Musings – Sunday Evening March 29, 2020

As we listened from our living room to Neil reading in Ezekiel this morning, the lyrics to Fernando Ortega’s song, City of Sorrows, came to my mind.  “By the waters of Babylon, still and deep…”  Ezekiel was written, of course, from the venue of the Babylonian Exile, when the Jewish people were estranged from their ancestral land and, to some extent, from their God.  Theirs was a situation in which faith was to be maintained without the usual supports – without the Temple, without the daily Levitical ritual, without those things with which they had come to associate their faith in Jehovah, and His worship.  This time was, of course, a just punishment for the nation’s continued disobedience and, as the passage which Neil read today shows, their ‘heart idolatry.’

I think the connection that formed in my mind, rightly or wrongly, is that we are also in a measure of exile, though I do not believe because of any corporate or systemic sin or idolatry on our part (nevertheless, it probably wouldn’t hurt to ask God to search our hearts on this matter!).  Like the faithful in Israel, we are also deprived of those accoutrements of assembly with which we have grown accustomed, and which give us great pleasure and joy. “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go unto the house of the Lord.’” Worshipping with you all remotely was a bittersweet joy.  Sweet, in that we knew that our brothers and sisters (and, hearing later, others who are neither members of our fellowship nor of Christ) were ‘gathered’ in worship through song, prayer, and the ministry of the Word.  We were fed well this morning, and praise God for that.  

But no one can pretend that ‘virtual assembly’ is real assembly.  We will not be partaking of the Lord’s Supper next week, even those who are able to physically gather at the building, for we will not be in communion in the true sense of the word.  Please be assured that the elders have no intention for the current situation to be a permanent one and are in prayer that it might not even be a long-term one.  As the faithful in Babylon prayed for their return to Israel, we also pray for our return to corporate worship together on the Lord’s Day.  We do believe that the current response is justified by the threat of exposure that this virus brings to many in our congregation, but we are also watching the external situation carefully and reconsidering our position each week.  

Let us all learn from this the true value of fellowship…perhaps something we have taken for granted?  I am sure that our return to true corporate communion will be filled with joy and that we will not quickly forget these weeks when we must be apart.

God bless you all in Christ Jesus,

Chuck