Embracing the Why

According to government and medical officials, this week, possibly leading into next week, will be the apex, or the peak, of the COVID-19 spread in California. Officials have made it crystal clear that this is the time to dedicate ourselves to isolating indoors, staying away from each other and learning FaceTime or Zoom in order to be virtually connected but physically apart. As most of you also know, this is Holy Week, Easter and Passover.

As a Christian, I am having a hard time coping with the elimination of in-person services. I have always looked forward to heading to the auditorium at Crescenta Valley High School on Easter morning for church service. I have also enjoyed going to church on Maundy Thursday. And gathering everyone together for Easter dinner was a time to celebrate.

No doubt having an abbreviated Passover Seder is also difficult to bear. My best friend Amy is Jewish and typically has around 20 people for Passover. This year, though, it will be her “roommates” – her mom, sister and brother-in-law – who will be gathering around the dinner table while a third sister is brought in via FaceTime.

For the Goldsworthys, having “just the family” meant setting a table for about 13 people though that number decreased naturally after the deployment of our youngest. But this year there will be no visiting the Easter bunny by my granddaughter, no Easter baskets to surprise my son and his wife – we are to keep our distance to maintain the health of the family. It’ll just be Steve and I having an Easter morning breakfast casserole.

But it’s not the Easter bunny nor the Easter dinner that we celebrate every year – it’s the resurrection of Jesus. And while this year may be different – and difficult – the core of who we are and why we gather remains the same. Maybe it’s the right time, after all, to step back and remember what it is we celebrate, to shed the trappings of “typical” holidays. Maybe it’s the time to KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid – and take a breath to remember the power of the season and embrace the changes that simplify things – for now.

Churches everywhere are reminding people that it is not the building, the four walls and the pews that make up the church; it’s the people who populate it, who call their church “home.” I am grateful every week when I can share with you the churches that are having virtual online services, understanding the need to “get together” without being in the same room. I’m excited that festivities, for example the traditional Easter egg hunt hosted by CVCHURCH, are not canceled, just postponed. It offers a reason to look beyond today’s challenges to those times when we can once again gather at the same place at the same time and celebrate the joy of being together.

  robin goldsworthy