Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and from the 160 congregations and from the more than 30,000 members of the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference, the finest of the 38 conferences of the United Church of Christ. I am Bill Worley. I am blessed to be our conference minister and blessed to be here this morning. Thank you, Pastor Maureen, for giving me this opportunity to be with you. We scheduled this Sunday months ago before any the unfolding of the last three months was anywhere on our radar. We had envisioned this day being much different. In fact I even had on my schedule that there was going to be a lunch after worship today, and I was so looking forward to lunch because I know how well the people of these congregations cook and eat. And my heart is sad because we’re not going to be doing lunch. But my heart is glad because we are here together.
For those of you who are watching at home or wherever it is you may be, thank you for tuning in. I want to say I am in a sanctuary of about 10 people, appropriately social distanced. I want to observe that the biggest challenge for pastors in this Covid time is preaching to an empty sanctuary. Because I am used to people speaking back to me when I am preaching. I look forward to people interacting with me when I am talking. And, unfortunately, it is very difficult for you sitting where you are, and me to be interacting with one another. Of course, that has been the challenge of the last three months, not only can we not speak together, we can’t shake hands, we can’t hug. I do not know if everybody in here’s a hugger, but I like to hug, and I’m feeling very lonely these Sundays during these coronavirus days. I’m not feeling connected at all.
And the gospel lesson this morning is all about making connections, right? It is about Jesus sending the twelve out to be connected in the surrounding areas of Palestine. And about sending people into the homes of the people in the communities where they live. Now we cannot do what Jesus is asking the disciples to do this morning. Jesus is asking the disciples to be very bold, go out into people’s homes, and if they’re worthy, bring them peace, proclaim the good news, cure the diseased, raise the dead. Jesus asks his disciples to connect with people.
Over the last three months, we have only been able to connect with people via the camera, and Facebook and youtube. Some of us would say this is no way to do church. This is church, (waving at the sanctuary) here in this space. And we can only do church when we are together, in this space. Well brothers and sisters let me tell you this: what we are doing now (pointing at the camera) is more true to the gospel, than what we do when we gather in this sanctuary on a Sunday morning, and here is why. Pastor Maureen has told me that some of you have discovered this. Churches that have averaged about 50 or 60 people in our conference, getting people to come to their church on a Sunday morning, see between a 150 and 250 online, like you are doing now, on any given Sunday. What that means is we are doing a better job with this (pointing at the camera), at getting into people’s homes, than we are getting people to come here to this home.
And that is true across our conference, and across our denomination. I have clergy in the conference who tell me they have people online watching their services from as far away as Germany, France and England. So our capacity to do what Jesus asks us to do with the gospel with this (pointing to the camera) is infinitely greater and here is the other thing that people are discovering: your home is a sanctuary.
One of the great things about being conference minister is over the last three months I could go to 15 or 20 worship services in a 4- or 5-hour period. There was no way I could do that driving around. And what I discovered attending all of those worship services, was that the space I was sitting in, my office space in front of all the books, and all the stuff that gets piled up on my desk, became the sanctuary. Because the more I invited people into my home through Facebook and YouTube, the more I put myself into the place of worship with our pastors who were leading worship, the more worshipful I felt.
Now we have been saying for years that we have got to do a better job of getting into people’s homes. Church is happening right now in your home; you are in church. So, I have been encouraging churches not to rush back into worship, not to rush back into your sanctuaries. But let me say this about your congregations: your pastor and lay leaders have been doing a great good job getting your sanctuary ready for you to return safely. You know I am really pleased to see that. Throughout the coronavirus we have been doing what Jesus asked the disciples to do. Did you hear that? Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. What Jesus asks us to do is what we have been doing for the last three months. We have been taking care of the most vulnerable and the sickest people among us.
Now let me tell you, I have no time for the debates taking place in our society about the source of the coronavirus, the nature of the coronavirus, I don’t care. Jesus didn’t ask me to care about that. Jesus asks us to care about the weakest and most susceptible people in our communities. Jesus asked us to care for the sick. That’s who we are supposed to care about. And I’m glad to see our churches care about that too. There are 30 gallons of hand sanitizer in the back of my car. They are part of a donation of 300 gallons of hand sanitizer, so our conference can make a little bit of a contribution to keeping people safe.
All Jesus wants us to do is to go (pointing to the camera) boldly into people’s homes and spaces, to proclaim peace, to care for the sick and to do one other thing: and that is to proclaim good news. Now I will tell you brothers and sisters, I am done reading the newspapers. I do not watch Fox or CNN or any of the other major news networks. In fact, this is God’s honest truth, I don’t have a television in my home. If you want to give yourself a gift today, take your television and put it outside of your house. Give yourself the gift of putting that away. Give yourself the gift of putting all that comes with it away. Trust me, the world in the next few months isn’t going to change a whole lot from where it is right now. And instead of being a connoisseur of the news that come to us from any media source, whatever it is, be a connoisseur of the gospel.
Every Wednesday a group of pastors gets together to do a midday prayer pause. Every Wednesday at noon we gather together to read the good news, to proclaim the good news to each other. Because, yes, even Pastors need to hear the good news. And I tell you that that 20 minutes prayer time in the middle of the week, changes my week. If you’ve got two or three friends and you can get them together on Facebook or skype or zoom to proclaim the good news in the middle of the week or the end of the week or anytime in your week, do it, because it is going to change your week. One of the reasons Jesus says to go into the house to proclaim peace, is that proclaiming peace changes people’s hearts. Changing people’s hearts is the only way to change the world. Proclaim the good news, cure the sick, take nothing with you, and know that wherever you are, you are in a sacred space and God is with you.
I need to give a huge word of gratitude for the ways you all have continued to support your congregations: Trinity and St. Peter’s. I need to say a huge word of gratitude for the ways that you have continued, in this time of disease and sickness, to be generous to show up online to reach out for each other, to call each other, to stay connected with each other spiritually while we are social distancing. I need to thank you for the ways you have been church, not in spite of coronavirus 19, but because of coronavirus 19, because we are God’s people and we do not let something like this get us down! The 10 people gathered here say “Amen” if you agree. (Amens). Say amen at home if you agree.
We are going to pass through this, because we have. We are going to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, because we have. We are going to build new sacred spaces, because we have. And we have done these things because God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good.
Proclaim the good news brothers and sisters. Cure the lame and the sick by wearing our masks and washing your hands and staying socially distant. Don’t get caught up in the bad news but proclaim the good news. And in all things, the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ reigns this day to be with you forever. Amen.
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