For almost 10 months now, the ways we have interacted with one another have changed.
Regardless of how you feel about masks, social distancing and Zoom, these are a few of the new practices (as well as words or phrases) that have become a part of our daily lives this year. For most places you and I go, you must have a mask to enter. When we make our way inside, we see countless signs on floors, walls and doors asking us to stay distant from one another. Maybe your church meets and you sit in pews marked so you are separate from one another. Maybe you are picking up orders of food from the grocery store or your favorite restaurant rather than shopping or dining in. Maybe your favorite restaurant has closed because their business couldn’t stay afloat with pick-up orders and limits to how many people could be together. You might be a person who has taken every precaution from the CDC seriously and haven’t seen friends, family, children and grandchildren in months now. You might be among the rebellious that have come to the point that you don’t care and you are going to get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas and other gatherings inside or out and nothing’s going to hold you back. Maybe you are trying to find the compromise, like my brother who lives in upper New York state who has bought a couple of restaurant-quality space heaters — the kind you use outside that are about six feet tall — so every couple of weeks he and his wife can see friends or family in winter temperatures on the back porch. Most of us now know what Zoom is. It allows us some measure of being together through a computer or smart phone. We can see one another, hear one another — oddly enough we let each other into our homes, we sit in our kitchen or TV room, or even bedroom! —but, as I’ve heard from people who though they appreciate Zoom or other technology that allows us to meet together distantly, it’s not the same. Again, regardless of whether you are towing the line, rebellious, or trying to find the fine line to stay safe but be together, we know that being “in person” has changed for us this year. We simply cannot be present the way we used to. There’s a claim made this time of year — and a word used — that you don’t often hear at other times of the year. Listen to these lines from favorite Christmas hymns: verse 2 of Hark the Herald Angels Sing says: “Christ by highest heav’n adored, Christ the everlasting Lord, veiled in flesh the godhead see, hail Incarnate deity.” Verse 4 of Oh Come All Ye Faithful goes like this: “Jesus to thee all Glory be giv’n. Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.” The amazing message of this time of year is that God came down, God had to come in person — incarnate, in bodily form — to accomplish his purposes. God did not phone it in, God could not simply Zoom with us, God was not masked or veiled in some way, nor was God distanced from us. If there is a year to understand the power of God’s love and Grace in this world, 2020 has to be it! We know it from what we are missing. We are designed by God to be in-person people. We understand so much more about someone when we see them in person. We can “read” a person’s body language, see their eyes, their face, we can engage with them more effectively in person. It’s what we’ve missed this year! I have experienced enough of the dangers of the coronavirus first hand to know the care we need to show to others and ourselves by continuing to mask and distance and use common sense in these times. But in this “weary world” (verse 2, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear), we are also like the shepherds, who have heard the declaration of Good News: “Peace on earth, goodwill toward all people.” Jesus still comes among us. Emmanuel, God-with-us, is here today. Where are the new places we are being asked to look for God’s presence? What “Bethlehem” are we being shown to find Jesus? And if you are I are the Body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:27), where is God asking us to show up, to be salt and light to a weary world (a weary Waynesboro!)? I have seen Jesus this year in two women who refused to see a feeding ministry close up in our area, and found and continue to find volunteers to make food and serve it to 40 or 50 people a day. Jesus is in person there. I have seen Jesus in the 90 year old who crafted Christmas symbols out of wood for every child in a congregation to help make sure that in this coronavirus time, the children were remembered, and receiving materials that taught them the story of God’s love in Jesus Christ. I have seen Jesus in person in a Zoom discussion group between White and Black Christians, who are really getting to know one another and what it means to follow Jesus, letting go of preconceived notions and prejudices of the way people are, and offering the power of forgiveness to allow relationships to move forward with love and purpose for the sake of community. I have seen Jesus in person living in and through the decisions a local official makes in his daily work in government. All of this during a pandemic. “Jesus, now in flesh appearing.” We look forward to the time when we can be in person once again. But maybe the opportunities to be in person with each other — through Jesus Christ, God-with-us — have been there all along.
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AuthorPastor Paul came to Grace to serve as our Pastor in October 2012. After a first career in product and graphic design, he was ordained in 1993, and has served as a parish pastor in Virginia and South Carolina. He is married to Jill and they have two daughters, one at Roanoke College and one at James Madison University. Archives
December 2021
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