Clergy Reflections on the Church and Social Distancing

We have been making some changes around our farmstead.  They were not prompted by the stirrings of our imagination, but by changing circumstances that necessitated them.  They were, I'll confess, accompanied by grumblings - after all, they were not what we "wanted".  But something funny happened along the way.  The grumblings mutated into laughter.

And gratitude.

Because the resulting shape of our changed circumstances has, we have had to confessionally admit, been unmitigated improvement.  The present that necessity created is better than the past that we had leisurely fashioned.

I think about that just now amidst the chaos created by an epic pandemic.  Schools are closing, businesses are locking their doors, people are cancelling vacations, and churches are...going online.  It's not a unanimous choice.  Some are defiantly "staying open," channeling the spirit of Mordecai in the Hebrew Scriptures who wondered aloud to his cousin Queen Esther:  "Who knows? Perhaps you were made for just such a time as this.”

"It would be unfaithful," they believe, "to close."
"It is irresponsible to gather together," counter others.

What's the church to do?

Trust me, I am not the guide for such things.  Gratefully, at this stage of my ministry, I am no longer tasked with the institutional responsibility for guiding such choices.  The moment has, however, tugged at me, forcing an internal conversation about what it means to be the church - especially when it comes to worship.

The church is, as Paul so deftly and metaphorically noted, a "body" with interacting and interlocking parts.  We "have to do" with each other.  Our diverse gifts are manifest "for the upbuilding of the whole."  There is more than a single way, of course, to actualize that intention.  Connection, it seems to me, is the core value - a value no more insured by gathering together in a single room, than it is prohibited by physical separation.  There are the diaconal functions of caring for those in need.  There is the importance of shared learning and worship - of "singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs".  Those "table legs," along with fellowship, and holding all things in common.

Once upon an earlier, more naive and narcissistic time in my ministry I assumed that the most important part of congregational life was the formal gathering together for worship, and within that, the presentational elements - the musical offerings, and the sermon.  Indeed, those are the only dimensions of worship effectively conveyed via "livecast."   And while in my professional days I would not have been immune to the need to "earn my salary" by dispensing a sermon via any channel available to me to those paying me to provide one, I've changed my sense of it all since then.  I don't mean to hint that such presentational elements are unimportant - there is a reason why, after all this time, faithful continue to gather in the company of preachers and choirs.  We ache for inspiration and edification; we are drawn to that which is larger than ourselves.  At their best, such musical and homiletical offerings are corporate, but let's be honest enough to admit that congregants in the pews are too often passive recipients rather than active participants; mere consumers of religious goods and services, rather than actors in a choreography of praise.

If the church were actively and routinely accomplishing its mission - making disciples - instead of simply convening attenders, churches would be populated by preachers and pastors and prophets of myriad description, in diverse locations and not simply within the walls of the church building.  There are lots of ways to preach a sermon - with or without words, as St. Francis reminded us.  There are lots of places to read the Bible.  The pews do not own the hymns.  There are countless opportunities to be "in each other's keeping" whether or not we are in each other's presence.

As this pandemic and its implications continue to unfold, we will continue to adapt and respond.  Some will continue to unlock the church house doors and welcome whosoever in.  Others will encourage "social distancing" and offer a word and song online.  We'll do what we are led to do.  Regardless, I'm convinced that key in it all is the intentionality of our interconnection.  I'm less concerned about our meeting together than I am about our shared responsibility for each other - and the "others" we have yet to meet.  Telephone calls to check on a neighbor or the place bound or the lonely, or to glean from the wise, or to simply catch up with a friend do not transmit viruses.

They simply transmit care and nurture connection - the lifeblood of the church.

Who knows?  Maybe that can go viral.


.