Social Distancing

By now, everybody is familiar with the clunky, anti-septic phrase: Social Distancing.  While it's not elegant, it tells us what we need to know.  Stay away from crowds, keep your distance.  For those of us in the church, it's an especially weird thing to do.  We not only have worship services, but meetings, and visits, and so many other activities that involve being with other people.  For many of us, that has now changed.

But how much?  We anticipate this all coming to an end.  Unlike some awful Apocalyptic movie, there will be significant disruption, but no end to civilization as we know it.  Sooner or later, and I like most everybody else pray sooner, life will resume its normal rhythms.  Perhaps people will be yearning for actual social contact and will have grown bored with binge watching TV.  Imagine a world where social media is less important and getting together with others takes on new importance.  A crazy dream?  Perhaps not.  Consider if you'd said we'd be dealing with a pandemic on January 1.  You'd have been dismissed, now you'd be hailed as farsighted.

Sometime in the future we will gather for worship again.  Until then, we will have to make do.  But remember in this Lenten season that to despair can be a sin.  We are a people grounded in the hope of the coming Easter, a resurrection community that will, with God's help, Jesus' example, and the Holy Spirit's comfort, prevail.

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