The End of a Long, Mean Season: What’s Next?

The End of a Long, Mean Season: What’s Next?

Pastor Terry L. Reese

(Valley GBC, Armagh, PA; May 10, AD 2020)

Text: Eccl. 3:1-8.

¹There is an appointed time for everything.

And there is a time for every event under heaven--

²A time to give birth and a time to die;

A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

³A time to kill and a time to heal;

A time to tear down and a time to build up.

⁴A time to weep and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn and a time to dance.

⁵A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

⁶A time to search and a time to give up as lost;

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

⁷A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;

A time to be silent and a time to speak.

⁸A time to love and a time to hate;

A time for war and a time for peace.

Introduction…

King Solomon, the Preacher (i.e., Ecclesiastes, or Qoheleth) begins chapter 3 by stating a basic thesis:

Eccl. 3:1: “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven…”

He then proceeds to illustrate and to prove it true (vv. 2-8) through contrasting 14 sets of polar opposites—“events.” An "Event" (Eccl. 3:1) refers to a human activity that one engages in as an act of deliberate choice, and each of these events, as he observes, has its appropriate time, and its proper duration. This is a key theme of ancient wisdom literature (the species or genre of literature that Ecclesiastes belongs to): the wise man must have discernment, with regard to the proper time…

The poetry of Eccl. 3:1-8 accords with the overall theme of the book; Man is to take his life, day-by-day, from the hand of God, humbly accepting what comes our way and acknowledging the great mystery and enigma of God’s Plan—even as we thankfully receive and enjoy those simple pleasures that graciously come to us from the Hand of God. At the same time, we acknowledge that the Lord has a fitting and suitable time for everything that is to be done under heaven, and that Man, for his part, is responsible to discern the right times for the right actions. When we discern and perform the right action according to God's time, the results are good—and beautiful!

Eccl. 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

God’s plan is beautiful—yet enigmatic. We are spiritual creatures—not animals—so we long to know God’s purposes… but they inscrutable to us as we pursue the course of our lives in the midst of a sin-drenched, fallen world.

I. We have been a through a long season… and a mean season…

…A season of fear, as a weird dystopian environment has been created in our public

Spaces due to the Covid-19 Pandemic…

…A season of isolation, as people have been distanced from their families, and some

have even died alone (save for the nurses) in long-term care facilities…

Question: Do you like the “new normal” of being a hermit?

…An season of doubt, as unprecedented courses of action and decisions are

required…

…A season of economic turmoil, as businesses are ordered to shutdown…

…A season of political concern, as government expands… a dry run for something

more ominous?

…A season of paranoia, as people regard their fellowmen as disease carriers who

need to be informed on to the authorities…

And it’s not yet over. How long will it continue? Will it start again in the Fall? Some in government and the media speak a bit too gleefully in ominous tomes about this being the “new normal.”

II. But there is an appointed Time for everything…

And now we are approaching June… a time for churches to start making decisions…

It is also, I believe, a time for us appropriately to refocus upon what a church actually IS—what are its peculiarities and distinctives—and WHAT, precisely, it is supposed to be DOING… I think we need to take a moment to remind ourselves of where the Church fits in, with regard to the eternal Plan of God, and what His directives and expectations are for us.

III. June is just around the corner—and that means that important decisions will NOW

have to be made.

And that means that there will inevitably be differences of opinion amongst the saints, with regard to...

…WHEN shall our churches reopen?

…HOW shall we reopen?

…What CHANGES need to implemented, with regard to our policies and practices

in reference to the foreseeable and long-term future?

A. The path forward will not be easy, for a variety of reasons…

1. Different churches will face different on-the-ground realities.

There are regional differences, as well as differences in congregational size & demographics. This is not an easy matter of one-size-fits-all.

2. This is also an unprecedented situation in American history…

Yes, we have had pandemics before. But every such situation is unique. Even the wild Spanish Flu Pandemic was handled somewhat differently than the current crisis.

3. People have been traumatized, and are frightened…

The specter of masks, police tape, and in some cases, heavy-handed police tactics.

Will people feel confident to return to normalcy, even when they are given the “all clear” signal—especially with the diversity of opinion coming from politicians and scientists…

4. Contributing to our confusion is what is emanating from our traditional structures of

authority…

a. Questions over the Law: IS reassembly lawful? What about the Bill of Rights?

b. Questions over the Science of it; whose opinion can we trust (Jer. 17:5)?

Contemporary science is often ideologically driven, and not an objective source of truth. Often myths (i.e., man-made climate change, evolution, the Big Bang, etc.) are passed off as science…

c. Questions over whether or not our public officials are worthy of our confidence…

We ask: “How much is politically or ideologically motivated?” We are sadly living in the era of “Fake News” and the Big Lie…

B. Thus, there are legitimate reasons for differences of opinion…

And that’s OK—but unbiblical disunity is something else…

>There is room for debate—but not for factionalism (I Cor. 1:10)…

>There can be no room for recriminations, legalistic judgmentalism, etc.

Some will feel led to re-gather sooner than others… which is fine, and which should be respected… There are legitimate concerns for people with pre-existing conditions…

Friends, with all this confusion in the air, both leaders & parishioners should be cut some slack! Let us be kind to one another.

IV. The Remainder of our Focus; various Scriptural issues that have been brought to

mind as we think about re-opening. Let us focus and meditate upon certain underlying Scriptural principles.

