Psalm 102:1-17
A prayer of one
overwhelmed with trouble,
pouring out problems
before the Lord.
Lord, hear my prayer! Listen to my plea! Don’t turn away from me in my time of distress. Bend down to listen, and answer me quickly when I call to you. For my days disappear like smoke, and my bones burn like red-hot coals. My heart is sick, withered like grass, and I have lost my appetite. Because of my groaning, I am reduced to skin and bones. I am like an owl in the desert, like a little owl in a far-off wilderness. I lie awake, lonely as a solitary bird on the roof. My enemies taunt me day after day. They mock and curse me. I eat ashes for food. My tears run down into my drink because of your anger and wrath. For you have picked me up and thrown me out. My life passes as swiftly as the evening shadows. I am withering away like grass.
But you, O Lord, will sit on your throne forever. Your fame will endure to every generation. You will arise and have mercy on Jerusalem—and now is the time to pity her, now is the time you promised to help. For your people love every stone in her walls and cherish even the dust in her streets. Then the nations will tremble before the Lord. The kings of the earth will tremble before his glory. For the Lord will rebuild Jerusalem. He will appear in his glory. He will listen to the prayers of the destitute. He will not reject their pleas.
I have had a couple of close encounters
with fire, both as a young adult. One of
those brushes was lighting a pile of brush, ill-advisedly using gasoline as an
accelerant (which it was…I had several weeks of explaining to my friends and
family why I had no eyebrows).
The second experience was with the
ancient 1960’s ritual of fondue. For
those unacquainted, it’s a boiling pot of oil, into which you dip cheese on the
end of a skewer. The cheese becomes a
golden brown mass of delight. McDonald’s
and Chipotle Mexican Grill would be proud.
One evening we were drawn to the
pot. Unfortunately the pot was placed
too close to the kitchen wall, and the fire was too high. Not having handled too many fires, my first
response to the tiny flare-up was the nearby kitchen sink. If you’ve ever seen a grease fire, you know
pouring a glass of water on a little fire makes it a big fire. I learned that lesson that night; I had
already learned what to say to my friends about singed eyebrows.
These images of singed eyebrows and
the hard lessons they teach came back to me this morning as I was reading the
newly published Guidelines for In-Person Worship & Ministry during
COVID-19[1].
There are 15 pages of guidelines on how to maintain safety against
spreading the disease….like a greasefire.
If you’re wondering what fondue and
greasfires have to do with COVID-19 and reasonable safety measures, and what
they could possibly mean in light of the Psalmist’s prayer, read it again: his bones were on fire, his heart sickened,
withering like grass ready for the match.
His appetite was gone, nights sleepless, lonely, and his enemies mocked
his faith in God, taunting him. Still,
he prays in faith, believing God would rescue.
Fast forward to the day of
declining church attendance, cultural acceptance of much of what the church has
believed is sin, God mocked in every corner of the earth as a silly crutch
held-onto by people who ought to be locked away for lack of sanity. And, now, a government Executive Order[2] keeping the church doors closed.
Rewind to the Day of
Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came down,
Peter preached, people believed, and the church was born; that was chapter 2 of
Acts. The very next instant Peter heals
a paralyzed man at the Temple, gets arrested, and the game is on; persecution
begins, and for the last two thousand years, the church and the world are at
odds.
Now, while the church has always
had to deal with obstacles and naysayers, the current conditions seem to be a
brewing firestorm not unlike my fondue memory.
And, like the water in my grease fire experience, the persecution
experienced by the church in its beginning was like the water I threw on that
boiling oil. It didn’t quench anything;
it propelled it to the next level. Believers
went everywhere because they couldn’t stay in Jerusalem any longer. The Gospel was taken away from the grease pit
by disciples of the fellowship of singed eyebrows.
And, so, here’s the question of the
day: what’s next?
Will the church be going out of
business? Will the church, stodgy,
trudging like a pile of molasses in January, reeling under the weight of
government regulations, cultural apathy (sometimes anger), and infighting of
the self-inflicted virus of pandemic proportions…will that church go
under? Will her fire fizzle out and be a footnote in
history’s future?
Or will the COVID19 days be the enemy’s final
mistake?
Will 2020 and it’s social lockdown be
the purveyor of new wine, bursting the old wineskins of worshipping the sanctuary
building? Will it be water on the
greasefire, this little virus bug that has driven the church and the culture
out of it’s pride, and forced us into little electronic fragments of
relationship?
Will the fellowship of church as its always
been now become the fellowship of the singed eyebrow? Will we have played with fire until it bit us,
infected us, changed us, and now challenges us to finally move forward?
For You Today
The fellowship of the singed
eyebrow is not something to be taken lightly, nor is it something to be
feared.
If we respond boldly – not
dumbed-down, faithless and simply dismissing the bug – but boldly looking for
what God has for us in this next chapter – we can be like the church of Acts
3…pushed away from the temple, they went underground…to the catacombs, the
ancient tombs of the dead.
But resurrection was on the
way. On the other side of Roman
persecution, and every other attempt to push God out of the way, the church has
one “trump card” that cannot be pushed aside.
But you, O Lord, will sit on your throne forever. Your fame will endure to every generation. You will arise and have mercy on Jerusalem—and now is the time to pity her, now is the time you promised to help. For your people love every stone in her walls and cherish even the dust in her streets. Then the nations will tremble before the Lord. The kings of the earth will tremble before his glory. Psalm 102:12-15
It is time for the now I lay me down to
sleep prayers to turn to a realization that we are in spiritual warfare, and
God’s people must trust, pray, and act like the first century church…boldly
proclaiming Christ, and being the body.
We need a fellowship of the singed
eyebrows!
