Christian maturity as has been modeled by saints down the ages.

A quote:
"A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week." Gen. George Patton.

For discussion:
1. Describe your spiritual, emotional, relational, mental, and physical condition before social distancing. What role do you think your daily schedule played in creating this sort of person?
2. What are three practices you could commit to that, if kept diligently, would help you love God, love neighbor, and love yourself better during this time?
3. Have a conversation with your roommates or family. How can you come to this decision together, instead of by fiat?

A prayer for discipline to love God, from Psalm 90:12-17:

    [12] So teach us to number our days
        that we may get a heart of wisdom.
    [13] Return, O LORD! How long?
        Have pity on your servants!
    [14] Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
        that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
    [15] Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
        and for as many years as we have seen evil.
    [16] Let your work be shown to your servants,
        and your glorious power to their children.
    [17] Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
        and establish the work of our hands upon us;
        yes, establish the work of our hands! (ESV)

A Crisis of Confidence

Until we gather again as a community, CTK will release a daily devotional each morning. Each devotional will include a song to sing, a short devotional (to be read alone or with your family), questions for discussion or reflection, and a prayer. See the rest of our series on our blog. To sign up for our daily email, fill out your contact info here.

Devotional
The past few days we meditated on the concept of apocalypse as a revealing or unveiling. Coronavirus has exposed the difference between power and authority- and the consequences that result when those in power have no authority.

To be powerful is to be in a position which commands respect. The police officer with the badge, the politician with the platform, the parent with the small child- all of us are in positions of power, and are underneath those who have power over us. Power can be taken by fear or by force; it can be claimed by capturing the symbols of power. But power also runs in the background; we only really notice power when the person who has it is wielding poorly. All of us have been in situations where someone with power is a bully; all of us have been that person at one time or another.

Authority is something different. Authority cannot be taken; it can only be earned. To have authority is to have other people's trust. Authority is power plus goodness plus integrity. When someone speaks with authority, we believe that they know what they are talking about, and that there is alignment between what they say, do and feel. When someone has authority, we believe that they are for us, and that they tell the truth. Authority cannot be taken, but it can be given away: when those in power act in self-interest or out of hypocrisy, they may retain their power, but they lose their authority, and the trust of the people that depend on them. To be underneath someone in power who has lost authority is to lose confidence in the collective, to stop believing that someone is looking out for you, to feel like you are totally on your own. When we receive a constant stream of information (some of it true, and some of it not) which undercuts the story told by those in power, it becomes more difficult to trust their authority. Perhaps this is why our most digitally native generation (millenials) are the group that are most infected in the United States... by virtue of their constant exposure to information, it becomes difficult to trust ANY authority. So we go on about our lives, looking out for number one. Sound familiar?

The good news is this: that though the kings of the earth wield power but lack authority, the king of the cosmos retains his authority, even as his power grows. Jesus says, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6). And everybody rolled their eyes. Big talk, Jesus. Sounds like another populist, making promises he can't keep. The scoffing got louder throughout his ministry. Surely this "King of the Jews" was only in it for himself. The cynical response was as popular then as it is now. "What is truth?" said Pilate. "What is truth?" says  the smartphone. Jesus' will be exposed, will lose authority, eventually- we just haven't found the skeletons in the closet. And on and on. 

Right up until the cross ("Father forgive them, they know not what they do). Right up until Easter. Right up until the empty tomb. 
Right up until death was swallowed up in victory, the grave could not hold the King. The Way and the Truth brought us Life. To him be the power and glory forever and ever. Amen. 

As you struggle to trust those in power, place your trust in the one who has demonstrated his goodness, his integrity, his truthfulness in history. You can trust him in the darkest nights. You can trust him in the face of death. He has conquered it already. Believe it.

A quote:
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, love grows perhaps the stronger." - J.R.R. Tolkein

For discussion:
1. What authorities do you find yourself trusting? Where do you turn for actionable information? Why do you trust them?
2. Read 1 Cor. 15:1-28. 
3. What is Paul's good news?
4. What if its true? How would it change your emotional experience of this pandemic?
5. How does this definition of the gospel compare and contrast with the definition you are living out?

A prayer for confidence in God, from the Lorica of St. Patrick:
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.
Amen.

“O Praise the Name” celebrates the power and authority of Jesus, purchased by his life, death, and resurrection.

