Low Sunday, In-Between, Interregnum, Dead Week, Boxing Week
Today and tonight are supposed to mark the end of something and the beginning of something else. Like many of you, I have seen a number of mentions, articles and posts in the last few days about the strange time between Christmas and New Years.
The week has been described as aimless, without expectation, defined by waiting. People speak of not knowing what day of the week it is, of (gratefully) experiencing days that are not evaluated based on efficiency or productivity.
This year, this time between coincides with the worldwide presence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Illness seems to be everywhere. Our house has been hit hard. We are 4 adults here and all of us have been down for the count. I’ll spare you the varied list of symptoms but through the days between Christmas and New Years three of the four of us have tested for COVID and all of the results have come back negative. I write this as I see a banner on my television screen that says, “Preliminary data suggests at-home rapid tests miss many Omicron cases”. As I sit here telling myself that I am feeling better (it’s taking some convincing) I already wonder how we will look back at this time, at this week. We have been waiting, for some time now, for the sense that one time has come to an end and another has begun.
Of course, businesses, restaurants, sporting venues and churches have continued to wrestle with the implications of the time we are in, wave after wave. The Sunday after Christmas, which was Boxing Day this year, is in some church traditions referred to as “Low Sunday”. When I was pastoring an evangelical church I suggested the name, of “Where the Hell is Everyone?” Sunday. The term “Low Sunday” has a liturgical context to it, but the word “low” can easily be seen to refer to the number of people present as much as to liturgical expression. What has interested me, through these days, is the larger consideration of the in-between time of the Christian church, evangelical and otherwise.
I have a childhood memory of a road trip with my Dad, my sister and some relatives from Ontario, through Georgia en-route to Disneyworld. I remember that it was otherworldly-hot outside. One of the relatives was my Dad’s very religious, very Mennonite aunt. We stopped at a roadside stand to buy some boiled peanuts. It was close to Good Friday. Aunt Elfriede approached the man selling the peanuts and said something about how it was almost Good Friday. For some reason I have never forgotten the man’s reply. I think because it stopped Aunt Elfriede from her constant religiosity and “witnessing”. When she mentioned Good Friday, he said loudly, “Ma’am, around here EVERY Friday is Good Friday.”
I take that digression only to say that in many churches it would be appropriate to say, “Around here, EVERY Sunday is Low Sunday.”
For most of our lifetime church has been understood as a gathering of people, defined largely by one weekly service at which the majority of that particular church community joins together.
Perhaps this is changing.
I welcome the change.
There are many ways to be connected to a church community and there are many communities which invite participation. It was obvious to anyone interested enough to think about it in March 2020 that the way church had been done for decades was waning in its connection to people. We are now in a forced in-between time due to a pandemic. What will it look like to identify with the Christian church in the days and years ahead, even if the identification with a particular church lessens? Perhaps the allegiance granted to a particular church or denomination has not been entirely positive. The granting of such allegiance can have positive impact, but it can also perpetuate systems that are susceptible to the dangers of toxic faith, and abuse of different forms including spiritual, physical and emotional.
One of the difficulties of the “between times” is that we so often rush to declare them over. COVID is not over yet, though hopefully we can see its transition from pandemic to endemic. The in-between time for church is not over yet. May we have the creativity and courage to work for thoughtful and engaging new ways of growing in faith and hope.
Blessings to you as 2021 turns to 2022.