It’s certainly a strange time we are still living in. We may have seen the movies about frightening, rogue viruses, but I don’t know how many of us actually thought about or expected to live through one. Who knows what to do? We just do the best we can. We trust the epidemiologists and those who’ve been thinking about this sort of thing.
It’s no different for the church. The doors are shut. Even on Sunday right now, the doors are shut! Which one of us ever expected that?
The doors are shut, but does that mean the church stops being church? It can’t mean that. We can’t let it mean that. Jesus is Lord. God should be worshiped. People must be served in Jesus’ name. Like the cartoon says, “The building is closed. The church is open.” This is a time when we’ve got to take seriously that thing that we always say: “The church isn’t the building. The church is the people.” How are we doing that? One day our doors will be open again and we’ll get to gather like we always have, but things will never be quite the same.
At least I hope they won’t. I hope that we learn something through this time. I hope that we broaden our thoughts and our imaginations and open ourselves and our church life up to some of the good things we learn. I mean, we know the verses from Romans. We love the part where Paul says that God will somehow use all the things, even the bad things, for good for God’s people.
That is some really great news for us! God will use things no matter what, somehow! What do you think those might be? What might the good things be that God can bring the church -that God can bring CPC- though this confusing, difficult, even frightening times?
Please think about them, so that when we can open our doors again, we can be better followers of Jesus and better neighbors to all.
We are the church, the Body of Jesus Christ in the world, no matter what our doors are like!
blessings, Mark<><