On Liturgies and Livestreams

Be Thou My Vision is an old Irish Hymn which celebrates the intimacy of God's presence with us, and pleads for more of it!

Until we gather again as a community, CTK will release a daily devotional each morning. Each devotional will include a song to sing, a short devotional (to be read alone or with your family), questions for discussion or reflection, and a prayer. See the rest of our series on our blog.

Devotional
Yesterday we meditated on the concept of apocalypse as a revealing or unveiling. One of the things that has been revealed to me through this experience is how dependent I am, in healthy and unhealthy ways, for other people for my spiritual life and growth.

Before... all this... we at CTK were exploring the Sermon on the Mount during worship on Sunday nights. After reading the Bible, then a couple of commentaries, I turned in my preparation to two sources, time and time again: digital sermons of Sinclair Ferguson at First Pres. Columbia for a more traditional perspective, and digital sermons from Scott Sauls at Christ Pres. Nashville, for a perspective that was more attuned to the contemporary zietgiest. I wasn't at the worship services where these sermons were preached; I didn't sing the hymns, pray the prayers, or participate in the sacraments with these congregations each week, and yet my spiritual life and sermon preparation benefited every time I sat down to listen. I am grateful, and will continue to listen to these men preach.

During the recent... stuff... we as a Christian community have come to appreciate the benefits that technology can provide to our spiritual life. Many of you have watched live stream sermons or congregations at worship. Great! I wonder if its possible to be both thankful for these resources, and yet at the same time still believe that God has given us a massive opportunity for embracing a deeper personal experience of him. What if God is using this experience to keep us from being people who acknowledge Jesus with their lips in corporate worship, but whose hearts are far from him (Matthew 15:8)? What if this is the time when we can embrace him even in our most intimate relationships- our family/household/selves?

Sermons are important, but that people grow as they are exposed to the rhythms of liturgy- ESPECIALLY liturgy that speaks to the deepest parts of our human experience; liturgy that is (cringe!) relevant. I don't know about you, but locked in my house with my family makes me grateful that worship follows a rhythm to which I must conform. It forces me to be a real human!

• I have to be forced to see the wonder of God the creator as his glory is expressed in my family- I would miss it otherwise.

• I have to be forced to reckon with the ways I have wronged the people nearest to me who are made in his image, and thereby wronged him- I would miss it otherwise. 

• I have to be forced to stop and remember that God loves me and has forgiven me because of what Jesus has done- I would miss it otherwise.

• I have to be forced to participate wholeheartedly in worship, and not just mail it in while the people on stage do the religious performance. I have to be forced to make God's story MY story- I would miss it otherwise.

At CTK, for the duration of this pandemic, we will not live stream our service. NOT because its wrong (it isn't!), or unhelpful (it can be so helpful!), but because we believe that this is a great time to take responsibility for making the rhythms of worship our own. For taking responsibility for our own spiritual lives, instead of exporting that responsibility to the religious professionals. For reclaiming spiritual intimacy with those who live with us. For getting to know our own spiritual selves.

Here is a link to Christ Presbyterian Church Nashville's livestream on Sunday morning. But if you only do one thing this Sunday, do the liturgy. Pray together. Confess your sins. Sing a song. Read the Bible. Talk to one another about God, and talk to him about yourself and your circumstance. I will send out a short order of worship. with readings, prayers, and discussion questions that you can adapt to suit your household, I would encourage you to do it as a family or as an individual. What if God is calling us, in this Lenten season, amidst the disruption of our regular meetings, into a renewed closeness and intimacy with himself?

A quote:
“The way of Jesus cannot be imposed or mapped — it requires an active participation in following Jesus as he leads us through sometimes strange and unfamiliar territory, in circumstances that become clear only in the hesitations and questionings, in the pauses and reflections where we engage in prayerful conversation with one another and with him.” - Eugene Peterson

For discussion:
1. What are some of the ways we have tried to live vicariously through other people's spirituality? Do you want more? Its ok to be honest!
2. How do you feel about leading prayer and scripture reading with your family, or just doing it yourself? Don't judge that feeling... interrogate it! Why do you feel that way?
3. Guilt at past failures always prevents us from trying again. Do you see yourself as a beloved child, who the Father loves, and who he delights in even in our stumbling attempts to follow him? Can you hold that love in front of you? What a great time to dust yourself off and try again. Blame it on the pandemic!
4. Talk to your family or prepare yourself to read the Bible and pray this Sunday. What are their fears? Don't judge those fears...accept them. And yet... God promises to be with us when two or three are gathered in his name.