A. Issues regarding Church and State.

There are various doctrinal truths and competing Scriptural directives that need to be kept in balance…

1. Respect for the Higher Powers (Rom. 13:1-7): secular government…

Rom 13:1-7 (1) Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. (2) Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. (3) For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, (4) for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. (5) Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. (6) For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. (7) Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

This passage follows Paul’s directives in Rom. 12:17-20 against anarchic private vengeance—a peculiar problem of the antediluvian civilization (Gen. 6:4, 11), which was corrected by the Rainbow Covenant directives of Gen. 9:5-6—where we find the germ of civil government. Also, 1 Pet. 2:13-17 & Matt. 22:21…

Matt. 22:19-21: "Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax." And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said to Him, "Caesar's." Then He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."

God has created hierarchical authority structures which have their proper and appropriate sphere of governance: Family, State, and Church. Within each of these authority structures are appropriate hierarchies (e.g., the husband is the head of the household, Caesar is the head of the State, Pastors rule and shepherd the flock).

2. On the other hand, to whom do we render what?

We should seek to be submissive to human authority—but NOT if it requires us to sin and disobey God. GOD is the ultimate authority… and Caesar’s claims upon us remain quite limited!

B. What is the Church & what, specifically, characterizes it?

a. Assembly. The Church is an ekklesia—a “called-out Assembly.”

Question: “ARE we going to have churches (i.e., Assemblies)—or not?” We have to physically come together and ASSEMBLE.

An electronic church, though it can be a blessing, just doesn’t cut it, ultimately…

Heb. 10:24-25: ²⁴and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Being a hermit cannot be the “new normal.” We are not called to a desert asceticism like the famous hermit Simeon the Stylite, who spent 37 years living on a pillar, or to some sort western ascetic monasticism.

Yes, we need the quiet (Mark 6:31: And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.")—but we also need each other! By all means, let us go to the hills and refresh ourselves for a season—but let us then return to the marketplace for our appropriate service unto God and man.

We are a communion of believers. Koinōnı́a! We are a fellowship. We are a people who are called to be living, loving, laughing, crying, and praying together. We are not called to viewing one another as enemies to be avoided, or to view one another as vermin who are potentially going to kill our entire families! That’s the great tragedy of this Covid-19-business—how it has subtly, psychologically, dehumanized us in one another’s eyes…

This is why face-to-face ministry with the elderly and the infirm (when health restrictions are ultimately lifted, of course)—particularly unto shut-ins and those in nursing homes—is so vital and important for the life of the church (James 1:27). No, such ministries do not result in spectacular numeric growth for the organized and institutional church (which is the big goal of the so-called neo-evangelical “Church Growth Movement,” that seems to want us to focus solely upon ministry to younger people)—but these efforts nonetheless contain their own special blessing that cannot be measured by empirical worldly standards.

b. Public worship.

There is both Form & Freedom in Christian worship: there is freedom with regard to certain aspects of worship (e.g., musical styles, order of service, etc.), but there are certain prescribed elements (i.e., “form”) of worship that MUST be observed…

Acts 2:42: They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Col. 3:16: Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Eph. 5:19: “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord”

Preaching and teaching the Word, corporate prayer, collectively singing God’s praises…we have to be doing these things, beloved!

c. Ordinances.

These are not “suggestions;” these are the commands of Christ, our Head… Trinitarian Baptism is commanded in the Great Commission; Threefold Holy Communion (the Washing of Feet, the Feast of Love, and the Eucharist) is to be observed until such time as He deems it appropriate to come for us (“…do this in remembrance of Me”)…

d. The Church has a recognized, visible local membership that regulates its

activities.

A specific, numbered Membership (Acts 2:41, 47… “And the Lord was adding to their number day by day”): some are of the circle, and some are not. Membership rolls are not a modern innovation…

A regulated membership: Matt. 18, 1 Cor. 5; not everyone is Scripturally qualified to be a voting member of a church, and individual Churches have a responsibility to guard their membership rolls in accordance with their faith and practices.

A local body has been granted the unique responsibility and privilege to call and ordain ministers, dispatches missionaries (Acts 13:3), and it has the responsibility to examine qualified formal officers (I Tim. 3).

3. Hopefully it won’t come to this in a mass scale in our great country…

…but, there comes a time when Rom. 13 doesn’t apply (i.e., fully obeying Caesar) and we have to go to Matt. 22 (i.e., rendering our faithful service unto God), and

we have to follow the examples of the ancient Christians of the Roman Empire, the Anabaptists of the Reformation, and the faithful house churches of modern China, and engage in peaceful acts of civil disobedience with regard to our worship. When we do this, however, we also have the responsibility to peacefully accept the consequences of our civil disobedience, and willingly accept punishment for our acts of faith and conscience at the hands of the authorities.

Putting aside the Coronavirus—will our views on gay marriage, for example, require us to engage in civil disobedience and refuse the dictates of the state? Will Christianity in general one day be regarded in the United States of America as something “socially harmful” in the official sense, and will we be commanded by the authorities to cease and desist from obeying the Word of God? Perhaps.

Let us not be naïve, brethren. As we enter this Brave New World of a Postmodern, Post-Christian, neo-pagan civilization, it is ultimately inevitable that we are headed for a collision course with the progressive secular state.

V. Final assessment: Christians need to physically come together again…

At this time, there many concerns facing Christian leaders; specifically, fears over the safety of our people and concerns for our public testimony. But ultimately, the church, in some form, must physically come together again. We have to be a fellowship again. That’s what Jesus mandates—and He, in His glorious and Divine omniscience, knew all about the Coronavirus when He issued His commands!