Friday; June 5


          As a long time baseball fan, I am not sure if I am too excited about the possibility of Major League games being played without fans in the stands.  There is something inherently connected between baseball and fans.  Even in those stadiums where attendance is down, there is a bond between the team and its city.  I don’t know that the quality of the play would suffer – the basic principles of the game are the same if they are played in a sandlot devoid of onlookers or in a stadium filled with 50,000 screaming fans – but, something special happens when teams and their fans get together.  I don’t know how much of that emptiness will translate to the play on the field or the feel of the game being broadcasted on the radio or television.
          As I thought about baseball played in an empty stadium I got to thinking about “church” being held in a vacuum.  Sure we can perform acts of worship and maybe even do good deeds by ourselves, but there is something special about being together.  In fact, I have to believe that that’s why God established the protocol for shared fellowship and collective worship services.  We are better as a church than we are as a bunch of disconnected individual Christians. 
          I will not presume to tell you as a Christian or as a church what you should be doing these days, but I encourage us all to look forward to that day when we can safely reassemble in worship and join together in doing good deeds.  It will happen – eventually.  Let’s allow the excitement of this hope keep us going through the loneliness and isolation we are feeling until then.
Think About It!

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