Imagine there's no COVID-19

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Originally Published in the South Jetty Newspaper

Don't be misled by the title. I'm well aware of our reality. I'm following social distance guidelines, and taking the pandemic for what it is. I'm praying for those who are sick, for the families who have lost loved ones, for those on the front lines of caring for the sick, and for essential workers. You too, neighbors, are in my prayers. Thanks to some faithful volunteers, in daily prayers are offered from our sanctuary.

No, I'm not denying our reality, rather, in the midst of a world changed by a virus, what I have in mind is to imagine a future beyond the pandemic. Someday, when we do have a vaccine, and having slowed the spread with our disciplined social distancing, when we may once again go about our lives: What shall our life be like? What will we have learned? What insights will we carry forward from this great disruption? 

I value the spiritual teaching regarding being present in the moment. I practice that when I meditate, when I am in conversation with someone, certainly when I am enjoying nature. There is a paradoxical teaching that I have been pondering lately as well: hope for the future. More than simple fantasy, I have in mind using our religious imagination, our creative brains to picture who we aspire to be; to visualize a new reality to live toward. 

When I started training to run longer distances, I could not run long distances; I pictured a future that
was not real, and began to work toward it. Short daily mileage built up. The longer runs on the weekend grew longer as the weeks passed. Finally came the day that I set out to run 31 miles; my first 50 kilometer run (not in Utah as I had originally planned, but here around our island.) 

Now, think back to Moses: of the impossible vision God planted in his mind to stand up against a tyrannical Pharaoh, to lead enslaved people out of Egypt, then to travel for 40 years as they found their way to the promised land. That future had to be imagined, and day by day they worked toward arriving (the people, not Moses, he never made it to the future he imagined.) 

Before Jesus was crucified, as he spoke with his disciples, he planted the seed of a new reality and a new relationship with God they were to work toward. He had taught and taught. Jesus embodied the reality of the kingdom of God: bringing together rich and poor; the lost sinners and the religiously arrogant; the sick and the well; the hungry and the rich. In this kingdom, he told them would be a Holy Spirit, an advocate that moved in and through and among the church to guide and direct. The Holy Spirit would be the source and guide for them as they brought into reality the kingdom; as they embodied the reality of the kingdom of God just as Jesus himself had. 

Jesus didn't wait for the world to be right. God doesn't wait for us to be perfect or even to be all that likable. The Spirit moves in our hearts when we say, "Okay, show me, I'm ready to see the future you see." Imagine there's no COVID-19, and we are free to go about our lives. What seeds is the Holy Spirit planting in you for that future? What deep values are you aware of that were hidden by a life of convenience that are revealed by these restrictions and the threat of sickness and death? What does your current state of vulnerability teach you about having compassion for others? 

At the end of this month, the church will celebrate the gift of the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower us as God's children to live our lives as if this kingdom of God is a reality. We call the celebration Pentecost, the 50th Day of Easter; in that celebration, we recognize that in our lives and actions, by our giving-in to the Holy Spirit's guidance, the kingdom of God does become a reality. What will come to fruition in our future? Can we imagine a world we are willing to work toward starting now? Invite the Holy Spirit to help you imagine a future that is currently impossible, and see what steps are needed now and in the near future so that we can someday arrive...or if not us, the children of God with whom we travel.   

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