Looking Ahead
FROM THE RECTOR
As songwriter Don Schlitz taught us, we’ve got to know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em. Will we play the hand we have been dealt or let it go and hope for something better? Captivated by its simple yet powerful message, several musicians recorded that song before Kenny Rogers ultimately made “The Gambler” famous. Even people who have never heard the song before are likely to share its sage advice, which is as obvious as it is hard to practice.
As the end of 2021 draws near, are we so exhausted and fed up with what has been that we would fold whatever is left—if not walk away from the table or even run—or might we find a reason to stay in the hand we hold even if things have not gone our way?
This is a been another difficult year. Most of 2020 was bad enough, and this time last year we hoped that the twelve months ahead of us would be better. With the exception of some outdoor gatherings in the fall of 2020, our church spent nine months of that year separated from one another. Surely at some point in 2021 things would get better.
They did! Though we hoped that a vaccine would ease the spread of the coronavirus by summer, it arrived more quickly than we expected, and by March many of us were able to come back to church. Not all of us, we should remember, but many were able to sign up and socially distance and be back in church together in time for Holy Week and Easter. Throughout the year, our policies have changed from signing up to walking in, from no singing to full singing, and from mask-required to mask-optional and back again, but, since the spring, we have never had to shut down church again and go back to livestream only.
As the Omicron variant makes its way into our community, it is easy to look ahead and be anxious. We feel the fatigue and frustration of twenty-one months of pandemic practice. We cannot imagine spending another year apart from those we love, hidden behind masks, worried about Covid. Given the news these days, all of those feelings are real and reasonable, yet they cannot outweigh all of the important reasons we have not to give up, not to abandon hope, not to forget all that has been good about this year. Seeing those reasons and holding on to them is not easy, but doing so is vitally important.
Recently in the Daily Office, we have been reading from the Book of Revelation. In the past, I have skimmed through those passages of scripture rather quickly, assuming they have more to say to early Christians who understood the highly symbolic language better than I ever will, but this year those strange words have been important to me. Revelation is a pastoral letter, written to Christians who faced the double-whammy of continued persecution and theological exhaustion. The only hope they had that their suffering would end was the promised return of Jesus Christ, yet with each passing year that return felt less likely. “How are we supposed to have faith in God,” they must have asked, “given that things are getting worse and not better?”
The apocalyptic visions that John shared in his book are reminders of our ultimate hope. Because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, defeating evil, sin, and death once and for all, our future is certain even if it is delayed. John wanted to encourage Christians not to give up because, no matter how bad things got, God’s goodness, power, and love were always stronger. Although God’s victory had already been accomplished, its fullness had not yet taken hold, and we still live in that time of “now and not yet.” As people of faith in every generation have known, we recognize that believing in God does not mean that bad things will never happen, yet we also know that, even though they do, it does not mean that God’s promises are empty.
If we were to fold on the rest of this year, think of all the signs of hope we would miss. Even if our Christmas celebrations are smaller than we would like, we still have the chance to share in the joy of God’s redemption of the world, which comes into the world not in a crowded temple but in a tiny, tucked-away space. Even if we expect that things will get worse before they get better, do not forget how much better they are than they were even a year ago, and remember that only in God’s time will all things be perfected. Even if we have lost people we love during this pandemic, we know that they are not lost forever because of what God has already done for us.
Like you, I am ready for what lies ahead. I am beyond ready to move on from where we have been and embrace something better. Sometimes I wish we could fast-forward to a time when all of this is behind us, but, if I allow myself to lose connection with the present moment, I lose touch with what God is doing right now in my life and in our church and in this world, and staying in touch with that is what helps me keep going. We may not like the hand that we have been dealt—at least not at this point in the game—but we know that God will make it good. That is what God has in store for us no matter how long it takes.
Yours Faithfully,
Evan