Praying for the church in isolation. Part two.
Thomas Fuller knew what it meant to live in a time of crisis. He was a pastor and a Royalist chaplain during the English Civil War, during which he wrote a work call Good Thoughts in Bad times. This was a series of conversations with God, intended to provide encouragement in this bleak period. In Thought no. 10, we find some striking parallels with our own situation:
“LORD, thy servants are now praying in the church, and I am here staying at home, detained by necessary occasions, such as are not of my seeking, but of thy sending; my care could not prevent them, my power could not remove them. Wherefore, though I cannot go to church, there to sit down at table with the rest of thy guests, be pleased, Lord, to send me a dish of their meat hither, and feed my soul with holy thoughts. Eldad and Medad, though staying still in the camp (no doubt on just cause), yet prophesied as well as the other elders. Though they went not out to the spirit, the spirit came home to them. Thus never any dutiful child lost his legacy for being absent at the making of his father’s will, if at the same time he were employed about his father’s business. I fear too many at church have their bodies there, and minds at home. Behold, in exchange, my body here and heart there. Though I cannot pray with them, I pray for them. Yea, this comforts me, I am with thy congregation, because I would be with it.”
Photo taken by Doug Robar
Fuller is detained at home on a Sunday (he doesn’t say why). As many of us have found over the past year, this isn’t his decision and he can’t do anything about it.
This clearly bothers him because Church matters: it is like being excluded from the family meal. As with any family meal, both the food and the fellowship matter. Church is one way that God normally feeds us, but He feeds us together as a family.
Fuller prays that he wouldn’t miss out, but that God would ‘feed my soul with holy thoughts’. He may be missing the family meal, but he would still appreciate a doggy bag!
He finds an encouraging (if relatively obscure) precedent in Scripture. In Numbers 11, the Israelites in the wilderness grumbled that they haven’t any meat to eat (note the food imagery again). Moses grumbled to God that the Israelites keep grumbling. God, therefore, offered to spread the burden of leading Israel among seventy of the elders. He invites to the Tent of Meeting where He then pours the Holy Spirit onto them.
Verse 26 tells us that for whatever reason two elders, Eldad and Medad, didn’t go to the tent, but still experienced this outpouring of the Holy Spirit anyway and the joy it brings. Fuller likens this to a son, who misses the making of his father’s will while out on his father’s business. No wise father would allow this son to miss out on his share on the inheritance. Fuller takes comfort from this to pray boldly for Spiritual blessing. The confinement, he reminds God, is ‘of thy sending’. The least God can do is make sure Fuller doesn’t lose out.
Fuller, however, also realises his absence shouldn’t be all about him. He isn’t excused from ‘his father’s business’. And so he prays not just for himself but for those at Church. Fuller serves God by praying against that common feeling we all get of going to Church and then getting distracted by other worries. Fuller prays that his Church family would truly enjoy what he currently cannot. As he prays for them, however, Fuller also finds himself praying with them, as if he was there. Like Eldad and Medad, he experiences the blessing of fellowship even in his separation.
Fuller found his isolation still brought God’s blessing and a chance to serve God and neighbour in another way. If Toplady assures us God won’t let lockdowns stop the purpose of Church, Fuller calls on us not to waste our Sundays stuck at home.