Three Years of Healing

For the better part of a year, an old bulletin sat on the table in my office. At first, it stayed because I wasn’t using that table, or my office for that matter. When I moved down the hall, though, I brought it with me to help me remember the past as we moved into an unknown future. The date on the front was March 8, 2020. It was the last bulletin we used in worship before the world changed three years ago.

Like many mainline churches, the scripture we read on Sunday mornings are on a three-year rotation called the Revised Common Lectionary. It sets the church calendar and keeps congregations across denominations in sync with one another. It also tends to shape the way some of us organize our memories of the past. For instance, this past Sunday’s readings and theme were identical to March 8th, 2020. The bulletin that sat on my desk for so long had the exact same image on it as the one we just used — a serpent wrapped around the cross. 

By the way, that image is a reference to Jesus’ words in John 3, when he tells Nicodemus, “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Thanks to this verse, and the story in Numbers 21, a serpent wrapped around a pole has become a universal symbol of healing for medical professionals— a group of people we have relied on heavily for the better part of three years now.

We have now made our way through the entire lectionary in the midst of a pandemic. This Sunday, we will witness the lessons we didn’t get to experience three years ago. For some of us, that doesn’t mean much. For others, though, it’s a stark reminder that we still have a lot of healing to do. We have trauma that needs to be both recognized and processed. Our outlook for the future is still very much filtered through a post-pandemic lens. If we want to make it another three years and be even stronger than we are now, it will take commitment to God and to one another, and it will take a whole lot more healing. May we look to Jesus and the cross for guidance, trusting in the salvation that comes when we rely fully on God’s steadfast love.

Peace,

Pastor Chad McKenna