He Will Find You

I called the kids to the living room from their boisterous play. Fluffy pancakes and sticky maple syrup, sizzling bacon and freshly ground, hot coffee still wafted through the house from our celebration Sunday breakfast. We were certainly breaking our Lenten fast with abandon this week because we break our fast on Sunday’s during Lent but more than that, this Sunday, we had time, lots of time.

“Will you give me a drink?” The week has been hard, laden with suspicion, uncertainty, and worry. The trek here has been exhausting and I’m so very thirsty for something refreshing; something true and real, and pure. I need the “living water” he speaks of, the kind that quenches my worry, settles my spirit, gives me peace for the long week ahead.

But where do we go when the physical doors of churches all over the world are being closed due to Coronavirus, a pandemic we thought ourselves too good for? What do we ministers and regular church attenders do when we find our Sunday rituals and routines highly disrupted? 

With a sense of expectation, we crowded in and awaited the countdown, our church was going live stream for the first time, it was an historic moment in the life of our church.

As hundreds of people jumped online to worship together despite the challenges of social distancing, I found a lump well up in my throat. I choked back tears as I watched the cameras pan out for a wider view of the band; my eyes smarted as they couldn’t help but notice the empty pews usually full of so many faces I’ve grown to love over the years. “Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain”.

Across the country, another church pops up online, streaming to their congregants. They are different than us. They worship in a different place, with a different style. We’ve wondered if their “different” was better than ours, or at least “more right”-eous?

Today the doors that have divided the church for so long are closed; Today the doors of His one true church are wide open! The hour has come that the true worshipers worship the Father of their salvation, resting in the traditions of truth and the trust of the Spirit.

Behind your computers online, crunching through snow deep in the woods, or at your syrup sticky table, those who truly thirst today, well, he will find you. He doesn’t need the church building to be open, he will find you at the well and shower you with living water.  

“Jesus replied, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” John 4:21-25