Church in Corona times

The Church is a community of people in love with creation and God. God had called this assembly to be a called-out community so as to live a life that does not conform to the standards that the world sets but to live a life worthy of the calling to be in union with God as God is with creation.

Today the world facing a pandemic in the form of the COVID-19, the churches remain closed, people distancing themselves from others, while many others quarantined, giving a distorted look of creation especially humanity that was not meant to be this way. The Church has long lived for centuries now and it has always been dynamic and never static. The contexts keep the Church moving and evolving. But in the process of evolving the church got stuck with somewhere making itself comfortable being static. This had caused the church to practice social distancing and quarantining even before the world spoke of it due to the Corona Virus pandemic.

The Church’s Overcoming Quarantine to Embrace and to Serve

The Church in its own prerogative remained in a state of self-imposed quarantining to keep secure its doctrines, belief-systems, people and also its accumulated wealth. This has caused the church not only to become irreal to the people’s experiences but also made sure it created a wall around to keep the many away from the church. From building stairs, symbolically keep the wheel-chairs away; tabooing cultural practices, keeping cultural elements alienated from worship; criminalizing people, closing doors to the very people the Church was to be a part of; and so on, it isolated itself. Today, with the people, the members of the One body suffering, the church is called to live amidst the people it was meant to serve and not remain in isolation. As Matthew 25:35 onward speaks of church among the people, it needs to redefine its role in the society. Open the doors for the homeless, bring down the walls of discrimination, embracing those in isolation through prayers, meeting their needs, have to be the core of the gospel of the church which Jesus preaches in Matt 25:34-36.

The Church: Socially Dstanced yet Active and Politically Present

When I say the church practiced social distancing it does not mean with reference to what is understood today because of the pandemic, but in being absent from the society and its people. Even today the many churches preach only of a salvation for the soul overshadowing life’s realities of the people, making it irrelevant to the struggles of the people. The Church has been invisible in its political dialogue for better provisions for the people and being in solidarity with the communities in struggle. The Church also went further in imposing a ‘Christian’ culture on people killing local cultures that had already existed. Thus, the church was engulfed with the way in which it approached the people, imposing a theology from above and never gave space for a theology from below. But this pandemic is a reminder for the church to move from such a social-distancing and respond to creation’s cry for liberation.

Today when humanity is struggling to overcome this COVID-19, God calls us to distance ourselves from each other only physically. Always remember, that the church was never the building of the institution but we the members of the one body into whom we are baptized. Therefore, we the members, ought to be inquisitive in suffering, remain politically present and socially active, because the Church existed, the Church is present, but in our core be hospitable to those in need. And this way, the Church will remain and sustain until the coming of our lord.

May this phase of uncertainty, be for us signs of hope and renewal of life that God sustains. Amen

Easter 2020: The Church and COVID-19

My brother, like my late father, fasts from non-veg during lent every year, planned a grand meal set for Easter this time as well. While a grand Easter celebration was in line, down came Corona and stole his Easter away. This pandemic has left us perplexed with the sudden change in lifestyle, with everyone staying indoors, nations locked-down, the homeless stranded, the hungry starving, no traffic, the earth breathing fresher air and so on, both good and harsh visible realities of life. 

This weird, yet baffled experience, kindles several contradictions of life’s realities and faith reflections, like parents using WhatsApp and Facebook which they complained of being the only reason for everything ‘affecting or deceiving’ their child; IT/MNC employees waiting to go to office, which they once craved for ‘freedom’ from; Churches being closed which were once claimed to be always ‘open,’ preachers active on social media, they once claimed ‘evil;’ and many more. All live only with this hope that, it will all change. 

The celebration of Easter is an important event in the Christian calendar. It is also known as the starting point of Christian faith, the very reason why Christians go to church on the first day of the week. The first question on the first Easter morn as recorded in verse Luke 24:5b, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” asked to the women who came to see Jesus’ body, sets the tone for the faith-revival that is to follow. They are explained that he is not there, but risen as he had already spoken to them in Galilee. This rising from the dead was a fulfillment of the many prophecies found, for example, we read in John 2:19 Jesus replied “destroy the temple and I will raise it up in three days.” Though he was referring to his own self, the people misinterpreted it to the temple of Jerusalem. This way of misinterpretation has always existed even till today. 

The church today is confined to the walls of the structure that we meet in on every Sunday. The outbreak of the COVID-19 saw many Christians wage war against the virus by keeping the doors of the church open and also risking to gather in groups for worship services. However, the inevitable lock-down came and everyone had to move on from this understanding of the church. Paul speaks of the Church as the body of Christ in Romans 12:5; Eph 3:6; Col 1:18. The understating that the structure is the body of Christ is a common understanding for all. But the lesson from the pandemic only made it clear that the structure is not the body of Christ but, “we are.” 

The Church, therefore, ought to exist not with walls but be present among the living. It needs to transcend walls and gates of the physical structure and move beyond the church to realize itself among creation. The creation is the church God created. All are members of that one body to whom all belong. The tomb could not hold the body of Christ. The same way the building that we called church could not hold the Church. It has begun to transcend the walls. The Church becomes visible among the people in distributing daily essentials and food, conducting worship services on the internet, reaching out and praying for those affected victims and so on. This Easter, is a reminder that going further the church needs to be understood not as a mere physical structure where people gather but the very creation that worships God in its own expression of life.

Wishing you and your family a blessed Easter. May the risen lord journey with us in these uncertain times and grant us the strength to believe that life in God will be sustained. Amen