Collapsing foundations

On a bright, sunny September morning, I sat in my seat at Williamsburg Community Chapel, eagerly anticipating the teaching from Pastor Jack Hayford at this two-day pastors’ seminar. He had just opened in prayer when an usher came up and spoke something quietly to him. The usher left and Pastor Hayford began his introductory remarks. The usher returned, spoke briefly, and left again. Pastor Hayford then invited us to stand, said something about an airplane colliding with one of the Twin Towers in New York. He said there would be no seminar that day, closed in prayer, and said we were dismissed. We all left silently, lost in thought, and headed to our vehicles in a stupor. I tried to make a call but the phones were down. I spent the large part of the day watching television, seeing the impacts over and over again as if to make sense of what I was seeing. It was unbelievable. I believed. But it was still somehow unbelievable. (my mother sat, that morning, at her Travel Agent’s in Canada, to purchase airfare to come visit us, and watching the muted TV, thought to herself, ‘What a strange movie to show here!’)

Years later, March 2020, I was at the gym and people were talking about widespread, forced, building closures. One guy, the owner of a hardware store, was heard saying he couldn’t close his store. Some were talking about even the gym even closing (it closed at noon that same day!) Soon, a new word infiltrated our vocabulary and became part of nearly everyone’s every conversation. Within weeks, we were living in an isolated and alien world, obeying new and confusing rules, submitting to bizarre testings and regular temperature checks, and learning new ways to use cyberspace for church services. It was unbelievable. We believed it. But it was still somehow unbelievable!

These disruptions to our lives were disorienting, but they pale in comparison with what 1^st Century disciples of Jesus faced when Jesus returned alive and radiantly healthy from the grave after a particularly horrific and humiliating death just days before. They saw him. They heard his voice. They touched his scars. They fed him fish. It was dreamlike. Real, yet unreal. Unbelievable, yet undeniable. Their heads spun. Their hearts ached. Their logic failed. A barrage of questions went unanswered. But there was one thing they could all feel, no, something they all sensed. Something so familiar: love! Powerful, beyond words, communicated richly, abidingly, in his very presence! The Messiah! Their Messiah! Their friend!  PD