⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

⁴⁶ Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42, 46-47)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior. Amen.

God’s presence is with us during this time. The trick is to find ways to lean on the support of our community in new ways. Human beings were created to be in community and need the relationships we form with one another. We are not built to exist in isolation.

Communities of faith are blessings from God to help us face circumstances in life as people of faith. Paul had a poignant reminder about the function of community for the Corinthians as they struggled. “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:26) The Holy Spirit ‘gathers’ us into community to ‘keep us in the one true faith.’

As opposed to generations before us, we have a larger and more immediate menu of methods to undergird faith communities. Many new ways of forming and nurturing community have traditionally been underutilized by congregations. There is an old adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Our traditional methods of forming faith communities worked well enough for most of us.

Historically in the church, the practices of forming faith communities have developed due to existing conditions. For example, Union churches formed prior to the American Revolution primarily as a consequence of widespread immigration to the New world from various German speaking provinces and a comparatively low level of immigration of pastors. The German-speaking Lutheran immigrants and the German-speaking Reformed immigrants had a common goal – a pastor who could speak German. That common desire to hear the Gospel, coupled with their circumstances as immigrants, led to those Lutherans and the Reformed sharing resources and formed joint communities. They changed how their practice of forming faith communities to meet the context they in which they abided.

Often these adaptations within the church take place gradually over generations. How many of you can pinpoint an exact date your home congregation switched worshipping English? I can tell from the church records, at least with St Olaf and Zion, it did not happen overnight. Some of the records are an interesting mix of Norwegian and English from the same pastor. I strongly suspect that a gradual transition is similarly reflected in records of our neighboring congregations (and the records of most non-English speaking immigrant congregations). The transition followed the trend and aging of the generations. As less adults were fluent in the former language and more adults were fluent in English, the language of the worship services transitioned. The transition of language followed the needs and context of the community.

Other times change to adapt to current conditions comes about much more abruptly. That same transition to English in worship was anything but gradual for congregations in Iowa. The Iowa legislature banned the use of any language other than English during World War I. The only language permitted to be spoken in the state was English. Their former method of conducting worship services no longer worked. They did not have the option of adapting slowly. Overnight, with the signing of a bill into law, their choices were cancel worship or learn English. Imagine how many sermons were preached in broken English to people who barely understood the language. Yet, there are still Lutheran congregations of non-English descent in Iowa. God helped them overcome that challenge for the sake of the Gospel.

Our current situation also has to do with language and worship. Even though we are deeply immersed in English, our practices have not included a lot of technology. Despite the ‘language’ of the internet growing over the past few decades, most congregations have not sensed an urgent need to use a whole lot of technology in the past. Most of us dabble, but would prefer a more of a gradual shift similar to our (non-Iowan) ancestors adopting English during the early 20^th century.

When the old way no longer works for whatever reason (like a global pandemic), we switch to a more abrupt model closer to our sister-congregations in Iowa during World War 1. We are discovering new ways to be community. We are learning new technologies and adapting them to our own context. And like those Iowan congregations way back when, we are not yet fluent.

The more abrupt the change is, the steeper the learning curve tends to be. There will be glitches. There will be anxiety and fear. No matter how steep the learning curve, the Holy Spirit will continue to ‘call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify’ us. Even on those days when we feel as human beings the challenge of being in community is unsurmountable due to our circumstances, we remember who is in charge.

Prior to conceiving Jesus, the angel reminded Mary, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 2:37). Jesus healed countless diseases, banished demons, performed miracles, and even brought a couple people back to life. Jesus rose from the dead. In comparison, our challenges to form community in these days seem rather minor. God can and does handle all our challenges. The Spirit will continue to gather us in these new ways. We continue to trust that God is working through all the gifts He has given us – even the internet.

The grace and peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

In Christ,

Pastor Carla