“The time is fulfilled…” (Mark 1:15a)
I often joke that I’m a Luddite. The term refers to a secret
society of—basically—domestic terrorists in 19th England who destroyed
machinery in textile mills because they feared that the new weaving technology
would put old-fashioned weavers such as themselves out of work. Today, it’s
used for anyone who, alas, like my own dear self, is resistant to new
technology[i].
Okay. I guess I’m not so much resistant to the technology as I am
afraid I can’t figure out how to use it. I have to ask my daughter how I’m
supposed to sinc devices or do stuff on the computer. There’ stuff a
fifth-grader could do in his or her sleep that it takes me an hour to figure
out. I mean, I’m still using a version of the flip phone because the raised
numbers make it easier for me to text than if I use a smart screen. How do you
turn off that word prediction thingamajig anyway?
But the time has been fulfilled. I can’t
hold it back. Because of the pandemic and the Bishop’s recommendation to cease
all in-person activities at my parish, I broke down (at my wife’s urging, I
should add) and asked the church council to spring for the purchase of a laptop
computer so I could livestream worship services on facebook. Personally, I’m
not a big fan of facebook because I think it keeps us all perpetually in high
school. I don’t feel a need to show off my accomplishments, my vacations, or
the meals I’m eating. I don’t have to prove I’m one of the cool kids, and I
think lots of stuff is better kept private.
Nevertheless, the time has come to use the modern technology. If COVID-19
hadn’t driven me to virtual worship, the 21st Century would’ve done
so eventually. Bob Dylan keeps crooning in my ear, “The Times They Are
A-changin’.”
Matt Skinner, the Professor of New
Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN wrote a great article on the Working Preacher website about the
Gospel lesson for Epiphany 3, Year B (Mark 1:14-20). Professor Skinner opines
that, Galilee being so small a place, just about everyone there had probably
heard or seen or known about Jesus by the time John the Baptist was arrested.
The fishermen might not have had such a sudden blazing epiphany that they left
their nets like a dog chasing a squirrel. Rather, they’d been thinking about
Jesus and his message for some time. The difference on this particular day was
Jesus telling them the hour of decision was upon them[ii]. “If you’re going to come
with me, boys, this is the time to do it.” Timing is everything.
I’m pretty darn convinced that right now
is the time for a change. Even if there were no pandemic, the Church needs to
find radical new ways to do ministry because the old ways are becoming
obsolete. I’ve noted in previous posts that American society has basically
killed the Sabbath. Youth sports, once upon a time the extra-curricular
activities of public schools, are now a weekend burden for parents. Part-time,
gig, and service economy jobs make planning a schedule impossible for many
families. No one knows when or even if there will be a Sunday morning left open
for worship. Cultural ties which once linked families to their worshiping
communities have, for worse or better,
fallen away in this day and age. More and more of us find ourselves (again,
even before the pandemic) spending
more of our lives in front of a video screen.
Yet, as sluggish as I have been to get on
the techno-train, many of my parishioners are older than I and refuse even to
consider buying a ticket or standing on the platform. For those who are not
plugged-in, I write out the Sunday message and Cindie on our church council
sends it the old, old fashioned way—through the US Mail.[iii]
But it’s not the lack of
technology that has me concerned. It’s simply the age of these members. Good, loving, faithful, charitable saints of
the Lord that they are, I can see a day coming when they will be worshiping before
the Throne of Grace and not from the pews of Faith. The clock is ticking in my
ear like Poe’s tell-tale heart. If the rest of us don’t start fishing for
people now, there may be no
congregation here in about ten years’ time. I see the internet as one fishnet
by which we can proclaim the Kingdom. Social media allows us to spread the
Word, and I’m hoping that by posting or re-posting or “sharing" or whatever you
call it the online worship experiences of our congregation, we can spread a
word of mercy and love to those who otherwise might never enter the doors of a
church building to hear it.
The time has come. Throw out your net and
see who swims into it!
[i]
The Luddites took their name from Ned Ludd, supposedly an 18th
century weaver and the first to smash machinery. Actually, Ludd never existed.
He was a fictional character.
[ii]
The word Mark uses here for “time” is Kairos
(kairos in Greek). It doesn’t just mean the
hour of the day, but implies a momentous occasion. It could translate “The
season is upon us.”
[iii] I
used to work as a tour guide at Universal Studios. Carl Lemmle, the studios
founder, continued to produce silent movies well after talkies had been
invented for his distributors in small towns who did not have the funds to
convert their movie houses to the new sound technology. It’s important to push
forward, but compassion dictates that we sometimes have to consider those who
haven’t caught up!
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