Pastor's Pen - April 2020

2020 has been anything but normal. The new year has brought new uncertainty, new pain, and a new virus that has thrown the world into a cyclone of fear and chaos.

Stock markets around the world have lost trillions of dollars in value and entire cities are being quarantined. The coronavirus (COVID-19) originated in Wuhan, China and has now rapidly spread to over 100+ countries in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. Uncertainty, fear, and worry are also going viral.

As Christian men and women of faith, let’s look to our history for the Christian response. The Christian response to plagues begins with some of Jesus’s most famous teachings: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you;” “Love your neighbor as yourself;” “Greater love has no one than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends.” Put plainly, the Christian ethic, in a time of plague, considers that our own life must always be regarded as less important than that of our neighbor.

During plague periods in the Roman Empire, Christians made a name for themselves. Historians have suggested that the terrible Antonine Plague of the 2nd century, which might have killed off a quarter of the Roman Empire, led to the spread of Christianity.

As Christians cared for the sick, they also offered a spiritual model where plagues were not seen as the work of angry Gods but the outcome of a broken world and Creation.

In the Crisis of the Third Century, in the Roman world, during the Plague of Cyprian - Cyprian’s sermons told Christians not to grieve for plague victims who live in heaven, but to re-double efforts to care for the living. Christians had the reputation of being the only ones who would care for people whether they were Christian or not. In historical documents Christians “went forward, even in danger to themselves and took charge of the sick, attended to their every need.” Friends, we have a reputation of caring for others during times of crisis.

Again in 1527 Martin Luther writes Whether Christians Should Flee the Plague, and Luther states clearly “Stay and Help.” Luther says, “Christian doctors cannot abandon their hospital, Christian governors cannot flee their districts, Christian pastors cannot abandon their congregations. The plague does not dissolve our duties: It turns them to crosses, on which we must be prepared to care and serve.”

The first sacrifice Christians must make to care for our neighbor is our convenience, as we enthusiastically participate in aggressive sanitation measures and social distancing.

This kind of humble care for others is a powerful force. When good sanitary procedure stops being about saving our own skin and starts being about loving our neighbor, it becomes not just life-saving but soul-enlivening.

In an increasingly atomized society, the coronavirus could rapidly mutate into an epidemic of despair. Church attendance via zoom or phone calls serves as a societal roll call, especially for older people: Those who don’t connect with us via zoom need to be checked on during the week. Your pastor, deacons and other volunteers have an aggressive plan to call every church member to make sure they are okay. Left out of work, school, public gatherings, church, hobbies, or even the outside world at all, humans do poorly.

We need the moral and mental support of communities to be the decent people we all aspire to be.

Friends be eager to sacrifice for others, watch out for others through extra phone calls and facetime. Maintain a scrupulous hygienic routine to avoid infecting others.

This is a strange Easter, where we will probably NOT be meeting in our congregation on Palm Sunday and Easter. We will, though, be meeting via zoom. Melody has sent out a zoom link Friday March 27 to the entire congregation. We will meet for church on Sunday March 29. During that time you have an opportunity to test your zoom skills (which is simply clicking on a link) and joining the meeting/CHURCH at 9:30.

We will have a mini-church service in preparation for Palm Sunday and most likely Easter. We want to make sure that you are able to click on the link and zoom in to the meeting that I will host on Sunday March 29. There will inevitably be something that goes wrong, or someone’s computer that does not work, or someone that was left off the email list that wants to join in. That is why we are doing a dry run on Sunday. Melody will be standing by on Sunday March 29 to field your questions, while I lead church.

Melody will send out another zoom invite this week for the Palm Sunday Service. Please let us know if you did not receive the link. The email will be coming from either Melody or myself as the meeting host.

Easter is our centering point. Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter, is our preparation time. It is our reminder of the old, yet so very important story. It is my prayer for everyone who is part of Rockville Presbyterian Fellowship to reflect on the meaning of Easter for the life of the Church and more importantly to reflect on its meaning for your own lives.

The church is not only a building (as we are learning via zoom, facetime and phone), we are connecting with people in other ways. As you connect with your friends, family and church via zoom, know that God is with you. God will bring us all that we need to move forward. Please maintain a lifeline to a meaningful human community that can care for your mind and soul. These are the guiding stars that have shepherded Christians through countless plagues for millennia.

It also occurs to me that this will be the last newsletter that I will write as your pastor.

May I first say, what an honor and privilege it has been to be your Interim pastor for 2.5 years and your Parish Associate pastor for 1.5 years. As you already know, I have grown to love you. I will miss you deeply: the coffee’s at Panera Bread, the visits to your home, the wonderful conversations and hugs on Sunday morning. You have all been such a gift to me and I will treasure the memories and spiritual connections we have had over the years. I wish you many blessings as you continue to search for the pastor that will lead you forward to the next decade and beyond.

Much love and abundant blessings,

Pastor Joanne Stewart Martindale