Download service sheet for Morning Prayer, which includes readings and hymn suggestions.
Well, if all had gone according to plan — my original plan — our four parishes would have gathered together in one of our churches this morning for a joint worship service. I had thought we’d worship in Croom, actually, as the most central of our churches. We would worship together and then hold a joint Easter Vestry meeting — that’s like the Annual General Meeting of the congregations. We would have elections for Vestry and for a few other offices, and we would recognize and recommission our dedicated and hard-working Parish Readers — that’s something new this year.
Ah, that was the plan, but it seems that God had other plans. So we worship in our own homes, but may we still be bound together by God’s Holy Spirit, for the Spirit is not constrained by space or time, as we are.
Our Gospel reading for today says that the disciples are themselves locked into a house. The reading starts on Easter evening, the day that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. The following week they are there again. In fact, they will be there in that room often, it seems, over the next seven weeks or so. They gather with the door locked, self-isolating, you might say, from those who had persecuted Jesus and put him to death. It seems they are afraid that the same people will also come after them, because they were Jesus’ followers and disciples.
But on this Sunday evening, and the following Sunday evening as well, Jesus will come and stand among them and say, “Peace be with you,” and give them the Holy Spirit.
The disciples are trying to “stay safe” from what they fear. In these days in which we are locked into our houses, self-isolating from a virus that might do us harm, “stay safe” seems to be the most common wish we offer to other people. The sense I always get from people is that it is a genuinely heartfelt way to say to someone that we hope that they stay well and healthy. People also seem to offer it as a reminder to follow the restrictions under which we all live these days, so that we and others will be safe from the Covid-19 virus. Essentially, we are offering a hope that the person be protected.
The psalm we read this morning, Psalm 16, is a prayer of trust in God’s protection. It begins, “Preserve me, O God” (this could also be translated, “Protect me,”)
for in you have I taken refuge.”
And later it continues,
“For you will not abandon my soul to Death,
nor suffer your faithful one to see the Pit.”
The psalmist trusts that God will protect him.
So it makes me ask, what is it that we wish protection from? If you say to others, “stay safe,” what do you hope they will stay safe from? If you were to pray Psalm 16, or pray to God for protection, what would you want protection from? What kind of protection do you seek from God?
For each of us, the answer might be different. I know some people most desire protection for their loved ones from the virus, because their family members have underlying health conditions that might make them susceptible. Others might most desire protection from death, or from anxiety, or from fear. Some want economic protection, that their livelihoods will be secure. Some simply want assurance that despite all that is happening in the world, near and far, all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well, to quote the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich.
So since I am putting the question to you, what kind of protection you desire, what kind of protection you would ask God for, I have to ask the question of myself also. For myself, when all this started with Covid-19, it kept going through my head that death is not the enemy. I do not wish to die anytime soon, and I hope I do not get Covid-19, or Kirk, or any of you either. But I remain convinced that death is not the enemy. For the Christian faith tells us that if we die in faith, that death is the gateway into larger life with God.
Instead, I pray that God might protect me from anxiety, for to me, anxiety and fear seem the greater enemy. For example, I ask God to keep me from becoming fixated on this virus; instead, simply to follow the advice I have heard, to keep up with the news, but not at every waking hour of the day.
I pray that God might strengthen my faith so that I might grow through this experience to greater knowledge and love of God — along the lines that Peter talks about in the letter we heard, where he says that our faith might be tested by fire. Help me, O God, I pray, that I might learn from this time what you would have me learn, for myself, and for the world in which I live.
And I pray that all of you, the people in the parishes I serve, my friends and family, and anyone else who might chance to listen to this, that you are protected also. But protected how? Yes, I pray you remain healthy in body, but even more than that, I pray that you remain healthy and strong in mind and in spirit, that you are free from fear and anxiety, and that instead you know the comfort and peace of God’s protection.
When Jesus showed up in that locked room where the disciples were gathered, he said to them, “Peace be with you.” He knew they were afraid, he knew that even though word had reached them that he had been resurrected, that they still did not know or understand what was going on. And so he gave them God’s peace.
So I ask you, if you were to pray for God’s protection, what is it you wish to be protected from? What does it mean to you to be protected by God?
And whether or not you know the answer to that question, I recommend Psalm 16 as something to read, to pray. Just stating that you trust in God can help you to trust in God and God’s protection. I read most of it again here:
1 Preserve me, O God, for in you have I taken refuge; ♦︎
I have said to the Lord, ‘You are my lord,
all my good depends on you.’
4 The Lord himself is my portion and my cup; ♦︎
in your hands alone is my fortune.
5 My share has fallen in a fair land; ♦︎
indeed, I have a goodly heritage.
6 I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel, ♦︎
and in the night watches he instructs my heart.
7 I have set the Lord always before me; ♦︎
he is at my right hand; I shall not fall.
8 Wherefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices; ♦︎
my flesh also shall rest secure.
9 For you will not abandon my soul to Death, ♦︎
nor suffer your faithful one to see the Pit.
10 You will show me the path of life;
in your presence is the fullness of joy ♦︎
and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
And now, may the peace of God, which passes all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God,
and of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord;
and the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be with you this day
and remain with you always.
Amen.