FAITH IN A TIME OF PANDEMIC: THE GOOD WORK GOD IS DOING IN YOU

XXXVIII.
THE GOOD WORK GOD IS DOING IN YOU
(4/20)

For I am confident that the one who began a good work in you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ…having produced a harvest of righteousness.” (Philippians 1:3, 11)

Imagine that! Today, in the middle of a pandemic, God is doing a good work in you. God is at work in your life, planting seeds of hope and love, seeds of mission and creativity, and inviting you to be God’s partner in bringing them to harvest.
God is at work in your life. Take time to pause and notice, and then open to what is emerging in your life – not the voices of fear (although we should not deny these) but the voices of love, service, and mission.

I think God is calling us – from the small worlds we are currently occupying – to imagine larger worlds and ponder the “great work” that God has called us and our church to embody now and in the future. One thing I have learned from church in a time of pandemic is that the church is not the building. We are alive on social media, phone calls, emails, and mission to the community. Our church bell gives hope to the community. Our steeple reaches toward the heavens reminding passersby that the pandemic is not the final word, despite its devastation.

Today, in Massachusetts, it is Patriot’s Day. Given our sheltering in place and school cancellations, it doesn’t seem to be much of a holiday. In my own life, after a lecture Friday night in Buena Vista, Colorado, and a sermon on Sunday morning, I was due to arrive in Tucson, Arizona to meet our son and his family. This year, the boys will be over with only a few homework assignments. But, Patriot’s Day, like Sunday church, is not about where we are: it is about our attitudes. Today, we remember those who fought the first battles for our nation’s freedom. We may not think ourselves patriots as we hunker down in our homes. But, we can sacrifice for the common good by: practicing physical distancing and limiting our travel, supporting programs for vulnerable persons, challenging incivility by our own large heartedness, and speaking up for the freedoms of persons who have not experienced the “American dream: or who have been the objects of prejudice because of sexuality, ethnicity, economics, education, or citizenship status.

Faith is often hope in silent growth. This applies to our church, our nation, and ourselves. As the hymn, “In the Bulb There is a Flower” reminds us, God is growing new things, when we see nothing. In darkness of the womb, of soil, or dreams, new life slowly springs forth. In the darkness of pandemic, there are seeds of a new world to come, if we look deeply and then get out there and nurture the growing plants. Let us be dreamers and gardeners of creation and community today!

Listen to “In the Bulb there is Flower” and thank God for the harvest to come in your life and our church – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gndx39q7QM
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Let me trust, O God, the promise of tomorrow, the hope I cannot see, the seeds that are being planted, and let me be a fellow gardener with you. Thanks be to God for the harvest! Amen.

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Bruce Epperly is a Cape Cod pastor, professor, and author of over fifty books including FAITH IN A TIME OF PANDEMIC and GOD ONLINE: A MYSTIC’S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET