Text: Hebrews 10:19-25

Here we are one week after Easter and one more week behind us in this order to stay home and socially distance ourselves from society. You are probably wondering if there is ever going to be an end to this disruption in your life.

When will things return to normal? What is normal? Will we see a new normal? Will there be things changed in our lives forever as a result of this pandemic? Is the government making a bigger deal of this than they need to? When will we get to return to our lives as we knew them?

So many questions and so few answers. It seems that the professionals and people who are making decisions do not really know any of these answers either.

What we do know is things are different now. I don’t know about you, but it feels like this has been going on forever. At some point we will return to some appearance of life as usual, or at least like things used to be sorta.

As I have mentioned in past posts/sermons I have found myself walking more. I like being down by the river. It is so peaceful and quiet despite the number of people out and about these days.

My job falls under the category of being essential. I find myself out in the community quite a bit. I see people on the freeway in droves. Some mornings it seems like there are almost as many people on the road as there were before we were all ordered to not work and stay home.

One day here recently I was going to walk along the river. As I made my way from the parking lot to the trail, I noticed I was surrounded by people. It felt overwhelming at one point, so I just stopped for a moment and looked around.

As I looked around and took count of the number of people immediately around me, I counted 18. More people than I have ever seen at one time converging on the river at one time. Usually, you see one or two people back and forth at all times, but not this many.

People are not staying at home; they are getting out and distancing themselves from each other. Not only are people keeping a “safe” distance from each other in public, but communication is also being held back.

Along the trail, during a several mile walk it is not unusual to pass a hundred people.  I say this because on one walk I counted for a while the number of people I passed and once I got to 50, I stopped counting.  So, 100 is a safe number.

Social Distance Side Effects

There is something I have noticed. This physical distancing, we are ordered to maintain is hampering our social closeness. And not only that, I have noticed over the past month a change in the way people greet one another on the walking trail and in stores and other places.

A pleasant greeting has slowly been replaced with people looking away, cold, or distant stares as people pass by. A subtle wave and a “hello” is ignored. In the past, this was not the case.

The nonverbal communication expressed in return through body language and facial expressions can leave you feeling empty and dispirited. Can’t help but wonder, what is going on with these people?  What are they feeling?

It goes without saying that there are many side effects of social distancing, and probably many more we will see as time goes on. 

Some of the most obvious effects are that you are reading this blog post instead of being with your church family in the church. Fellowship happens through Facebook, text messaging, or some video conferencing format.

We have not been in the same room where we can see each one another’s face and hear each other’s voice. This has not been a “social distancing” but a “social absence”. It becomes difficult to not join with the conspiracy theorists and wonder is this is not actually some kind of global social experiment to see what social absence will do to our society?

Hold on Tight To Your Faith

It is so easy to get caught up in all this we are facing today. Each week I think I would like to JUST NOT acknowledge all this Virus Stuff we are all going through. It would be nice to ignore for just one day all we are experiencing as a result of this pandemic.

The truth is that is not reality. Our reality is what we are living right now, and it can seem hopeless and overwhelming.  

There is another reality that is filled with hope and certainty which comes from the completed work at the cross. This is the reality we need to hold onto and not let go of. It is our lifeline.

We can’t allow what is happening in the world to overshadow the work of Christ and the fact He has risen. We are one week out from our celebration of Easter. As Christians, it is more important today to hold fast and tight to our faith in the completed work of our Savior.

We have been granted the right and given the boldness to enter the Holiest by Jesus Christ’s blood. V19 He alone was and is the Lamb of God and the only pleasing and acceptable sacrifice for us.

The boldness we have been granted to draw near to the throne of God is the same boldness we are to carry with us in the world. The boldness is a sense of assurance in who we are as God’s children.

We are not defined by what is happening in the world, whether it is a pandemic, a social distancing. We are not defined by situations. These are all things we all go through. If you think about it, we have been recreated in Christ. We are new creations being transformed into the likeness of Christ each day, no matter what is happening around us God continues His work.

Stand Strong In our Faith

In the introduction, I mentioned my observation of how it appears that people have become not only socially distant but emotionally distant as well. It seems that a kind greeting is being replaced with a cold and empty stare.

As I walk along the trails getting my exercise I begin to wonder. Should I even bother greeting passersby? Or should I exchange the same cold hard stare? As I thought about that very question, I thought to myself that’s not who I am.

It’s important that we don’t allow this situation, or any situation in the world or life transform who we are in Christ. 

In V.23 the writer of Hebrews in the NKJV says “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering…”  In the NIV it is written this way. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess…”

The letter to the Hebrews was an open letter that was circulated to many of that time. The recipients of the letter of that time were under extreme social pressure to return to their previous practices of Judaism.

The traditions and practices of the law, along with their works, were being encouraged in place of their faith in Jesus Christ as their Great High Priest.

The pressure was extreme for the people of that time. They probably experienced a social distancing and cold empty stares too. Not only were they dealing with departing from their practices that were a part of their life, but they were also struggling to hold onto their faith in Christ.

So many aspects of our society are likely to become “norms” or seen as normal as people get used to the changes. There might be pressure to adjust and conform to new social norms. 

What can’t change regardless of what we face during these times is our hope in the cross and our confession of what Jesus did for you and all of us there on Calvary.  No matter what happens today or tomorrow, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8

Easter is not an annual event where we should remember what Jesus did for us on the cross. Easter signifies an eternal event that we as Christians need to hold onto daily, and not forget that God’s eternal work is not affected by what is happening around us today or tomorrow.

It can be easier to hold fast and tight to your hope when you keep this in mind…we walk by faith, not by sight.    2 Corinthians 5:7