A prayer for God's courage, from the Lorica of St. Patrick:
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.
Amen.

Apocalypse Now

“Rock of Ages” is a plea that God would not stop revealing us to ourselves until the truth is out there… and that he would be our comfort in this sometimes painful unveiling.

Apocalypse Now

Until we gather again as a community, CTK will release a daily devotional each morning. Each devotional will include a song to sing, a short devotional (to be read alone or with your family), questions for discussion or reflection, and a prayer. See the rest of our series on our blog.

Devotional
The word "apocalypse" has some strange associations. For some of us, "apocalypse" was a terrifying story told when we were children, to frighten us into behaving. For others of us, the impact is more corny than terrifying. But one thing that is true (or, was true, until a week ago) for all of us- apocalypse seems extraordinary, fantastical; something that happens in fiction.

The biblical usage of this genre of literature is very different from our modern American conception. The term "apocalyptic" actually means "unveiling, or revealing." Apocalypse is what happens circumstances in our lives reveal who we are, and what we are made of. An apocalypse pulls back the curtain to reveal the men and women underneath. No more hiding, no more pretending: in apocalypse we are exposed. Its not that we have a choice to make; it's more like the reality of the choices we have been making our whole lives is made plain to us ("you've been putting it up your whole life").

In this way of using the term, apocalypse doesn't happen out there, to somebody else. It happens to all of us, in little moments, every day. Moments where who we are and what we are becoming is revealed to us in a flash, in the way we respond to our situations- a jolt of anger, an unexpected kindness, a flash of shame. Sometimes these apocalypses pass in microseconds.

What has the recent version of apocalypse revealed about you? Your community? Your church? About who and what you love? About where you find security? About how you schedule your time?

What if apocalypse is both a tragedy, and an aid to devotion? God is calling us to take stock of our lives by exposing to us some pretty hard truths... and some pretty beautiful ones. Don't let this apocalypse go to waste- seek Jesus in the revealing.

For discussion:
1. What are some fears that have been exposed in you in recent days?
2. What are some hopes that have been exposed in you in recent days?
3. Take some time to sit with your family, or on a phone call, and tell one another some glory and some tragedy that has been revealed in one another over the past week.

A prayer for God's presence in apocalypse, from Psalm 139:

    [1] O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
    [2] You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
        you discern my thoughts from afar.
    [3] You search out my path and my lying down
        and are acquainted with all my ways.
    [4] Even before a word is on my tongue,
        behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
    [5] You hem me in, behind and before,
        and lay your hand upon me.
    [6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
        it is high; I cannot attain it.

    [7] Where shall I go from your Spirit?
        Or where shall I flee from your presence?
    [8] If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
        If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
    [9] If I take the wings of the morning
        and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
    [10] even there your hand shall lead me,
        and your right hand shall hold me.
    [11] If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
        and the light about me be night,”
    [12] even the darkness is not dark to you;
        the night is bright as the day,
        for darkness is as light with you.

    [13] For you formed my inward parts;
        you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
    [14] I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
        my soul knows it very well.
    [15] My frame was not hidden from you,
    when I was being made in secret,
        intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
    [16] Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
    in your book were written, every one of them,
        the days that were formed for me,
        when as yet there was none of them.

    [17] How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
        How vast is the sum of them!
    [18] If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
        I awake, and I am still with you.
    
    [19] Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
        O men of blood, depart from me!
    [20] They speak against you with malicious intent;
        your enemies take your name in vain.
    [21] Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
        And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
    [22] I hate them with complete hatred;
        I count them my enemies.

    [23] Search me, O God, and know my heart!
        Try me and know my thoughts!
    [24] And see if there be any grievous way in me,
        and lead me in the way everlasting! (ESV)

The News Became Flesh

Devotional
Have you been watching the News recently? Not just in the context of the current pandemic, but before that. As the capabilities of information technology increased, from the written word to the telegraph, telephone to the Internet, the News has become a bigger facet of our everyday lives.

