In all the emails and phone calls to loved ones and friends, friends I would normally only talk to maybe once a month or once a year but now find I am talking to, remotely, much more often, they sometimes ask tentatively – and how are you managing without church?

In one way this is good, they have noticed that church plays a big part in my life, even though for them this is a strange idea. But they definitely have the notion that churches are closed so there is no church. Even a Roman Catholic friend I spoke to at length last night said, it must be strange for you without church. What could be further from the truth?

I’ve tried to explain to my non-church-going friends that “church” is definitely still continuing, in fact as I’m working from home with increased time available, due to travelling nowhere, I can spend more time in prayer, watch and listen to services live-streamed, spend more time on pastoral caring and on reading Scripture. I’m not sure they get it.  Perhaps for them, ‘church’ is an odd ritual of going into a particular building on Sundays and little more.

What does that mean for us, the odd people doing odd things on Sundays? How can we get across to others the joy, the peace, the hope that Christ gives us? Because it’s one thing to celebrate and worship together in our usual ways that we are accustomed to, but it’s quite another to explain the central role that God plays in our lives as Christians. Outside the buildings that we cherish, there is a world of need, people with gaps in their lives, people wanting Christ-shaped hope but not able to express that desire.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews encourages us to “pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness, without which no one will see the Lord”. We have such a great opportunity just now, as we speak on the phone or online to our friends and families, to pursue peace with everyone. To resurrect the relationships we have allowed to falter, to offer encouragement and positive thought to those who are weighed down with worry. To pray for those we cannot meet, in every country, where charitable activity slows down for lack of funds.

And the holiness, what does holy mean but separation, being set apart – this ascribed to God who is the perfect, the one whose peace we share but cannot understand – but just now, it feels as if it might be something we can pursue. Set apart as we are for the time being, we can embrace the moment, live fully in the present instead of waiting interminably for something to happen, and taking advantage of God’s strength within us, we can pursue peace with everyone and use our spatial distancing to share the joy which Jesus brings us.

SG 1/2/20