There was no choice. I had to learn fast how to record my sermons.
First, I had to buy the wireless mic, and the adapter cable for the phone. Then I had to recorded my Sunday sermons with my wife’s help and the media team leader’s advice via whatsapp video calls.
My Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is proving to be an asset. Its video is top quality for 5 minutes and 10 minutes for the best settings. But even the third best setting is sufficient to give more than 45 minutes of good quality video for the Sunday online service via YouTube.
It felt stressful to do this. Lots of unknown areas. Lots of experimenting and going back and forth with Zephaniah. Stressful also to talk in front of a phone camera and an empty hall. Had to rehearse the script. Had to remember the main points and ideas. It all adds to the stress.
It was strangely satisfying to see myself on screen. I used to hate to watch videos of myself preaching. Interestingly, it was not as painful this time round watching myself on TV preach to myself in the living room. I am becoming comfortable with the way I appear on video, and I feel immense satisfaction that it was recorded using a Note 9, and desk tripod, and wireless mic.
Of course the media team did a lot of editing. That is something I hope to learn in the near future.
The pandemic has forced this on me and my staff. They too are learning to record their own sermons and sending them to the editing team.
The members are beneficiaries. Shorter, sharper, clearer sermons, and therefore services, every Sunday.
Most Protestants do not know bother meditating on Holy Saturday. Who would blame them? As a pastor I myself hardly taught about it, or even thought about it. It is exposure to contemplative spirituality that led me to discern a rich vein of golden truths hidden in the tomb.
The waiting in the tomb speaks to me in so many ways. It tells me that many periods in life can be like being in the uncertain tomb, between the certainties of death and resurrection. To the disciples who followed Jesus it was certainly a period of anxiety, confusion, ambiguity, and the humiliation of not knowing what to do. There are times of transitions in our life when this is exactly how we feel too. We do not know for certain how things will pan out. Will I be able to get a job after the pandemic? Will I lose my current job?
We do learn however that we need to do during this time of uncertainty is WAIT. Waiting patiently is not exactly a Millenial’s favourite thing to do. For that matter, nobody of any age likes to wait. But this stillness, silence and waiting in the tomb is exactly what God is inviting us to do. For in that waiting will be birthed forth and formed the new you that will be able to cope, enjoy, endure and triumph over what is NEXT.
Waiting in stillness, silence and in darkness
Which is what this period of ‘circuit breaker’ seems to be all about. We are in our homely tombs. We feel uncertain as the daily number of covid-19 cases increases rather than decreases. Its been five days and uncertainty still prevails. It is clear we need to be more strict and careful with our social distancing. But what happens next nobody can be sure, although the graph should show a downward curve by the end of the one month of tempered lock down. We are in the in between period, the liminal space of neither here nor there, or not knowing what or how, of seeing through a glass darkly. We will learn that God’s delay is not denial, and his silence is not abandonment.
Jesus stayed still, silent and waited as the dead would. But in his faith perfected by suffering, he knew that the Father, in due time would come to rescue him from the grip of death, and breathe in him the resurrection life of eternal power. We too will need to exercise a faith that after we die in the Lord, there will be a resurrection of the dead from the graves and columbariums and the seas and the earth, and it will be a resurrection unto life, not condemnation or judgment.
Online seder-bringing together four households through WhatsApp
This Holy Saturday, my daughter in law, Ping, organized and led a seder passover meal, a Christian version. It brought together four households via WhatsApp video call. We got the bread, grapejuice, some bitter stuff (wasabi, or herbs), a candle. We gave parts to everyone, including our grandchildren, and went through the script patiently. How wonderful for family to be together in this way – pondering over the great escape from the angel of death through the Blood of the Lamb applied on the doorposts of every believing familiy! This is good preparation for the Lord’s Table on Easter Sunday tomorrow.