I don't mean the News that happens around us every day, in our immediate relationships: weather, sports, local government reporting, etc. A central facet of the News is that it happens far away; its shocking in some way, and it incites in us a feeling of obligation to do something about it, even though, because of the boundaries of space, time, and our own creatureliness, nothing can be done. The News is wars and rumors of wars, as Jesus once said. It calls our imaginations away from the present, away from the places where we CAN have an impact... or could have, if our imaginations, hearts, and muscles had been devoted to loving that place. Which is what makes it so shocking when the News changes your daily life. Is this why we are so resistant to taking action which might spare our neighbors and ourselves? Because we know (or at least we have been trained to believe) that the News is something that happens somewhere else. The coronavirus is as much an outbreak of the News as it is a virus.

COVID-19: and the News became flesh, and dwelt among us.

The Way of Jesus is not the way of the News. Though Jesus transcended all boundaries in his power, sitting enthroned in the heavens, he gave that selfsame power up. "And though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant." Let that sink in: to save the world, Jesus could have snapped his fingers; instead, he poured himself into a particular time, into a particular place, and loved with a life-giving, self-sacrificing love the people who were six inches in front of his face. 

And the Logos became flesh, and dwelt among us.

To be a Christian in the time of coronavirus is to follow the pattern of our savior: to voluntarily limit ourselves for the sake of others. As we have been saved, so now we save. 

A quote:
“But love, sooner or later, forces us out of time...of all that we feel and do, all the virtues and all the sins, love alone crowds us at last over the edge of the world. For love is always more than a little strange here...It is in the world, but is not altogether of it. It is of eternity. It takes us there when it most holds us here.” - Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

For discussion:
1. What are some steps you can take to limit yourself for the sake of the vulnerable among us?
2. Before this epidemic happened, how did your lack of limitation harm others? Can you think of ways in which pouring yourself into the particularities of the present actually served somebody?
3. Think of some ways to pray- not for the epidemic as a whole, but for your immediate neighbors and family in the midst of it. 

A prayer for God's presence, from Psalm 144:
    [1] Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
        who trains my hands for war,
        and my fingers for battle;
    [2] he is my steadfast love and my fortress,
        my stronghold and my deliverer,
    my shield and he in whom I take refuge,
        who subdues peoples under me.
    [3] O LORD, what is man that you regard him,
        or the son of man that you think of him?
    [4] Man is like a breath;
        his days are like a passing shadow.
    [5] Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down!
        Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
    [6] Flash forth the lightning and scatter them;
        send out your arrows and rout them!
    [7] Stretch out your hand from on high;
        rescue me and deliver me from the many waters.

Sabbath and Sickness

Until we gather again as a community, CTK will release a daily devotional each morning. Each devotional will include a song to sing, a short devotional (to be read alone or with your family), questions for discussion or reflection, and a prayer. This is the first in our series.

Devotional:
Anytime we are faced with a situation that is dangerous, uncertain, or out of our control, we feel afraid. Our responses to that fear vary widely. Some of us paradoxically love that feeling of fear, and we search for it like adrenaline junkies at an amusement park. Others of us long to escape the discomfort of new surroundings, where our old routines and habits don't provide the comfort we sought, and where our carefully manicured image of calm control might be exposed to be the flimsy charade that we know deep down that it is. And in the midst of these various responses. there is always a cacophony of voices telling us to not be afraid. Some of them masquerade as voices of faith ("fear is a lack of faith!"), some of them as voices of reason ("Live your life, don't let fear guide you!"), all of them seeming tinny and hollow. If they are so unafraid, why are they shouting so loud?

But rarely do we ask the deeper, more spiritual question, "Why, exactly, are we afraid?" That would demand that we sit with our fear, question it, get to know it a little bit. But this is no prison-cell interrogation, with our fear safely locked in handcuffs on the other side of the class. To interrogate our fear is to recognize our weakness.

There are many legitimate reasons to be afraid of COVID-19, or sickness at all: they physical symptoms, consequences for loved ones, social and economic disruption. I don't mean to minimize these at all. But when I interrogate my fear a little, when I sit across from my own personal Hannibal Lecter, I find something else, right alongside these other fears.

I find the fear of rest. 

