Worship and Nature in a Time of Coronavirus

 Twenty-second Thursday after Pentecost

Sunday sports have long been the pastor's foe. Since the rightful demise of "blue laws" forbidding business and many non-church activities on Sunday mornings, Sunday morning has become a time for "recreation," or rest. I feel a sense of irony in that those who rest, i.e. don't go to church on Sunday morning, are doing what the Torah commands for the Sabbath Day. Of course, what every good Christian ought to know, but most don't, is that the Sabbath isn't Sunday. The Sabbath is Friday sunset till Saturday sunset. Christians celebrate not the Sabbath but the Lord's Day, which is Sunday--the day on which Jesus was resurrected.

Non-school team sports, especially the ubiquitous soccer leagues, love to play or practice on Sunday morning, I had one church family of which the eldest son was a pretty good baseball pitcher. That meant that the whole family had to go to baseball games every Sunday. Away games necessitated the entire family away for the entire weekend. The Carolina Panthers play most of their home games on Sundays at 1:00. For some church members in N. Wilkesboro, that meant they could have gone to early service and have more than adequate time to get to Charlotte for the kick-off. It didn't work that way. It was crucially important to be tailgating before the game, so they had to get there quite early.

I like the melody to the Lionel Ritchie song, "Easy Like Sunday Morning." I don't care for the implication of the words. I have studied George Seurat's painting,  "Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte." It's in the museum called the Art Institute of Chicago. I love the Stephen Sondheim musical based on the painting. It's called "Sunday in the Park with George." Marianne and I saw it on Broadway in 1984 with Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. I know all the songs. There is no church in either the painting or the play.

Welcome to the post-Christian world.

Welcome to the Coronavirus world, where we cannot safely attend a worship service. For me, at least, U-Tube is just not quite the same. 

What's a Christian to do?

Yesterday Marianne and I walked on the beach at Nags Head at low tide. It was 77 degrees with 72 degree ocean temp. Pelicans, cormorants, laughing gulls, Herring gulls, sandpipers, and sanderlings were all around. The ocean was beautiful. There weren't too many people. I had a good feeling of peace. The ocean, like God, conveys a sense of continuity and permanence in our currently crazy and disorienting world. 

 

Where do you find peace?

Faithfully,

Christian