Lent Begins February 17
Ash Wednesday Will Happen,
As Will Wednesday Worship Each Week
Even without the church open we will have the opportunity to move into Lent with the observance of Ash Wednesday. On Wednesday, February 17, Tom will be at the church on the front sidewalk during the lunch hour
distributing ashes for the observant. Walk by from 12:00 to 1:00pm to receive the imposition of the ashes marking the penitential focus of Lent.
Then, from 6:00 to 6:30pm,Tom will be in the parking lot for those who want either to drive or walk by to receive the ashes. The day will close with a 7:00 to 7:30pm worship online. We’ll read scripture and so forth to help prepare for the journey of Lent. Watch for an email that will include the link.
There will also be a 30-minute worship opportunity each Wednesday until Easter. More on that later.
Tom’s Turn - Collective Grief
Ministers Week is Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and it opened with a wonderful sermon by the Reverend Irie Sessions, Co-Pastor of The Gathering, one of our churches in Dallas. Her first words were, “We live in a hurting world. We’ve been living in a hurting world for a long time.” What appropriate words for the church just emerging from the world of 2020.
There have been times during Pandemic Time that I’ve felt like we have all wondered what part the church could or should be playing. Of course, we’re not going to be the source of vaccines. But should we help in their distribution? And what should be our role, distanced as we have been for-seemingly-ever, in the effort finally to make 2020’s race controversies a tipping point in America’s four hundred-year-old stain of white supremacy? There is opportunity there. Might social distancing related to the virus be just another convenient excuse for not making change happen?
Then there was the election and the opportunity for very real conversation about the nature of Christian participation in the larger society and in a democracy shaken at its foundations by 6January. That seems pretty much a third rail for most churches. Maybe we’re fumbling the ball again. There are, of course, those churches who teach that it’s pretty much impossible for one to be a Christian and be part of that “other” party. We don’t want to follow their example. Do we?
But there is a role for the church in one of the clearly developing features of Pandemic Time. (We have roles in all of the above. But this one I think we can all agree is right in our wheelhouse.) What I’m talking about is collective grief. In the name of Jesus, Healer of All Souls, that one’s in our playbook for sure. We’re accustomed to dealing with grief. We’ve had support groups. Sunday School classes often tip in that direction. Worship is sometimes built around it – from occasional parts of the liturgy to the constancy of the Table. We train clergy in dealing with it. And loving lay folk learn to recognize it in each other’s eyes and behavior.
What I’m concerned about, though, is not personal grief. It’s this grief that’s riding on the back of Pandemic Time. I call it collective grief, both the sum of lots of individual grieving and a very real communal phenomenon. Collective emotion is a real thing. Think of our collective anger after 9/11 or 6January. Think of our collective awe at a moon landing, our collective bewilderment at Sandy Hook, or Parkland, or El Paso, or Waco, or Jonestown. Think of our collective joy when the Cowboys win the Super Bowl (for those of you with really long memories!).
Collective grief is a better term for what’s being called “coronavirus fatigue.” Fatigue is tired. That may apply to mask-wearing and some of the other hassles that apply. But four hundred and sixty thousand dead, though, that’s grief. Like a long war compressed into a few months we’re now at a point where everyone knows someone who has been critically wounded, not knowing what the lifelong effects will be. And almost everyone knows someone who has died or has lost a family member. That’s more than fatigue. That’s tear-stained pillows at night. That’s guilt at, “Did I expose her?” That’s starting to play the blame game. That’s grief.
But we who have known the death of our Lord and the victory of Easter, we can help this city, this nation, this world that is grieving collectively. For we bear witness to the Good News that overcomes all griefs. We carry it with us. It’s in the church’s DNA. It comes with our baptism. And it’s learned in every sadness we encounter, and in every Resurrection sermon, in every kind and unprompted touch we’ve received in that building with the dome topped by a cross. The cross, you see, is our key to understanding collective grief.
Let’s reach out to the world with it. It’s what we’re made for. Who will stand up? Will it be you?
I’ll see you online next Sunday morning and each weekday at 3:00 p.m. Please remember to share any of our worship, devotionals, Bible studies, and so forth on your social media pages. Share the Good News with your smile – and your mask! To prepare for worship Sunday read Mk. 9.2-9.
Peace,
Tom
JOYS
* Tuesday and Wednesday of this week Tom is attending Ministers Week, sponsored jointly by TCU and Brite. It’s all online this year, for the health of our churches. Not sure what the fellowship part is going to look like.
Death of the Reverend Jane McDonald
We received word early Monday morning that Jane McDonald has died. Jane blessed this church in so many ways, but particularly in recognizing and nurturing the calling of God on the women of the church. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jane served as Associate Minister. She was the first ordained woman to serve on the ministerial staff of First Christian Church. In recent years, it was always good to see her at afternoon choir performances. She will be greatly missed. We thank God for all that she has meant to the church, both here at 6th and Throckmorton, and far beyond. Now her ministry continues, but in the arms of the Holy One.
