Day #2829

September 29, 2021 

In a recent discussion with someone, the comment was made how sad it was that the churches closed while the bars stayed open during the COVID shutdown of 2020. In the midst of the discussion, I did not respond. But this morning I awoke to this thought: The churches most certainly did NOT close. In fact, the churches NEVER close. Amen!

Here is the reason: the church is the people and as long as people are breathing, there is church. Now, certainly, there was a period when many congregations (ours included) did not gather for worship. But even then, the best was done to stay connected through various ways, the least of which may have been recorded worship services with messages, hymns, prayers and almost all the "parts" except Holy Communion and gathering together. 

However, the gathering is really only a small piece of what church is about. When someone goes to a bar, they go for the purpose of gathering with others and usually having a drink. But when they leave, the purpose of going to the bar is done because it is basically confined to the walls of the establishment. After all, the one tending the bar stays inside the walls and does not leave with the patrons. 

But the church is different. When someone gathers in a congregation, it is to be fed through fellowship and word, yes, but also to be reminded that the one who tends to them within the walls also goes with them out into the world. The person then becomes the hands and feet of the One (God) they came to worship, taking the message of God’s love and grace into the world by all that they say and do. And that work is never done, so that purpose of “church” never ends and never closes. Ever! Thanks be to God. 

Blessings. And prayers.