Just when we think it’s safe to let our guard down a little, the virus rears its ugly head again.  There’s no telling how many cycles we will have to go through until it will be safe to get back to some semblance of normalcy.  It has seemed strange, indeed, to be apart from all of you for so long and I have missed being together at our beloved Neighborhood Church.

Being the church never ceased because of the coronavirus pandemic, in fact, in some ways we have expanded and grown as a serving church.  While we have not been able to be in each other’s physical presence, there has been a lot of connecting and caring through phone calls, email, texting, food sharing, Zoom gatherings and meetings, the Wave and weekly online worship services.  Many in our congregation have a heightened sense of gratitude for the value and place of church in our lives. 

The risk to public health continues as some folks across the country continue to push for churches to reopen.  But friends, church has never closed.  We have been challenged into new and different ways of being church.  Could it be we are meeting more people where they are spiritually?  As God’s people we choose to respect each other’s safety and well-being while at the same time discover new ways to love one another and show our care. 

Here is how Poet and Author Madeleine L’Engle puts it in her book, A Stone for a Pillow:

“Sometimes the very walls of our churches separate us from God and each other. In our various naves and sanctuaries we are safely separated from those outside, from other denominations, other religions, separated from the poor, the ugly, the dying.…The house of God is not a safe place. It is a cross where time and eternity meet, and where we are – or should be – challenged to live more vulnerably, more interdependently.”

Sometimes I don’t see gifts until living with them for a while and such has been the case during our time of separation.  I now see needs and concerns slightly differently and technology can offer new tools for ministry, communication and worship that reach people where traditional ways couldn’t.  I am sad at the enormous loss of life and the inordinate amount of energy that the pandemic has caused.  And I am not happy about all we have had to go through in enduring it.  But there are good things coming about in spite of everything - and God draws us on to a good and promising future…in faith.

Prayer
God, keep us in your love and while our building remains closed, keep our hearts open, our hands reaching out to others and our minds open to see the larger connections of all life.  Amen.

Rev. Dr. David D. Young
Senior Minister