Anniversaries

This is not an anniversary I thought I was looking forward to  - it makes me grumpy to give up my packed pews, festive music, and fancy clothes - it will have been a year since we realized that COVID-19 was something we needed to take more seriously and started shutting things down. I remember sitting in the Collin County Courthouse with other faith leaders and gently being warned that this might last even through Easter.

Easter my mind screamed! How can we possibly do Easter without being in our churches? Looking back, we have come a very long way. And now, a second Easter is sneaking up on us. An anniversary where we can use what we have learned to reach people. It isn't an expertise I wanted, but when staying connected to the body of Christ depends upon it - you learn. I preached this week on Mark (yes via Facebook) and how for him everything was IMMEDIATELY.

We have gotten our lesson in immediacy. You will pay attention to this now shrieked the medical community. And, they were't the demons. Our other idols/demons/unclean spirits assured us that this would be a quickly passing phase. You will be able to eat too much, drink too much, and act silly together in masses rubbing elbows without masks soon This superiority idea that we could continue to do what we wanted when we wanted is an idol that makes us unclean.

And maybe it is continuing to do so - it was too hard to battle the unseen, so we politicized it making masks or distancing and limiting public gatherings yet one more thing we could argue about. We had no patience for the subtle less visible enemy. Like in the Mark text I preached on where we are fascinated with the demon and what an exorcism looks like. We were in a hurry about the wrong things. That rabbit hole isn't where we should focus.

Instead, we need to focus on what Jesus is showing us is most important - intentional connection. Not a competition have the biggest following or be an influencer - nope. Jesus started with one person. Relationship with one person is the first miracle Jesus did in The Gospel of Mark. He pushed aside the thing/person/entity/idol  - whatever that was standing between them. 

There were no pre-qualifications, no introduction, Jesus was quick, adamant and decisive when he exercised the demon from the man in the synagogue. Shut up and leave now - you are between me and my beloved child. Maybe we should do the same. What inside of us is in the way of the Holy residing within us?

Too, we should look at what is standing between us and others. After all "Love the Lord your God with all your strength, and your heart, and all your mind, and all your soul. And love your neighbor as yourself." What do we have to learn or focus on? What is this time of limitations pointing us to be intentional about in new ways of connecting? Who is lost by the wayside and overlooked in normal times and now? How can we reach them with purpose and healing while listening to the loving care of our medical community?

Last Easter was different - it was one of many firsts that were recorded without congregants filling the pews. But the resurrection broke through! I will always remember dancing in Easter to the joyous songs hidden from the camera. Dancing in a new way because God came, comes and will come again. Easter is coming again.