“No subject is too difficult to talk about. You just have to know where the pain is.” Leonard Bernstein.
Just when we thought it was over, it isn’t. The disappointment is palpable.
Kids will still mask in school — and the poor teachers will have to enforce it, and the rest of us are back to masks, distancing, and hand sanitizer.
There is a visceral shudder from constantly hearing words like “Delta variant.” I am even tired of dear Dr. Fauci and of those endless, droning statistical reports about hospitalizations and deaths at 2:00 on MPR.
Thirty percent of the workforce says that they will either seek a new job or need massive alterations in the one they are to stay.
Air travel is done more reluctantly and more expensively than ever before.
Virtual healthcare is a reality.
The Great Minnesota Get Together seems as dangerous as Sturgis.
The people who are still “waiting” to get vaccinated keep hurting all the rest of us and our rage grows.
And for many of us, church just feels different.
In person, it’s the masks and how difficult they can make it to have conversations and just to breathe. It’s good to see people but we can’t really SEE them. And we have no service sheets and offering plates are way in the back of the sanctuary. And the peace is passed with elbow bumps or with names from the UTube link that Craig reads off his phone. You need to sign in with your address in case contact tracing is necessary. And little kids who are as yet unvaccinated — we miss them.
We even miss funerals and the opportunity to celebrate a life and grieve the loss.
And of course, zooming the service is different in pretty much every way. (But the breakdowns are less frequent now).
If you go to church to escape all topics Covid, good luck because what we have in this Sunday’s Gospel reading: A DISCUSSION OF HANDWASHING.
I kid you not.
Of course, it’s a lot more than that. The Pharisees basically ask Jesus, “Who do you think you are to mess with TRADITION?” We will consider what the traditions are that we most value — and what we would be willing to give up for something bigger. This is exciting but dangerous ground because what we love we usually love a lot.
It is critical that we keep talking to each other in every way we can and that we keep showing up for it is the unvoiced opinion, the hidden grudge or hurt that often causes people to take drastic action and to leave a relationship, an institution, a job, or a church.
Bishop Mariann Budde points out that “the person walking away from you can’t hear you.” I would add that in some sense the silent person, the passive person, always “wins” the argument because there is nothing you can do with failure to engage. It ends everything.
Yes, church is different but that is also a good thing. It is a time when traditions can be examined and embraced or discarded and when we need those beautiful faces behind the wretched masks more than ever.
But we have to stay in the game, talk to each other even in our pain and frustration, and keep washing our hands! Oh wait, in the Gospel Jesus says not to… well, of course there’s more. …
See you in church.
Barbara
