On a day when panic about the coronavirus is sweeping the U.S.--and many of my pastor-friends are live-streaming their services--I am reflecting on the Sabbath when Jesus and his disciples walked through the grain fields.
Were they doing so after church? Instead of church? In any case, they did not make the Pharisees (the pastors of their day) happy by doing so.
Church, back in Jesus' time, was the Jewish Temple, of course. And Jesus did attend---sometimes. One time in the Synagogue, he stood up to read a passage from Isaiah 61: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the bling, to set the oppressed free" (Luke 4:18, NIV).
I am grateful for my weekly online Zoom group, which follows in the tradition of early Christian communities who moved to the desert after churches became entwined with political power, in the days of Constantine. These "contemplatives" lived simply and fought against the busyness, materialism, and achievement-oriented society of the Roman Empire.
Schools are also shutting down, and my friends who are parents worry about what to do with their kids all day.
I grew up not going to school. Each day, starting from five years old, I read Scripture first. Often, my dad would pre-write a mini-devotional to go along with whatever passage I read that day. Then, I would join my family for breakfast, after which my dad would lead a Bible study.
Homeschooling allowed us to grow in faith together as a family, and to pray together every night. We were sheltered from the "world" for the sake of our Christian values. I knew God personally from a young age, and saw prayer requests answered.
The first was asking for a dog. I prayed every night for a whole year. At the end of the year, we went back to Taiwan for my dad's sabbatical, and who should greet us at the airport by my uncle, who is a vet, with a dog for me!
The second was asking for a bike. I prayed for a few weeks, and then a family friend gave me a hand-me-down!
My parents rarely bought us toys. We played with what we had or with what others gave us. We had conversations rather than watching TV. We read books and listened to books on tape.
Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life has always been my rock. Our family attended 6 different churches by the time I was in college. At each church, my parents were active participants and even leaders, and learned as much as they could from that particular denomination. Then, something would happen that would "lead" them to a new church, after about 3 years.
I learned not to rely upon Sundays for a sense of spirituality. That happened on a daily basis. A.W. Tozer, one of my favorite devotional writers in college, along with Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest), wrote about how 40 pianos tuned to the same tuning fork are automatically in tune with one another, in The Pursuit of God. That is how I see fellowship. It flows out of, rather than replaces, our attunement with God.
My current Contemplative small group talks often about the concept, Solus Jesus. Jesus--and a relationship with Jesus--is the foundation for our faith. Martin Luther, who shaped Protestant Christianity, was a proponent of Sola Scriptura, in reaction to the Catholic Church. But the way Western Christianity has interpreted and used Scripture has been problematic at times.
Many of the tenets of Evangelicalism are not necessarily what early Christians preached. The idea of being "saved" is an American one, which came out of the Great Awakenings spawned by Methodist preachers. I agree that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But I have also seen (and the practical theologian in me is concerned) how American Christians fail to grow in depth and maturity and intimacy with God once they have entered the "fold." Somehow, it's as if believing the right things will take care of anxiety, relationships, etc.
In chaplaincy and spiritual care, we try to avoid "spiritual bypassing"--when patients and clients don't process their feelings, and "jump" straight to using their religious beliefs as a crutch rather than an actual resource for dealing with them. By practicing non-anxious presence, active listening, and engaging in pointed questions, we hope for those we accompany to internalize actual ways of changing their emotional reactions, their neurological patterns, and unhealthy belief systems (in my academic field, we call this "embedded theology").
Jesus came to heal us and set us free from our problematic coping mechanisms. (If David was the first Music Therapist--my first vocation at the start of becoming a helping professional--then to me, Jesus was the first chaplain. Like chaplains, he spent most of his time going to visit the sick. Like chaplains, he mostly listened. Like chaplains, his ministry was "out in the world"--rather inside the walls of the church. Like chaplains, he trained others chaplains in a "cohort"--his 12 disciples.
To me, chaplaincy is the kind of ministry that most closely aligns with the Good News. Jesus came to set the captives free, to minister to people's physical and emotional disorders. Jesus came to touch and transform lives, not to get people to believe the right thing in order to be "saved." The kingdom of God was brought to the earth by Jesus, and at the same time, we are still awaiting its fulfillment.
The Gospel spreads like a mustard seed. Truth is a person, not a belief system. And the Spirit--the Comforter that Jesus gave us after he ascended to heaven--makes all things new, and asks us to be flexible with our theology. Speaking in tongues, modifying views on circumcision, and other revelations from God all happened with openness to the Holy Spirit.
What are the legalistic religions of today, and who are the Pharisees? What would Jesus do, and where is the Spirit leading? Where is freedom (emotional and mental freedom) needed the most? These are questions I ask myself on a daily basis, or at least try to. I'm still learning to be led...
...but on this historic Sabbath in U.S. history, I am grateful that staying home is something that feels right, familiar, safe, and life-giving to me. Thanks be to God!
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