Happy Star Wars Day. (May the 4th be with you.)
I saw the original Star Wars movie, that is,
Episode IV in 1977, the summer that I was ordained. I saw it with the relatives
of my generation the week of July 3rd in my hometown at the Strand
Theatre in Manitowoc, Wisconsin which I don’t think is there anymore.
We’re
at a point now in the Coronavirus pandemic that some states are reducing
their requirements regarding which
businesses can reopen, under what restrictions, and which cannot. Some see this
as too soon, and some states have seen outbreaks that have sent them back to the
old restrictions.
I saw a meme the other day that showed a
young woman, at what seemed to be some kind of demonstration, holding a poster
that said, “At the start of every disaster movie there’s a scientist being
ignored.”
We are in the midst of a worldwide disaster.
I don’t know that that has sunk in yet. We don’t have the perspective of time
yet.
What will it’s outcome be? Have we sought
the common good that will enable us to get through this together. Or, are we
acting in selfish ways that will leave us divided and ineffectual in addressing
this pandemic. Time will tell.
One thing that I have heard suggested is to keep
a journal. When our great
grandchildren ask, what did grandma and grandpa do during the covid-10 pandemic
in 2020, they will have a written record of our experience as their history.
But, just the talk of loosening up restrictions
seems to have given people a sense that the worst is behind us, and they are
ready to at least start getting back to whatever new normal is coming.
We are isolating at home and part of our time
here has been taking care of our garden. We have Concord grapes twining through
a part of our backyard, They were here when we bought this house, and they have
twined wildly through trees and bushes.
What connects us? What choices are we making
at this time in history? Why are we making them?
I’ve been interested in what the community
life of our Christian communities will look like.
Last week, I mentioned that it is likely
that when we gather again physically for worship, there will be some
restrictions, like households having to stay 6’ apart in pews or rows of
chairs, and two or three rows being taped-off.
This week I read that Germany was opening
churches with the requirement that there be no singing, as it is currently
believed that the coronavirus spreads to the lungs through the air. I also read
that the state of Nebraska will be allowing churches to open, but without
shared hymnals or Bibles. They would have to go. [read list from articles}
Going back to worshiping together is going
to be very different. At least, it won’t be what we have been used to.
Martin Luther once said that as long as the
Gospel is rightly preached and the sacraments are rightly administered, there
is the true Church, everything else is secondary.
Those secondary aspects of worship will
certainly be changed.
What will remain the same is that there will
always be challenges (our latest, on top of everything else, is a possible
invasion of Killer Hornets) And, the source of our life as Christians.
John 15:1-5
Who we are is the result of whose we are.
Vine
and branches. God plants, Jesus is the vine, we are the branches, and as long
as we are connected to the vine, we bear fruit. It is a natural, organic
process. It just happens without our will or effort.
The fruit of the Spirit, in Paul’s letter to
the Galatians is:
Galatians 5:22-23
We are nourished to love God and to serve people as a consequence of that organic connection with the living God.
We have been given a living relationship with the living God, one that
assures that God will never leave us, that we are still loved, and saved by
God’s unearned love. That we belong to the corporate reality, the Body of
Christ, the whole Christian Church on earth, all of us together seeking to love
God and serve our neighbor.
That
is what sustains and will sustain us through this pandemic. Knowing whose we
are, sustained by the nourishment that comes though Jesus Christ, producing in
us the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
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