In the name of God
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I have never preached a sermon or homily quite like this – or in a time quite like this either.
The more I talk with people the clearer it is becoming that we are finding ourselves in a time unlike any other in recent memory or history.
It’s a scary time.
Last night Gov. Hogan’s office announced that 66 residents at Pleasant View Nursing Home here in Mt. Airy have tested positive for COVID-19, and 11 are hospitalized.
As you know, we regularly support Pleasant View through our Sunday School and Outreach efforts.
And slowly but surely, I’m hearing from folks whose family and friends have been impacted by the virus, including deaths.
This is a scary time. We don’t know how this pandemic will keep unfolding, nor what all the near and long-term consequences will be.
But we do know a few things, and we can draw on history of the church and of our forebears in faith.
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First, next Sunday is Palm Sunday – the beginning of the Holy Week, the holiest time of the Christian year. And we know we won’t be together for those sacred days leading up to, and including, Easter Day.
This is hard. And yet, a clergy colleague The Rev. Robert Hendrickson put it well I think:
“The Church has marked the Resurrection of Christ while hiding from the Roman authorities in catacombs. We have marked it on battlefields, at the bedside, and in burnt out ruins. We have celebrated in times of plenty, plague, and persecution. There have been prayers offered in secret and prayers we were forced to say. There have been Easter Days in the Great Wars and Easter Days that passed almost unnoticed because the horrors of the world closed in.”
But there has always been, and always will be, Easter.
It will look different for us this year (more coming on that soon), but Easter has not been cancelled.
And when we do finally come together to worship together again, we will celebrate and let our alleluia’s ring so loudly all the heavenly host will hear and join our song.
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Another thing we know is that now more than ever we need to stay connected, stay church, and take care of one another.
I know you’re getting a lot of emails everyday – including from St. James’. Please take time to look them over as that is our primary way of reaching everyone to stay connected.
I’m so thankful that we have these ways and opportunities to continue to gather as God’s people in this time of what our Bishop has suggested we call “compassionate distancing.”
Thank you to Jeannie Pellicier for leading Compline on Facebook live every weeknight, and to all of you for showing up here today to stay the church even if it’s a little different. Thank you to Richard and our choir for working on ways to offer us beauty and music in the coming weeks. Thank you to our Parish Administrator Laura who has worked to help set up our online presence. Thank you to the Daughters of the King who are holding us all in prayer daily and are always ready to gather in our prayer requests. And thank YOU for making our little faith community a sign of God’s grace in the world.
As you hopefully read about in Friday’s email, our next step to keep us connected and help us take care of each other is the creation of small groups we’re calling “Grace Groups” made up of
5-7 households. The hope is that each group will covenant to be in regular contact with each other, will pray for each other, and will pass on needs to the Grace Group Leadership Team so that folks who have stepped forward for the Helper’s Team can do just that and the Daughters of the King can receive prayer requests.
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The final thing we know, and arguably the most important, is that God is with us in this time of trial.
We know this because scripture tells us story after story about people facing uncertainty and world-turning events, and the one constant is that God is present through it all.
We see this clearly in our scripture readings today: Ezekiel’s valley of the dry bones and Lazarus’s resurrection are as evocative and profound as they have ever been.
They both speak of God’s power to make all things new, God’s abiding love that leads us from death to resurrection life, and God’s abiding promise that nothing can separate us from that love (not even death).
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In these days we are facing – and as we approach Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter – my prayer is that we take strength and comfort from each other, from the wisdom of the faith tradition in which we stand, and in the grace that God is always extending to our lives.
In the words of author Ann Lamott, “I do not understand the mystery of grace, only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.”
I do not know what next week or next month or beyond holds in store for us, but I do trust that God will shepherd us through and wherever we find ourselves, we will be together with God in our midst.
Amen.