Closing thoughts for October Synod by Zoom - in a time of Covid 19.

 One of the hardest things to bear in the last 8 months has been a sense of isolation – of being kept ‘distanced’.

I have been reading a number of studies of ‘trauma’ to help understand in some way what we are all going through, and how we might respond as people of faith.

I’m very grateful to our own Carla Grosch-Miller and the rest of the team at the ‘Tragedy and Congregations Project’ for the work they have done and are doing to help us understand our reactions to traumatic events and where we find God in them.

I have just finished reading a chapter of their book (“Tragedies and Christian Congregations – the practical theology of trauma”) in which Meg Warner, who has just begun teaching at Northern College, states “The Bible tells us we are not alone”.

Meg Warner points out that a huge amount of the writing of the books of the Bible is produced in the aftermath of some kind of trauma – slavery, famine, exile, invasion, crucifixion. 

 

The Bible tells us we are not alone because other people before us have gone through plagues – and worse – and got through it. We read the Bible and we can learn from this solidarity and from the rich telling of the story of how people coped and lived and even thrived.

And the Bible tells us we are not alone because other people have gone through these terrible things and found not only that God is with them despite the trauma, but that God is somehow with them in the trauma.

The Bible reminds us that we are in the company of God and God’s people, even when we sit alone in a chair in our house.

 

Early in lock-down I read through the book of Acts. It seemed a good time to remember how the church found its way in the first decades after the resurrection of Christ, as we were wondering what shape of church was going to be right for this time of lockdown.

There were stories of the disciples of Jesus learning to have faith and not fear, acquiring the Holy Habits of discipleship, spreading the gospel and adding daily to their number.

But I was really struck by passages like this from chapter 6:

“6 ^1-4 During this time, as the disciples were increasing in numbers by leaps and bounds, hard feelings developed among the Greek-speaking believers—“Hellenists”—toward the Hebrew-speaking believers because their widows were being discriminated against in the daily food lines. So the Twelve called a meeting of the disciples. They said, “It wouldn’t be right for us to abandon our responsibilities for preaching and teaching the Word of God to help with the care of the poor. So, friends, choose seven men from among you whom everyone trusts, men full of the Holy Spirit and good sense, and we’ll assign them this task. Meanwhile, we’ll stick to our assigned tasks of prayer and speaking God’s Word.” 

 

The church is growing – but there are arguments brewing and accusations of discrimination. This risks distracting the twelve apostles from their work of preaching – and so they find seven ‘deacons’ to do the practical work. 

Here is an early church that we might find we can relate to... life is not easy (and that’s before persecution, shipwreck and banishment from the synagogues). There are problems, and the leaders of the early church seem to be making it up as they go along. “The Bible tells us we are not alone”.

 

This is a church populated with people who actually met and walked with Jesus, who saw him resurrected, who received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.. and they still struggle to get it right.

But the book of Acts shows us that they never stop trying to tell the good news of the love of God in Jesus – and that as they struggle to work out what it means to be disciples of the risen Jesus they never stop listening to one another, attending to scripture and seeking  the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

 

One of my favourite phrases in the book of Acts comes when the church has had a huge meeting to decide how much of the Jewish law a gentile Christian has to accept. They write a letter for Paul, Barnabas, Judas Barsabbas & Silas to take with them to the churches of Antioch, which contains this phrase:

“it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements..” and they list the rules they should keep.

 

Whatever the church we know looks, like as we live through this pandemic with all its change and restriction, we will need, like the early church, to be ready to make it up as we go along. 

We will need to remember that we are disciples of Jesus, who support and belong to one another, and we will need to seek the ways to live which seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us.

 

The Bible tells us we are not alone.

The Bible tells us God is with us.

The Bible tell us to trust in God’s guidance.

In the love of the Father,

the grace of the Son

and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

 

So let us close in prayer:

God of justice and peace

Embrace us with your strength and grace, we pray

That when the way ahead is hard to see

Your light and your truth may make us attuned to your Spirit,

So that we may walk your ways through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen.