Loving our neighbors during COVID-19

Not going to church on Easter may feel weird. But I would like to suggest that celebrating Easter at home this year may be the best way to align with the spirit and purpose of this celebration. We celebrate Easter as a day to remember that Christ displayed the most wondrous love that this world has ever known through his death and resurrection. He died in our place and rose victorious over death that we may live with him forever. On this celebration of life, we are invited to love our neighbors, as Christ instructed. 

How is staying home a way to love our neighbors? By not gathering together physically, we are protecting one another and we are protecting our neighbors, the ones who we come into contact with at work and at the grocery store. By not gathering together physically, we are placing their safety above our desire to fellowship with one another. By not gathering together physically, we are limiting the chances of spreading the virus while being asymptomatic. By not gathering together physcially, we are declaring that our joyful moments together with brothers and sisters who all feel healthy would not be worth the potential risk of exposing one another and all of our neighbors that we come into contact with to a virus that can sneak around without symptoms. By not gathering together physically, we are valuing the lives of these neighbors who work at grocery stores and gas stations and assisted living facilities and hospitals, these neighbors who are mail carriers and sanitation workers and truck drivers and care givers, these neighbors who may have compromised immune systems or care for elderly family members, these neighbors who may feel scared, these neighbors who may have lost loved ones, these neighbors who may wish they could stay home but need their paycheck. By not gathering together physically, we are standing with our neighbors who are vulnerable to this virus. We, who have been saved from our sins by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, we of all people know what it is to be vulnerable, to have no power within ourselves for our own salvation, to rely on One greater than ourselves to secure our salvation. The virus is not sin and we are not the savior, but our neighbors are vulnerable and by not gathering together physically, we see them, we stand with them, we love them.

This year, we have the unique invitation to love our neighbors in a tangible way that recognizes the value of their lives as image bearers of our God and King on the very day that we celebrate the most reality-altering, powerful, history changing love that has ever existed.