Welcome to MPC Connected! With our church family separated, we will be communicating with you throughout the week in a more intentional way, including emails from Max and Jeff, opportunities to serve others, and more. Enjoy!
Hi everyone,
Jeff here. I hope your week has been going well so far.
So, it's March - and as many of you know I am a huge basketball fan. I've been to many tournament games, including a trip to the Final Four when I was a sophomore at Syracuse. We lost in the finals, but there will still some pretty great moments…
Amazingly, I married a woman who agrees with me that a perfect getaway involves watching or attending March Madness games. In 2018, Catherine and I took a long weekend and drove to Charlotte for the first two rounds of the tournament. The first day of this trip involved sitting in the upper deck and watching four college basketball games - that's right, about 10 hours of basketball.
We made it through three games. There was one game left, but it was going to be a laugher. #1 seed UVA was playing #16 seed UMBC (Max's alma mater). A #16 seed had never defeated a #1 seed. There were other, better games that we could watch on TV. We made the somewhat easy decision to leave the arena and go watch the other games.
A couple hours later, we were watching from our hotel with our jaws on the floor as UMBC cruised to an utterly shocking 20 point victory, making basketball history in the process. Yes, we got to see it on TV, but how we wish we had stayed to experience it live, with an arena full of other people.
You probably see where I'm going here.
It's been so good to have the livestreaming over the past couple weeks, and it looks like that's what we'll be doing for the foreseeable future. I'm so thankful that we get to worship in this way, but I've just been more feeling how it pales in comparison to actually being together - and not just with an arena full of strangers, but with a sanctuary full of brothers and sisters in Christ.
You know what, though? I'm glad that it pales in comparison. One of the ways that we can benefit from this season, if we allow it, is to cultivate a deeper appreciation of our embodied relationships. I've continued to think about the piece by Samuel James that I linked to last week and I'm becoming more convinced that he's right.
The Biblical author Paul knew what it was to be separated from his fellow believers. In a letter to the church in Thessalonica, he said:
But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.
A few weeks ago, we left church assuming we'd all be together again the next Sunday. For now, we've been hindered from our times together. In the meantime, we have the opportunity to feel the absence from one another and cultivate the desire to be together again. Consider the day we are back together and consider the smile you will receive from your MPC family when we greet each other - and consider that this smile is but a dim reflection of the smile of God upon those that He loves. John Owen, an English theologian from the 1600s, said:
There is not the meanest, the weakest, the poorest believer on the earth, but Christ prizes him more than all the world besides.
Oh, by the way, Catherine and I missed basketball history but we partially made up for it the next day when we ran into the UMBC band, who were having the time of their lives:
Worth Reading
Matthew Lee Anderson checks in at Christianity Today with On Living in a Pandemic Age - showing us how our fears of the virus (or other fears, whatever they may be) are tied to the fear of the Lord, a fear that "perfects" all of our other fears:
COVID-19 is a palpable reminder of how deeply insecure our lives really are, of how vain our pretenses to control the world can be. Fear of the coronavirus is not the fear of the Lord. Yet it is a sign of such a fear, a shadow that has fallen across our path that reminds us to look upward as we walk. When we are baptized into Christ’s death, we are liberated for life—for its completion in the knowledge of God who loves the irreplaceable and fragile life he has given to each of us. Moreover, when we love our lives as Christ does, we shall be prepared to lose them as he did.
Worth Watching
I promise to feature someone besides Tim Keller next week, but late last week he recorded a message for a lecture series called "Questioning Christianity" that the church he founded is doing in New York City. The topic was "Peace in Times of Suffering and Uncertainty." There is a message of about 30 minutes and then Q&A. I watched the message and it was outstanding. He started by comparing different worldviews and how they respond to suffering. One of the worldviews he analyzed was modern secularism, which he noted was the worldview least equipped to handle suffering. Keller then explained what Christianity has to offer and closed with steps to dealing with these trying times - 1) Weep, but trust (see the example of Job). 2) Pray, but think. 3) Reorder your loves. 4) Hope.
Worth Hearing
The music of Sandra McCracken has meant so much to me in recent years. She has endured much suffering, and as she walked with God through her suffering, she wrote a beautiful album of lament called Songs From the Valley. The opening song, "Fool's Gold", is gut-wrenching and wonderful, and its refrain is one for us to remember in these trying days:
But if it's not okay
Then it is not the end
And this is not okay
So I know this is not, this is not the end.
Worth Tweeting
Worth a Laugh
Much to Catherine's chagrin, I'm a huge fan of SCTV, which was a sketch comedy show in the late 1970s and early 1980s with lots of future stars like Eugene Levy, John Candy, etc. I'm not sure there's a better sketch than the one that depicts how it went when Michael McDonald sang backup for Christopher Cross (you'll either love this or be bewildered by it, but that's okay.)
That's all for now. Love you and miss you.
Jeff
Though we are separated during this unique season, we want you to know we are available. We will be doing our best to stay in touch in many ways, but if you need prayer or just need someone to talk to, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. You can always send a prayer request to Donna (mpcadminteam@gmail.com). You can also email or call Max or Jeff or any of our elders. Max's email is mbenfer@meadowcroftchurch.org and his phone # is 484-886-7726. Jeff's email is jeff@meadowcroftchurch.org and his phone number is 540-818-6215.