Experts are agreed that the best way to combat the spread of this outbreak is to stop what we are doing: stop our work, stop our commerce, stop our play, stop our gathering. To stop and rest. And if we are honest, stopping is not something we are good at. Our restless relentlessness as human beings, our drive to transcend all barriers, to maximize productivity, to hustle and grind and produce and make something out of ourselves... this is a good desire gone haywire; the sixth day of creation ("fill the earth and have dominion") without the seventh ("and God rested from all that he had done"). To rest forces us to engage with the voices inside of us, the people and neighbors immediately around us- the people who don't but our charade. We are restless, not because home is boring, but because it is far too dangerous. This restlessness gave us a world where physical and geographic boundaries were transcended, where production continued day and night, where people went everywhere always in pursuit of the objective, building restless roads that a plague could walk on.

When I was a campus minister with RUF at SCAD, I would work furiously all through the academic year- nights, weekends, whatever it took. Then Christmas break or summer would come, and my body would collapse, and I would get sick. Sick from lack of rest. Jesus was trying to tell me something.

JRR Tolkien once wrote, "What punishments of God are not gifts?" Maybe, maybe, maybe in some small way, the fact that rest is, at present. the only vaccine for COVID-19 should cause us to stop. To stop and think. Why are we so unable to rest? What are we afraid we might find, if we stopped are were alone with ourselves?

A quote:
"You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you." - St. Augustine

For discussion:
1. What is it like being alone/with just your family? What tensions and anxieties do you feel between one another? What joys are there?
2. What patterns can you cultivate in your house to make this a restful time? What do you need to stop doing? What do you need to start doing?
3. What or who do you notice about your room/house/family/street that you did not notice before rest?

A prayer for rest:
Click here to read a prayer from Scotty Smith.

CTK And Coronavirus (I know I know. Just hear me out).

Love God. Love Neighbor. Love Savannah

That's why we are here (Jer. 29:4-7). What does that mean for our church during the time of coronavirus? It's not a simple question to answer- most of us exist along a continuum between EVERYBODY CALM DOWN and PANIC! I'd like to offer a couple thoughts, as well as deal with some practical matters as it will affect our community. 

1) What will we do?
A. We will obey all government instructions and restrictions about meetings, if such a thing occurs.
B. Until that time, we will continue to meet for worship and a meal, with appropriate hygienic considerations for the meal and communion as the situation calls for. Those preparations have already been made.
C. I have contacted the Chatham Emergency Managament Authority (CEMA), volunteering our congregation to help in case we are needed in the Edgemere, Ardsley, or Parkside area. I will be in touch about what that may mean for us when I hear back from them.

2) How should we feel?
At the beginning of the Second War World, CS Lewis gave an address to young scholars who were attending university at the beginning of a world- and epoch-defining event. He argues that the war (or in our case, the pandemic) is not an abnormal event; instead, it is an event which pulls us closer to the truly normal which we are prone to forget. The speech is worth quoting at length (simply substitute "war" for pandemic):
"The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure the search would never have begun. We are mistaken when we compare war with "normal life". Life has never been normal."
Because of this, Lewis argues that we should fight our own tendencies to excitement (thinking about pandemic when we should be thinking about our daily lives), frustration (anger that we will not be able to finish what we have started because of our lives being disrupted- this is what it means to live in a community!), and fear ("The Christians of the past thought it was a great blessing to be aware of your mortality... That is one of the pandemics great blessings. I am inclined to think they were right."). Read the whole thing if you want.

3) What examples shape our imagination?
We must both live as people who are confident in the promises of God, and willing to love our neighbors in costly ways. There are numerous examples in church history of Christians who, motivated by faith in God and love towards neighbor, served and sacrificed for their community in various ways. Here are examples from the early church and its response to Roman plagues, and here is the personal story of Martin Luther during the Black Death. Here is the example of some Christians from the modern Ebola outbreak. Let their examples inspire and give you confidence, even as we recognize that the impact of coronavirus will be much smaller than these examples.

4) What is our spiritual response?
Here is a prayer from the 8th century which many Christians have found helpful to pray in times of sickness:

Almighty God,
you know that we are surrounded by many great dangers,
and because of our human frailty
we cannot withstand them.
Give us health of mind and body
so that we who suffer under sin
may overcome and win the victory in you;
Give us courage to be a healing people
in our place and time.
Through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
 

Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions, needs for help, or suggestions. See you Sunday!