And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15, ESV)
Like many of you, I look forward to the Lord’s Day when we can worship together in a large group. On the other hand, by not being together in one assembly on the Lord’s Day, we’ve been tested, in a good way, to see if we will still worship Him without the form to which we are accustomed. We’ve had opportunity to consider how much of what we were doing is important and what isn’t, what should be kept and what, if anything, should be changed or eliminated. We’ve been reminded of the importance of function over form, relationships over numbers.
In many ways it’s potentially been a great season for spiritual growth for families as some have newly learned to practice devotional times of prayer and Scripture reading together. I know that Deloris and I, just the two of us, have enjoyed some Sunday night prayer meetings using the prayer guides posted on this blog. Individuals who live alone, perhaps, have taken to praying with others over the phone or video chats. Some households may have tried out the “How to Have Church at Home” format provided in the church’s April and May analog newsletters as well as this blog.
I heard someone say recently that “crises take us back to ageless practices.” He went on to say how during the Great Depression and World Wars, Christians persevered by “opening their Bibles, sitting under a tree, reading Scripture and praying, reading Scripture and praying, until they got through it.” I pray that we’ve gone deeper in devotion to and worship of God than what we’ve been able to watch on Facebook, YouTube or TV.
I think something A.W. Tozer wrote is relevant to our situation:
To God [spiritual] quality is vastly important and size matters little. When set in opposition to size, quality is everything and size nothing…
Man’s moral fall has clouded his vision, confused his thinking and rendered him subject to delusion. One evidence of this is his all but incurable proneness to confuse values and put size before quality in his appraisal of things. The Christian faith reverses this order, but even Christians tend to judge things by the old Adamic rule. How big? How much? And How many? are the questions oftenest asked by religious persons when trying to evaluate Christian things…
The Church is dedicated to things that matter. Quality matters. Let’s not be led astray by the size of things” (“Size Matters Little,” Tozer on Christian Leadersip: A 366-Day Devotional compiled by Ron Eggert, October 14).
Have we learned anything spiritually transformational through this COVID-19 crisis in terms of church life and function? If so, may we heed the psalmist:
I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying,
for he speaks peace to his faithful people.
But let them not return to their foolish ways (Psalm 85:9, NLT).