Will COVID 19 be remembered as our Flood?
The meetinghouse has been cleared out. A Quaker meetinghouse does not have a lot in it by design. What it does have is lots of books, journals and newsletters. The many written words perhaps make up for the silence. In order to make it compatible with the United Kingdom (UK) Government regulations, all books and papers have been removed. The floor has been marked out to observe social distancing allowing only 14 seats to be taken. Those wishing to sit on those seats have to go to Eventbrite to book in advance.
At present, the demand is not high with 6 of them being booked. It seems people are still comfortable with zoom with around 16 joining onscreen.
Emptied of only the bare essentials, a chair to sit on and the technology to link us with zoom it makes for quite a different experience. Last week I imagined the three of us sitting against the outer wall as Magistrates presiding over a court with only one defendant in front of us and an usher to the side.
This week one extra made a difference, we are beginning to make a circle.
The ministry, the environment had me thinking as I often do about stories and the stories we tell ourselves.
COVID 19 was equivalent to a Biblical event such as the Flood. I had never experienced such a phenomenon but when it came it reminded of the flood and I found myself imagining what it would have been like to be alive at such a time. They probably wouldn’t have looked at the water the same, more respectful knowing the power thereof. Every time they saw a rainbow they would be grateful for the promise that it would not happen again.
I can just imagine, it starts to rain and the people are thinking, “Do we need to run to the Ark?” Some may even go and stand nearby and some may even go inside. Indeed I can see some people who have never left afraid that it will happen again. For every shower, their hearts heavily beat until it over and then a sigh of relief is heard from the earth when the rainbow appears. It will take some time before those hearts stop beating so heavily in tandem with the rain.
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