Scattered For The Sake Of The Gospel

Easter Sunday, 2018

This hit my feed this morning, a memory from two years ago. Not only a memory of a specific point in time, but also a memory of what we had, what we lost, and what we look forward to. To both proclaim the gospel together, and receive the gospel together is a privilege, one that we sorely miss right now. It’s okay to grieve this memory, we shouldn’t rush past lament.

Yet, like with death, we do not grieve as the pagans do. Our grief is laced with hope, faith that sees the unseen, grasping our citizenship for a city over the horizon, and holding unswervingly to the inheritance the Spirit has sealed us for. We will meet again. But for now, we are scattered.

As I see it, we are scattered for two reasons:

The Obvious Reason

We’re scattered at the moment because we have to be. The COVID-19 Virus is a serious threat to our nation’s health and vitality. We will not only comply with Federal and State directives, but we willingly serve our community by sacrificing our ‘physical togetherness’ for the good of others. We see this as a reflection of the gospel, in which we see Jesus who willingly laid aside his position in heaven to humble himself as a servant to mankind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.   (Philippians 2:3-8 ESV)

We want to represent that reality in the way we serve our community through love by becoming a physically scattered church.

The Subtle Reason

We are not just scattered, but we are scattered for the sake of the gospel. This means that in this sudden trial, we join with the generations of Christians before us who were scattered, spread far and wide, often through persecution and profound tribulation. This experience is new to us, but it isn’t new to Christianity. We take courage from those who have walked this path in days gone by, to not waste these difficult days. The good news has never been hemmed in by walls, not in the first century when the first church was forced to flee Jerusalem, and not now. Following the martyrdom of Stephen, Acts 8 begins with this understated truth:

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. (Acts 8:1 ESV)

It may be easy to conclude that would be the end for them, but it wasn’t: 

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.   (Acts 11:19-21 ESV)

That’s our prayer; we are scattered now, unable to gather in our building, unable to gather in each other’s homes, yet the gospel is not bound with us. We are scattered, but we are scattered for the sake of the gospel. Christ is at work in this land, and as the church, we still have a job to do. We are still the Body of Christ. We are still ambassadors of the King. We are still witnesses of grace, and instruments of mercy. And the promise that Jesus made to his church, on the day he ascended to the Father, still holds true: 

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)

This season will pass, I’m not sure when, or even if we will regain all that we thought lost. I suspect the world we find on the other side of COVID-19 will be different to the one we now recall. Maybe that will be for our good, I suspect it will be. But until that day where we might freely meet each other in bodily fulness, let this gospel longing saturate us:

For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.  (Romans 1:11-12 ESV)