Be Kind to One Another
This week we are really starting to feel the changes around the pandemic. The Diocese has opened back up limited in person worship, Vaccines appear to be flowing much more freely and we have some assurances that by early summer most adults that want to will be vaccinated.
The governor has loosened statewide mandates and the mayor of Baltimore is also releasing new guidelines for businesses, restaurants and places of worship.
The weather is also considerably nicer, children are starting to go back to school in larger numbers, and well, it can be an awful lot to take all at once.
Some of you, no doubt are vaccinated and eager for life to return to normal. Some of you, though vaccinations may be a long way off, are still anxious to get back to church, work, and life.
Others, vaccinated or not, are more skittish about returning to normal, my self included!
In spite of this, much of our connecting and relating to each other still happens online and as we share our differing opinions and feelings about the gradual re-opening of our common life -- let us be kind to each other.
When the Israelites were wandering in the desert trying to get to the promised land they frequently turned on each other and God, rather than focusing on their common frustrations.
When you interact with someone who might have a slightly different way of thinking around the pandemic or re-gathering -- first take a breath, and consider what you're are actually frustrated with. Is it the terrible management of this crisis? the lack of clear leadership? the inability to access the vaccine? Or is it really that your friend has had a slightly different experience?
In the readings this week when the Israelites are being bitten by poisonous snakes -- Moses crafts a bronze snake and lifts it up to draw the attention of the Israelites up towards it. They stop fighting with each other and Moses and came together again as a community.
So as you adjust to this new reality -- consider where your frustrations, anxieties, worries and joys are and where those emotions come from. As you continue to process your feelings around re-opening try to do so prayerfully, listening to the Holy Spirit and remembering that everyone else is just like you - a child of God seeking to figure out how to make sense of this complicated, difficult situation.