Living the Incarnation
It's hard to believe that we are returning to in-person worship on Sunday. It has been such a long time since we have been able to worship together, to break bread together, to find Christ together. It has been a time of fasting for us as we have worshiped by way of online technology and have gone without Holy Eucharist for nearly seven months. The fast has invited us to dive a little more deeply into our personal relationship with God through Christ and to share that relationship in new ways. We have been invited to stay connected to one another in new ways, and we have been invited to use the fast as a time for growing and for discerning.
On Sunday, we will break our shared fast with our first in-person worship services. We will gather, once again, in the nave of our church to worship God and to celebrate the love of God made known to us in the breaking of the bread. And while we will want to run up to each other for a big hug, we will have to remember that we are not yet out of the woods. Coronatide continues, and we must continue to remain vigilant in the ways that we practice caring for each other.
Sunday morning is going to feel a bit different as we go through new processes during our worship. Upon arrival, you will be asked to check-in with the ushers so we can keep track of who is in attendance on a specific date and time. You will be invited to partake of Holy Communion in a different way than any of us are accustomed. You will be asked to leave by certain aisles and to do your very best to keep 6 foot distances between you and others not of your household. The novel coronavirus continues to spread in our community, and we continue to adapt how we gather in community in an effort to love one another as extensions of the self.
Sunday is a happy day. It is an Easter Day. It is a day of breaking our shared fast, of gathering around Christ's table (with 6 foot distancing of course!), and of sharing in the feast of God's love. Sunday feels like a day in which we should exclaim as loudly as we can, "Alleluia! Christ is risen!"