In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. | Genesis 1:1–2
The Bible begins with the creation of the world. This creation was good. Then God created human beings in His image and placed them in His world. It was with this final creation that He declared it all very good.
With the creation of human beings, God also gave purpose in the cultural mandate: Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1.28). This was a call to work and create in such a way that increased the dominion of human beings on the earth. This implies the development of culture and government and technology. The cultural mandate is God calling us to do what we were created for: to reflect the image of God and worship Him through our work and devotion. In Genesis 2, God adds to the cultural mandate, showing us that we also need others. Autonomy and individual pursuit are dead ends. We cannot accomplish the cultural mandate without others: it takes two to be fruitful and multiply and subduing the earth is a community endeavor.
In Genesis 3, this mandate thwarted by human sin. When Adam and Eve reject God’s order and eat the fruit, they mar every part of the perfection of creation. It is no longer very good. We see in the curses that the acts of the cultural mandate (procreation and dominion) are now made painful, and every relationship (with God, self, others, and creation) is broken. Sin in the world means that nothing is the way it is supposed to be. Cornelius Plantinga says it this way:
The story of the fall tells us that sin corrupts: it puts asunder what God had joined together and joins together what God had put asunder. Like some devastating twister, corruption both explodes and implodes creation, pushing it back toward the “formless void” from which it came.
Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be
From all of this we learn some things:
- All things were created good and with purpose.
- All things have been distorted by sin.
- Because there is a created order, and a creator God, there is an ideal.
- The further things are from God’s ideal, the more distorted they are.
God has a right and orderly way all things and we are most complete when we follow His order. Every step away from His order is both less fulfilling and ultimately destructive to His creation.
This is true of every part of His world, including how He has ordered His church. This includes regularly meeting together, every person using their gifts to serve one another, leaders called by God to lead and serve the congregation, and the marks of the church: the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, and church discipline. The church is mean to join together to worship God with a single voice, to practice the rhythms of godly life, and to be a community of people who live in harmony with one another to display the unity and love of God.
There is no perfect church, and people are quick to use that truth to flatten out the various failures of individual churches. In one sense, it is an equalizer: none should act as if they are THE church, looking down their noses at the less fortunate churches around them. This should not be used as an excuse to stop striving toward God’s ideal. We should be trying to worship God, in Spirit and truth, as faithful to His created order as possible.
This brings us to today, when we cannot gather, receive the sacraments together or serve one another in person. These are all results of the spread of the Coronavirus, but also the effects of the Fall on God’s creation. We should recognize the difficulty of this moment as stemming from us being forced to move away from God’s ideal for His people. We should groan inwardly in anticipation of both being able to worship closer to God’s design, but also for the day when we will be at the perfect worship service in the presence of Jesus. As we feel the tension now, let it remind us of the distance that always exists between who we are and who we will be.
We must also recognize God’s grace in the midst of the struggle. We are able to connect with one another in ways that were not possible a generation ago. We can call one another, stream services, and communicate on various different platforms (it is actually overwhelming to try choosing which is best). In streaming services, we are able to worship with our missionaries, members who have moved away, and some who are on bed rest and wouldn’t be able to come even if COVID-19 were not a thing. We had members joining us for service in their jammies, over breakfast, and on couches much more comfortable than the wooden pews. We have a generous God who allows what is not ideal to still be filled with His blessings and grace. Let’s not get too comfortable with what is not ideal (even though it may be more comfortable). As Brett McCracken reminds us in his book Uncomfortable:
Church shouldn’t be about being perfectly understood and met in our comfort zone; it should be about understanding God more, and meeting him where he is. We grow most when we are outside of our comfort zones. We are more effective when we are on the edge of risk. We hold beliefs more dear and pursue goals more passionately when they are accompanied by a cost.
The church is not there to meet your needs, but to shape you into the worshipper you were created to be. Pursuing God in His order, rather than what is easiest and most comfortable, is the way for us to grow toward God.
One more thing: because we were created to work and create and be in community, this is going to be a very trying time for everyone. We will be further from the ideal in all of life than normal. Use this time to look for the graces and blessings that you typically overlook; the ones that are always there, but you are too busy to notice. These will also help you to see the depth of God’s love and kindness toward His whole creation. This will cause us to love and worship Him more freely.