Now & Then

I spoke with Bishop Fisher this week.  He was scheduled to join us for Pentecost on May 31, something all our confirmands and those who want to join Holy Spirit have been excited about for some time.  Unfortunately, we won’t yet be back in person, but I am excited to share that he will still be our preacher for that day!  In the adult Confirmation/Reception class I explained that the hat a bishop wears is called a Mitre.  Its unique shape with two points ascending is meant to represent the flames of the fire that rested on the apostles when the Holy Spirit moved through the community giving birth to the church in Acts chapter 2. 

It has long been significant to me that the nature of the Church is to be Christ’s Body in the world.  When we bring someone into the Church in Baptism, we acknowledge that they are a bearer of the light of Christ and that as they go forth, they shine Christ’s light out into the world.  This is the essential nature of being the church spread far and wide in this time.  We are all connected through the Spirit.  I think about all those who join us online on Sunday.  I am always grateful to see your comments.  I am also finding that some people have found our church through those virtual services, sometimes people who have not been to church before.  I have pondered and listened for how God will use this time to offer new life in the times ahead. 

In all that we do now, I pray that the fullness of God’s time will assure us of a vastness that will make these weeks seem short in comparison, even as they are quite long for us now.  I pray that as we work together at some point to begin worshiping in person again that we will know that even the precautions that are a part of that phase will be over at some point.  The inevitability of reconnection as the Church in worship is where I often set my gaze.  Though, I also try to pay close attention to this moment when so much is still happening.  This is a moment with new births, the anticipation of many baptisms, the expectation of Confirmations and Receptions, and preparations for weddings in the fall.  I notice the moments when people reach out to care for one another and the moments when God stills my anxious heart and reminds me to whom I belong.  Nothing is lost in God and I pray that as we acclimate to this time, we will know that it is not void of God’s goodness, care, and love even as we look for the time when this separation ends.  May God rest your heart and soul and may we look for God’s goodness now and in the times to come.

See you in virtual church.