If the pandemic has done anything, it has slowed the world done and given us more opportunity to reflect. Part of what I have done is to reflect on what the church is. I was reminded of the hymn by Richard Avery and Donald Marsh from 1972. It is in our hymnal, #558. I submit to you these are as good words as any that speak to what the church is:
WE ARE THE CHURCH
The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple,
the church is not a resting place, the church is a people.
REFRAIN:
I am the church! You are the church! We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus, all around the world! Yes, we're the church together.
Verse 2:
We're many kinds of people, with many kinds of faces,
all colors and all ages, too, from all times and places.
Verse 3:
Some times the church is marching, sometimes it's bravely burning,
sometimes it's riding, sometimes hiding, always it's learning.
Verse 4:
And when the people gather, there's singing and there's praying,
there's laughing and there's crying some times, all of it saying:
Verse 5:
At Pentecost some people received the Holy Spirit
and told the Good News through the world to all who would hear it.
With me let us all give Thanks to God!
