A time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing.
“A time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing.” (Ecclesiastes 3:5)
That’s a verse in the Bible; and isn’t it marvellous? Ecclesiastes 3 says that God has made every activity beautiful at the right occasion and at the right timing. At the wrong time, in the wrong context, with the wrong person, in the wrong situation, an embrace can be ugly, and destructive, an assault, an invasion of personal space. At the right time, in the right situation an embrace is an expression of solidarity, friendship or love. A man-hug can say to a Christian brother that I weep with you in your loss. A hug can say to a friend that I treat you as my equal and I love you in Christ. When the apostle Paul left the Ephesians elders for the last time they all embraced him and even though it’s not our culture, they kissed him (Acts 20:36-38).
For the time being, our government recommends the 1.5 metre distancing at our public gatherings, and we will do that. We will respect each other in this way and look out for the welfare of our community by doing our bit to make people feel safe too. Even if we are not scared of COVID19 we should respect others in this way.
Right now we can’t simplistically keep the command to literally “Greet one another with a holy kiss”, nor even the very British paraphrase of “A handshake all round, please!” (2 Cor 13:12 HCSB and JB Phillips translation)
As we return to smaller face-to-face ministry and as we plan to meet as church at the end of July, it is of course not the time to embrace, at least not physically.
But ….
There might be other ways we can embrace people with our words and actions. We might have to be even more creative in what we do and say. People will need to be embraced from a distance more than ever after not seeing each other for a while. Here are some ideas of embracing at a distance when we come together as church:
- Make eye contact with people when you speak with them.
- Greet people you know and even those you don’t warmly.
- Make sure people are looked after, especially if they are nervous.
- Pray before you come to church that God might be leading you to someone who needs to know the love of Jesus Christ.
- Pray for creative options and talk with each other about going the extra mile.
Let’s embrace people with metaphorically welcoming-arms, while keeping our literal arms to ourselves. At least for now.