Do you remember staying home from grade school because you were sick? If it was for several days, like when I had chicken pox or scarlet fever, my mom would go to school and get my assignments. What puzzled me was that I spent an hour or so doing homework. Why, then, am I spending six hours in school? The answer: Being together with classmates and learning about life from our teacher.
I have the same feeling now. Shut down at home, teaching and meeting virtually is very efficient. Get on Zoom, have your meeting, and then close out the program. Worshipping on line gives me more time too. No need to put on suit and tie (I haven’t adjusted to casual clothes for church), just watch the 45 minute stream, close out and go do whatever I want. Why not keep this up? Answer: Togetherness.
The Creator made us social beings. Think about the Ten Commandments. Except for the First, which is about our relationship to God, all the other commandments have a social dimension. Think about the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father” it begins, not “my Father.” The prayer has plurals. “Give us this day our daily bread,” and so on. The pandemic reminds us not to take physical closeness for granted. We were made to be together.
Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World is a new book by Dr. Vivek Murthy, former Surgeon General of the United States. I haven’t read the book but did read a review by Matthew Rees of Dartmouth University (Wall Street Journal, May 26; A15). One study says 61% of Americans “feel lonely or socially isolated….” A lonely person feels shame, which Dr. Murthy says “can wreak havoc on our physical and emotional lives”… and creates “a cascade of consequences for the individual and for society.”
“At a time when technology supposedly fosters new levels of interpersonal connectivity, how did we get to this place?” More important, how do we get out of this place? The reviewer says Dr. Murthy “does describe organizations and initiatives focused on overcoming the differences between people and deepening their bonds.” Isn’t that what your congregation does? Gathered together before God, we learn how to interact with other people and together pray to our Father. The Gospel of Jesus is not a virtual experience. It’s flesh and blood Good News for us creatures, shared within our church family and inviting all lonely people to His love.
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