August 13, 2020
The first week of school is almost over, and I’m happy to report that old habits have thankfully not been too hard to break. After homeschooling for many years, we have had our children the last two years at St. Augustine, a university-model school which in the elementary years meets only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. One of the advantages of homeschooling or hybrid schooling for this particular pastor’s family has been the flexibility it has afforded over the years to fit the variable schedule that ministry brings. Beginning this year, however, while our older three remain at St. Augustine, Caroline (5th grade) and Ezra (2nd grade) are attending Christ Covenant School. It’s our first foray into a five-day school, and we’re excited to be a part of our church’s largest ministry with its emphasis upon a Biblical worldview and Christ-centered education. But drop off starts at 7:30 a.m. - so the old habit of a flexible wake up time depending on the previous night’s activities has been broken by necessity and by force.
Habits and customs are strange and powerful things. They can be easy to form (sometimes without our realizing that’s happening), but hard to break. Or they can be difficult to form (even when we’re trying our best to do so), but easy to break. Either way, habits are important to us, both as humans, and as Christians. Indeed, our Lord and Savior was a man of habit and custom.
It was His habit/custom to teach the crowds that gathered around Him (Mark 10:1).
It was His habit/custom in Jerusalem to spend the night on the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:39; see Luke 21:37).
It was His habit/custom to go to the synagogue to worship on the Sabbath Day (Luke 4:16).
We all have good habits and bad habits. The Bible teaches us that it should be our good habit to gather for corporate worship on the Sabbath Day, which since the resurrection of Jesus is the first day of the week (Leviticus 23:3; Luke 4:16; Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 16:2). Unfortunately, even since the days of the early church, some Christians have had the bad habit of neglecting the gathering together of the saints with God for worship and fellowship. The command is clear: “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
The pandemic in which we are living has had a profound impact on Christian habits with regard to corporate worship.
Some habitually gathered with the saints on the Lord’s Day, but have had to become shut-ins due to a proper concern about the risk of catching a virus that would very probably take their life. Rather than putting the Lord to the test by throwing themselves off the top of tall buildings (see Luke 4:9-12), they have decided it is wisest to watch church services online. Their habit of faithful church attendance has been constrained by a frowning providence.
Others were in the habit of coming to worship on the Lord’s Day, and though they are not at high risk of dying of the coronavirus, they are caring for or are frequently in close proximity to someone who is - so they too have chosen to quarantine themselves for the sake of protecting life.
Some had the custom of being in corporate worship, like Jesus, but COVID-19 has filled them, not with proper concern, but with sinful fear - they refuse to come to worship even though there is a low risk that they would die from this disease, and even a low risk they would catch it if they took appropriate precautions of masking and distancing - which they very likely do every day at work, the grocery store, restaurants, the school, etc.
For others, the good habit of actively attending the means of grace on the Lord’s day has been broken by the comfort and convenience of watching church in pajamas in the living room, so that a new bad habit of active neglect of the fellowship has been formed. Their sin is not fear, but apathy.
Some, unfortunately, didn’t have good habits in the first place when it came to gathering for corporate worship - and so the past five months have been just the excuse they needed to forsake all the more the gathering together with the saints.
These are just five situations that God’s people who are absent from worship may find themselves during this pandemic, and surely there are combinations and permutations of these and more. There are a variety of reasons why someone must be or chooses to be absent from corporate worship. God sees the heart, which man can never see (I Samuel 16:7). He knows our thoughts, intentions, and desires (Matthew 9:4; Hebrews 4:12). He sees why we do what we do. In all five scenarios above, however, whether from godly motives or sinful motives, the fact remains that many Christians are absent from the assembly of God’s people for worship, and so are missing out on the holy and joyful reverence that a physical gathering of the saints together in a particular place for corporate worship evokes (see I Corinthians 14:24-25; Hebrews 12:18-29), the physical presence and encouragement of the saints, and (when we resume it in September, Lord willing) the physical sign and seal of our communion with Jesus in the Lord’s Supper.
From the beginning of this pandemic we have encouraged the sick and those with underlying health conditions that put them in a high risk category to join us via our live stream, and not to feel shame or guilt in doing so. Clearly, though, it is right to feel sorrow at the loss of the great privilege and delight of worship! My heart aches to think of a scenario in which a vaccine is longer in coming than we hope, or not as effective as we hope, so that many who in all other respects would be able and willing to gather are prevented from doing so for an ever-increasing length of time. We are live streaming our morning worship service in the gym so that those who are appropriately concerned but are willing at some point to take a small degree of risk can come gather with the saints, yet at a large distance in a wide open space with masks on (we’ve been averaging around 10 people recently in the 8:30 gym service, so this is a great place to start if you are hesitant but at some point do want to come back to corporate worship). May those of us who are able to be present in worship not allow these absent brothers and sisters to fall off our radars, even though we don’t see them at church on Sundays. Whether by phone, by letter/email/text, by video chat, or social distanced driveway visit, let us seek to pursue those who are shut out from the blessings they enjoyed before mid-March, but wish with all their hearts they could be present with us.
But to those who read these words and hear their conscience say that their habitual neglecting to meet together with the saints and with the Lord is sinful, I exhort you to return to corporate worship. I want to stir you up to love and good deeds - and what deed is better than corporate worship? The ordinances of Christ are present on the Lord’s Day - the preaching of the word, the sacraments, and prayer. They are the outward and ordinary means by which the Lord communicates to His people the benefits of redemption (Westminster Shorter Catechism #88). Pray that the Lord would break your few-months old bad habits and give you renewed habits as this new school year gets started. Certainly this virus reminds us even more clearly that the Day of the Lord, the day of judgment, is nearer and nearer. So let us commit by his grace to join in worshiping our Savior King with His body - especially this coming Lord’s Day…