Giving Up Church For Lent

The following is an extended quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's classic, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community. This section comes from the opening chapter on "Community." 

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Ps.13 3: 1). In the following we shall consider a number of directions and precepts that the Scriptures provide us for our life together under the Word... 

According to God's will Christendom is a scattered people, scattered like seed "into all the kingdoms of the earth" (Deut.2 8: 15). That is its curse and its promise. God's people must dwell in far countries among the unbelievers, but it will be the seed of the Kingdom of God in all the world. "I will ... gather them; for I have redeemed them: ... and they shall return" (Zech.10:8, 9). When will that happen? It has happened in Jesus Christ, who died "that he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad" (John 11:10), and it will finally occur visibly at the end of time when the angels of God "shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt. 24: 3 1). Until then, God's people remain scattered, held together solely in Jesus Christ, having become one in the fact that, dispersed among unbelievers, they remember Him in the far countries. 

So between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians. It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a blessing. They remember, as the Psalmist did, how they went "with the multitude ... to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday" (Ps.42:4). But they remain alone in far countries, a scattered seed according to God's will. Yet what is denied them as an actual experience they seize upon more fervently in faith. Thus the exiled disciple of the Lord, John the Apocalyptist, celebrates in the loneliness of Patmos the heavenly worship with his congregations "in the Spirit on the Lord's day" (Rev.1:10). He sees the seven candlesticks, his congregations, the seven stars, the angels of the congregations, and in the midst and above it all the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, in all the splendor of the resurrection. He strengthens and fortifies him by His Word. This is the heavenly fellowship, shared by the exile on the day of his Lord's resurrection. The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. Longingly, the imprisoned apostle Paul calls his "dearly beloved son in the faith," Timothy, to come to him in prison in the last days of his life; he would see him again and have him near. Paul has not forgotten the tears Timothy shed when last they parted (II Tim. 1:4). Remembering the congregation in Thessalonica, Paul prays "night and day ... exceedingly that we might see your face" (I Thess.3:10). The aged John knows that his joy will not be full until he can come to his own people and speak face to face instead of writing with ink (II John 12). 

I've read Life Together perhaps more than a dozen times. It speaks to my experience as a pastor in particular, which includes the work I do now in diocesan ministry with congregations. Bonhoeffer was about forming people, ordained and lay, who could resist the Domination System represented in Nazi German by Adolf Hitler. Why? Because the established Church had failed to do that. Because the established Church had "rolled over" when the going got tough. Life Together represents work that Bonhoeffer was doing at Finkenwalde with seminarians, training them for this work of forming followers of Jesus.It's back to basics - and forming a life of prayer rooted in the psalms and the good news of Jesus.

These words have been in my head and in my heart as we have cancelled public worship across this country in response to COVID-19. These familiar words have taken on new meaning for me. It's heart-breaking for many, including me, to not gather on Sunday mornings. It's a habit I've cultivated my entire life of fifty-seven years. But it's the right thing to do, to refrain from gathering, to do our part in "flattening the curve." I've heard some express doubt about doing this, as if we cannot be the Church without public worship. But this is not true and perhaps in the necessity of "giving up Church" this Lent we can rediscover the wisdom that Bonhoeffer spoke of those many decades ago.

First of all, I learned in Sunday School (as did many others) that the Church is not a building, nor a resting place, nor a steeple: the Church is a people. Many of us grew up "going to Church" and sometimes resisting it. But all along, we were being called to "be the Church." 

I watched with some amazement and a great deal of respect as colleagues and friends tried to figure out, by trial and by error, how to "gather God's people" on the Third Sunday in Lent. I peaked in at "church" in a variety of places, including the National Cathedral. People gathered "virtually" and God was indeed worshiped. Other options are springing up. But prayer is not just for Sunday mornings. I urge people to find ways to pray The Daily Office with greater intention, especially if they are staying at home and working remotely. Here is one of the best sites I know to assist in that process for beginners.

Bishop Doug Fisher, my boss, is offering Compline each evening from his home at 8 pm. Compline is a lovely way to end the day and for a morning person like me, 8 o'clock is the perfect time to call it a day! One can do that by following this Zoom link.

There are other options, of course. I had a retired priest who serves a relatively small congregation tell me not too long ago when I asked when they worship as a community, "8 and 10, like the good Lord intended." He was (mostly) joking (I think) but it troubled me because if that community could wrap it's head around another time to gather God's faithful people they would have more options down the road of being served perhaps by a priest from a neighboring congregation, if (let's say) they gathered for a simple supper and worship on Sunday afternoon or early evening. Stuck in a worship pattern that served them well in the nineteenth century, however, they are finding it extremely difficult to move into the twenty-first.

So the title of this post is (mostly) tongue-in-cheek. But the more serious point I want to make, with Bonhoeffer's guidance, is that community is a gift. It's never a given. People coming into a building at 8 and 10 on a Sunday morning (whether or not that is what the good Lord intended) is not the only (or even primary) way to be the Church; nor is it the only way to form followers of Jesus. My prayer is that whenever we are able to get into our buildings for public worship again it won't be to "go back to normal." Perhaps this period of fasting, or even of "exile," is the time to ask: what should our worship look like? What could it look like?

Most importantly, how can this Lenten fast from congregational worship be a time to build up the Body of Christ? What are the practices of faithful people practicing social distance out of love of neighbor? How might this time be seen not through the eyes of despair but of Easter hope, knowing that when we do gather again for Easter (even if that is in August!) that we will make our song with hope and confidence, having been changed for good.