Open Hearts, Closed Building
Please do not come to our church building to worship this weekend. In spite of what you might have heard about houses of worship having permission to throw open the doors, out of deep care for one another, we prefer to throw open our hearts and keep the doors closed for now.
You’ll be hearing more about this in the days to come, but I want you to be aware that College Hill Moravian Church leaders have been thoughtfully deliberating how to respond to all things Covid-19. We have named an advisory team to sift through information and think through all eventualities in order to provide a framework for solid, safe decision-making. We are developing new opportunities to meet the congregation’s need and desire to worship God. We use the postal mail, the telephone, the church website, and email to stay in touch with one another as we always have, and we continue to offer programs and meetings over Zoom as we have recently learned.
To quote my respected colleague and College Hill’s former student pastor, the Rev. James Heroux, “We never closed. We adapted. So instead of ‘reopening,’ we’ll decide to meet in person when it’s safe to do so.”
+++++
Everything is permitted, but everything isn’t beneficial. Everything is permitted, but everything doesn’t build others up.
1 Corinthians 10: 23 (CEB)
Just because something is allowable doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea. I mean, just because there’s a slight outcrop jutting from a sheer rockface 80 feet above a bay in Acupulco doesn’t mean that cliff diving is for everyone. Just because a clever person can rationalize eating banana splits and chocolate eclairs for lunch doesn’t mean the nutritional plan is a sound choice. Just because there’s no speed limit on the Autobahn doesn’t mean a person should fill the tank with rocket fuel.
For my own sake, just because I can doesn’t always mean I should. For Christ-followers, this is doubly so when an action might put someone in our company at risk. It is our calling, remember, to love our neighbors at least as much as we love ourselves. And so we adjust our choices based not only what seems good for ourselves, but what is also constructive for the community.
In the 1 st century, when Paul, the founding pastor of a church in Corinth, wrote instructive letters to his parishioners, navigating his people safely through the unknown scourge of a global pandemic was not the thing that kept him awake at night. But this doesn’t mean there was a shortage of other hot button topics to occupy his mind. It’s difficult for us to grasp the intensity of the particular concern Paul addresses in the verse above, but it was the cultural flash point of the day: whether or not it was spiritually okay to eat meat that had been used in a religious sacrifice to an idol, and then, sort of, repackaged and sold to consumers for dinner.
This was a big deal. Observing dietary restrictions would have been a significant method people used to honor God before Jesus offered a different way—a way of Love over Law. Helping people to get over the old prohibitions was how Paul sought to teach people about the new Way. Paul himself seems to have no longer been bothered by rules that forbade him to eat this type of meat that had been used as an offering to someone else’s gods. The act had no power over him, and it seems as though he would have been perfectly content to grill up some juicy chops for himself.
However, he recognized that this was confusing, perhaps even upsetting, to new followers of Jesus. If the action was off-putting to those who were fragile in faith, then that was a strong reason to not do it. Paul may have considered chowing down on burgers to be allowable , but if it got in the way of anyone experiencing a relationship with Christ, then it was not beneficial. If it did not build up people, then it wasn’t worth pursuing, even if it was legal.
The details have changed over time, but the core of the matter remains the same: as people of faith, we look beyond self-interest to the best interest of others, most especially the fragile. And we are all fragile.
With Care,
Pastor Chris
+++++
Here’s how to find our online events for Sunday, May 23.
1 0:15 a.m. Virtual Fellowship Time
Bring your own coffee, juice, and doughnuts to the screen with you and join in catching up casually with your church family! To get the chatter started, we’ll have a lighthearted mixer or question. Children are welcomed to pop in with a giggle and pop backout again, just as they might if we were physically together in Fellowship Hall. We’ll take about a half hour for all of this, allowing anyone who would like to transition to worship to do so.
If you’ll be joining via computer, tablet, or smart phone, please use the link: https://zoom.us/j/91671628972?pwd=bFcwRXJqQUhVRmJpZXJGNGdUUVpSdz09
11:00 a.m. Moravian Church Without Walls Worship
Through a joint effort of the Moravian Church in both the Northern and Southern Provinces, virtual worship has been offered weekly throughout the pandemic. Lots of College Hill folks have joined in already, but there’s always room for more! (Well, unless there’s a technical glitch. But USUALLY there’s room for more.)
If you’ll be joining via computer, table, or laptop, use this link:
Tip 1: If you are a Facebook user, many of your friends are likely to be hosting “Watch Parties.” (Pastor Chris tries to do this when she can from her page: Christine Sobania Johnson.) This is an alternative way to wander into the same MCWW worship service and does not require the Zoom link.
Tip 2: To discover even further Moravian worship opportunities, please consult the updated list at https://www.moravian.org/2020/04/online-worship-opportunities/. Quite a few Moravian congregations offer livestreamed or pre-recorded worship opportunities.
6:30 p.m. Zoom Prayers
If you’re looking to quiet your spirit with a devotional and prayer focus to round out your Sabbath Day, stop by this session. Bring the concerns and the joys that are on your heart so we might pray for one another, for our congregation, and for our world.
If you’ll be joining via computer, table, or laptop, use this link:
Join us for 1, 2, or all 3 gatherings on any or all Sundays. As with all things during the pandemic, things are subject to change. Keep an eye on emails or collegehillmoravian.org for updates.
Blog
