Evolving into the Stature of Christ, and an important COVID-19 survey about returning to church
I love podcasts, and one of my favorites is Radiolab, where in each episode the hosts tackle some issue of science, the cosmos, or life and always dig so deep as to ultimately address unexpected existential questions.
As our collective coronavirus saga continues, I recall an episode of Radiolab that aired several years ago, entitled “Shrink.” The podcast focused upon a strange virus discovered by accident and named “Megavirus.” Usually, viruses are tiny, exponentially smaller than bacteria (think “mouse” compared to “elephant, no kidding). But Megavirus is huge, so big that it dwarfs many bacteria in size.
At first, scientists contemplated how and why a virus would have become such a giant, until in a eureka moment they realized that they were thinking about things in reverse order. Maybe Megavirus hadn’t grown big. Rather, maybe Megavirus is the vestigial remnant of what all viruses likely once were.
In other words, viruses may have devolved over time — evolution gone backwards. Viruses may have once been normal single-celled organisms but gotten smaller and simpler until now they are really nothing at all, just a snippet of genetic material surrounded by a protein shell. It is even debatable among scientists whether viruses are “alive.” Outside of a host body, a virus is inert; it can’t do anything. Only in a host does a virus spring into action and do its dirty work. It is the ultimate parasite.
This strikes me as theological. A virus is the exact contrary to God’s hopes and intentions for the world. God calls the creation to flourish, while the organisms that viruses once were obstinately degraded themselves until they are mere shadows of reality — like the ghosts in C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce — scarcely alive and leeching off God’s good creation.
So the question is, now that we know this about viruses, how will we respond to COVID-19, the sniveling little virus that is so potently attacking God’s world? One option is to mimic the virus, to degrade ourselves and devolve into people who attack one another and care not for anything other than furthering ourselves.
The other option is laid out for us in the fourth chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians. In God’s good world, we Christians are to “build up the body of Christ, until all of us grow into the full stature of Christ.” Rather than devolve, we are to evolve into the image of the One who shows us the Way of love. Even as the coronavirus does its own worst and seeks to drive wedges between us, we are to grow in complexity of connection, compassion, and grace, day-by-day becoming more Christ-like.
The coronavirus selfishly takes and takes. That’s all it knows how to do, because, as a virus, that’s all it is. But we are created in the image of God, and we are being raised to the full stature of Christ. We are holy, and loved, and good. In the end, this experience of COVID-19 will help us evolve. As St. Paul continues in Ephesians, “We must grow up in every way into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped…promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” We must, indeed.
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Important COVID-19 Survey about Returning to Church
A Cathedral task force is at work preparing a plan for our return to in-person worship on the Cathedral campus. Please take this brief survey to help us know your hopes, preferences and concerns.
Cathedral Sunday Worship
Through the month of May, we will continue to worship together each Sunday…from home! The link to the worship services are found on the homepage of the Cathedral website, www.christchurchcathedral.org, as well as here for 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 5 p.m.
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Supporting the Cathedral
Even as we worship from home, the Cathedral is engaged in ministry. Our pastoral care, outreach, worship, and program ministries of the Cathedral carry on, and supporting Cathedral ministries is as important as ever. You can make your offering in any of these ways:
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Visit the Cathedral Give page to find out the many ways you can support our church
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Make an offering or give in other ways using PayPal
Grace and peace,
The Very Reverend Barkley Thompson, Dean
English