love having church

Today was the first Sunday we’ve been able to hold church services for eight weeks. We’ve had to cancel church due to COVID for six weeks, and the last two due to the weather.

About two weeks ago, as I was notifying people that services were cancelled due to the weather, one person remarked, “There’s a sermon in the snow.”

I agree there is a sermon in all this, not just the snow but COVID and ice and cancellations. But it’s not a sermon that I am used to preaching with a (hopefully) clearly stated proposition and three or more points to support that proposition. It’s more like one of Jesus’ parables.

Most of the time Jesus would start the parable by saying, “The Kingdom of God is like …” And then he told a little story about sowing seeds, making bread, seeds growing into trees, searching for lost sheep or prodigal sons. He very rarely explained a parable. Perhaps the few explanations we are given are not to merely understand a particular parable, but to give us guidance in how to look at and understand parables in general.

So how are we to understand the parable of snow, or the parable of COVID, or the parable of cancelled church services? Do any of these things somehow illustrate the Kingdom of God? Are these things just things that happen and therefore don’t have any intended meaning? I have not been given a divine explanation about any of these things so your thoughts are just as good as mine. But I’d like to suggest some possible thoughts.

COVID – We are mortal, frail beings. Like grass that withers and fades, but the Word of our God endures forever (Isaiah 40:7-8).

Snow – Just as snow covers the ground, so grace and mercy covers our sin. Though our sins are as scarlet they can be whiter than snow (Isaiah 1:8).

Cancellations – Worship is more than just meeting at a particular time in a particular place, it’s about spirit and truth (John 4:21-24). The cancellations also remind us of how much we need each other, of how much we need times to gather and worship together, to help each other to hold on to the hope we have, to spur one another on, and to encourage each other in our faith (Hebrews 10:22-25).

You may have different ideas about what these things mean. Or you may think they mean nothing in particular.  I’d love to hear what your ideas or thoughts might be.

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