Challenges of 2020
/by Rev. Eric Folkerth
Almost weekly, somebody asks me “How are things at the Church?”
My answer is —like everything else in 2020— “It’s complicated.”
But, lately, I’ve been drawn to a memory of when my Dad had rotator cuff surgery. Bear with me while I tell you the story…
About twenty years ago now, my father had surgery to repair his rotator cuff; a relatively common procedure. In case you don’t know, that’s a surgery to repair a tear in the shoulder muscles that is repaired (basically) by sewing those muscles back together.
My father was still in the recovery room when the surgeon came to see Mom and me. He had a semi-grave look on his face.
“Well, I THINK it went well,” he said. “But, I gotta tell you…it was more challenging than I thought. It was like trying to sew together wet toilet paper.”
That was such a shockingly visual image for me, that it stayed with me all these years.
And it flooded back to me a week ago as a pretty apt description of both *ministry* and *life* in 2020.
Trying to do anything positive during 2020 feels like you’re trying to sew together wet toilet paper. You’re never sure just what the right “moves” are, what the right choices are.
The social distance that the pandemic requires of us is not only physically and spiritually draining, but it gives everyone a sense of disconnectedness. Any “people work” you do feels a bit like trying to “sew wet toilet paper.”
I know this must be true for many of you too. My calling is to name those truths we are all feeling, and to —as God gives to me— send along some hopeful message from God.
So, here it is…
First, my Dad recovered just fine for that surgery. Whatever concerns the surgeon had that day, his shoulder ended up just great.
Whew.
Secondly, I am reminded of Ezekieh and the “valley of dry bones.” Maybe you remember the story?
In a prophetic dream, Ezekieh comes across a valley of nothing but bones. A place where so much decay and rot has taken place that all that remains is white-washed bones.
What life could possibly be present in such a place?
But, just then, God says to Ezekieh:
“Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord….I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
“Prophesy to the bones.”
Is there a better word from God for us during 2020? Our *life* feels like dry bones right now. During 2020, the actions we take feel as if they are sewing wet toilet paper.
But even in the midst of this time of delay and decay, suffering and waiting, God is the one who will bring life to our dry bones once again.
Yes, we do our part. We “sew” as we are given strength, timing, and ability.
But it’s not all up to us, either. Even when it feels like all our actions are sewing wet toilet paper —perhaps *especially* then— let us trust in the powerful workings of God to do what we cannot do on our own.
God’s final promise is: “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil…”
Trust that this is so. Trust, even as we continue to walk through the valley of bones, even as our “sewing” feels sometimes futile, that God brings new life back to us…to our Church, to your family….to our world.
Grace and Peace,
Eric Folkerth