by the Rev. Barbara Mraz
Following an excellent array of lay preachers, you’ll be hearing from me this Sunday. Like Johanna, Nathan, Greg, Mary and Holly, I will be referencing some of the things I learned during Covid. Most of these preachers have spoken, at least in part, about their appreciation for the community that is St. John’s and what it has done for them. Each one of their sermons have, in different ways, taught me, moved me and helped me.
Looking honestly at my experience during the past fifteen months, however, I have to say that some of the things I have learned are not all positive. For one thing, I have learned more than I wanted to know about loneliness.
It can be embarrassing to admit that you’re lonely, like saying you don’t have many friends and maybe even “no life.” If you live alone, it’s easy to appear pitiful. It doesn’t help much to say that loneliness is an “epidemic” because it is highly
personal.
Part of the reason for our loneliness, I will suggest, is that we have placed high boundaries around ourselves and our lives with strict protocols about when we are and are not “available” to others. Some of this is good mental health, some of it is a kind of cultural hyper-protectiveness that is less healthy.
On Sunday, there will be a brief musical introduction to the sermon in honor of King David (and Leonard Cohen), more music, some dramatic Scripture, the Sacrament we have missed for so long, and we will worship God who gives us life.
See you in church
Or you’ll see us on the screen….
Barbara
(Yes, the title here is the same as that old Roy Orbison song from the Sixties….which I can’t get out of my mind, unfortunately.)
