Third Tuesday of Advent
Sunday evening I turned on the TV and paused on a channel a moment to see who was playing football. It all looked pretty normal: the teams were playing hard, the refs were whistling, the sidelines were busy and through it all was that constant, steady buzz of the crowd that you always hear. But when they switched to an on-field camera and looked upward, the seats were empty; there was not a person in sight. From that perspective, it didn’t look real, and when they switched back to the regular camera, it no longer sounded real because my brain knew it wasn’t.
I get a similar feeling when logging onto the computer on Sunday mornings to worship at Wilshire. I see George, Doug, Jeff and other worship leaders on the chancel singing, playing, praying and preaching. We don’t see the pews, but we don’t need to because we already know they’re empty. My brain can handle that, but my soul misses the crowd noise. Crowd noise? Yes. I’m talking about the gentle rustling, shuffling, coughing and murmuring that accompanies every live, in-person worship service. I don’t hear that when watching on the computer and it doesn’t sound complete.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not advocating for us packing the pews and trusting that God will protect us from COVID. Too many churches have done that with bad, even tragic results. I applaud our ministers and staff for making healthy decisions for everyone while creating wonderfully rich and meaningful worship experiences. Still, I miss the crowd noise — even the crying babies, jarring door slams, whistling hearing aids and soft snores.
But perhaps silence in the church has not been such a bad thing. If Advent is a season of waiting quietly and patiently for Christmas, maybe we should look at 2020 as a year-long “advent” while preparing for better ways of living together in peace and love. There’s no denying that we’ve found new ways to worship, learn, serve and give. One can only imagine what we’ll do with all that new capability when we open the doors again.
Advent ends on Christmas Day as we celebrate the birth of a baby who cooed and cried and grew up to make a holy noise that has echoed across time. Likewise, when this long pandemic experience ends and we’re able to go out and make noise again, I pray it is real and it is righteous – whether coming from a stadium or a church.