Change
/Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found.
-from this Sunday’s collect
I think it’s safe to say that we are all living through a time of swift and varied changes, and many of the changes we are currently weathering are frankly not so great. People are losing work, income, health insurance. Some are getting sick. Others are putting themselves at risk to help those who are sick. For most of the people of the world, usual routines have been radically interrupted. We find ourselves isolated and apart from our friends and family. Even church, which for many is an anchor in the storm, is all upside down, and it looks like we will be online longer than the originally anticipated two weeks. These are not welcome changes, and they have arrived very swiftly indeed.
In any time of crisis or loss, the first question on our minds is often, “Why?” Why did this have to happen? Did it really have to happen? Why would a loving God allow such a thing to happen? It’s a real question, but one that has no satisfying answer. Sure, we can explain how viruses spread and we can point to certain actions or inactions that have contributed to our current predicament, but go a little deeper and there are fewer explanations. Why are there viruses at all? Why do people suffer more than others in this life - and why is there suffering at all? Why does there have to be poverty, inequality, death? These are the big questions that have no black and white answers.
We don’t understand why things are the way they are. They just are what they are - God knows why. So, our Episcopal faith tradition doesn’t spend an awful lot of time trying to explain the answer to why and creating doctrinal positions. Instead, we just keep God’s promises close to our hearts, knowing that over and over God has promised, no matter what we are going through, that we will never be alone. God is with us in this life - in the good times - and maybe even more so in the bad.
This Sunday the readings are about dry, dry bones in the desert coming back to life again when God breathes upon them, and about a man dead and buried for 3 days already standing up and walking out of the tomb when Christ calls to him. These stories prefigure the Easter resurrection, assuring us here in the midst of Lent that new life will yet emerge even from what seems like certain death.
So even though swift and varied changes are still upon us, and although our Holy Week and Easter this year will certainly be quite different than any we remember, there are still true joys to be found among us in this body of Christ. With God’s grace, may we continue to assure one another in these difficult days. Let’s continue to connect and care for one another and for our neighbors in the ways we still can - via a note, a call, an email, a zoom call, a helpful errand - choosing to remember that despite the rapid changes all around us, God is present and we are never alone.
