“Everything has its own time, and there is time for every purpose under heaven: time to embrace and time to get away from the embrace?”(Ecclesiastes 3. 1, 5b)
Today, it’s been 18 days since my family started isolating themselves socially. During this period, we and many others used several technological resources that allowed us to have at least a minimum of “safe” social contacts. Did my wife ever travel the world with our children using Google Earth?We’ve already seen a Cirque du Soleil presentation, about Disney toys, talk to family members, hear celebrities read books and pastors tell stories to children, and even play tic-tac-toe with grandparents and in the midst of all these resources, it’s no wonder that Sunday services were also “cured” thanks to technology. Or did they really go?
- In the film Substitutes.
- Bruce Willis incorporates a man who is socially isolated in his home not for weeks.
- But for many years The fictional society in which he lives has abolished social coexistence and replaced it with interaction through robots to escape the reality of sin.
- Pain and death The film makes clear the difference between the two worlds and briefly shows the limits of artificial communication mediated by the technology.
- The human desire to control and reverse an undesirable reality (as determined by God) and the natural desire of the human being.
- For something real.
Although we have not (yet) reached the extreme situation portrayed in the film, we suffer the same evil, we cannot deny the countless benefits that technology has brought to the human being, and can be used, among other things, as a tool. for the church both to serve others and to spread the gospel; However, as virtual communication becomes increasingly effective, we face this inescapable fact: the real can never be replaced by the virtual. coronavirus and social isolation is a problem, after all, is it possible or not to virtualize a solemn cult?
It is essential that we are aware of the differences between the virtual and the real; this difference will help us answer the important question of whether solemn worship is possible without the physical presence of people. Genesis 2. 7 shows that when God created Adam (adam), he made a doll of earth (adamah) and blew (nfh) in his nostrils a breath of life (nishemat hayyim) and became a living being (nefesh hayyah). Transliteration can help us see the word game in the text. The name “Adam”, which can be both the first man and a generic term for humanity, is linked to the earth, while the breath of life, insuffered by God in man, is semantically linked to man as a living being. We cannot underestimate the physical, or bodily presence of man in the world because the reality created by God, in space and in time, is spiritual and bodily reality.
The virtual environment has aspects that simulate body reality, but you will never be able to match it, when we see and listen to people through streaming devices, we experience something similar to the experience of seeing and listening to people in their physical presence, but still, this experience When I talk to someone physically present in light, sound waves and other physical manifestations are part of the direct experience that I have , but through the screen or speaker, as well as the transmission, another?kind of event?being experienced by me. God created us for bodily relationships, therefore, our natural aspiration to experience physical presence. The virtual environment can emulate this relationship, but it never corresponds to it or replaces it.
God also created us to have a relationship with you through the body. The worship in spirit and in truth that the Father seeks is worship in body and soul (Jn 4:24), because it is worship in time and space. God created man to act in the world through the body, so the call for the meeting given by God is physical and cannot be replaced by the virtual one. The virtual environment can emulate this meeting, but it never matches. My experience in the real solemn worship environment will be completely different, regardless of the correct broadcast, from the virtual environment. When we worship the Lord, the hearts of those present unite to worship God through the elements of worship. These elements were designed to be physically experienced collectively. When I listen to the reading of the Scriptures, I can see the expressions of my brothers, listen to the children, experience directly the relationship of my brothers with the voice of God, which also affects my own relationship with the Word read. This will also be true for all other elements, especially the chants, as I will be able to hear and be heard by the church without any interference from the download speed.
Our ability to stream live services or recordings cannot replace real physical encounters. Similarly, we can talk about the Lord’s Dinner administered by virtual transmission. These resources are limited to the impossibility of the physical presence required for the true worship of God, spiritually and physically. For this reason, virtual worship and dinner are not a solemn cult and a meal of the Lord in the same way that a “hug” written in a message is not a hug. This does not prevent us from transmitting services, but we cannot assign a cult status that cannot have that status.
Solomon shows us in Ecclesiastes 3. 1 that God has determined a moment for all things in life. This time it also talks about the ways in which such things can and should happen. Verse 5, for example, speaks of the time to embrace and walk away. When we feel the absence of someone, prevented from being together, we also see our bodily limitation, God has created us in bodies, extensions in space and time, which cannot extend beyond what He has designed, so the book of Ecclesiastes helps Remember that there are moments of deprivation. It is not our task to change what God has determined, but to learn from what is being taught at that time. Our days are in tune when it comes to “getting away from hugs,” as the preacher said. We should not use technology to create ways to compensate for the harsh reality that we are deprived of public worship, but we can use it to overcome this period.
May we live this moment of desire for the bodily gathering of the Church and the nourishment provided by the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, comforted that he will lead his Church gloriously, so we do not need to surrender to technological calls and try. to escape this desert time, but to cross it glorifying God with joyful hearts in thanksgiving.
By: Ronaldo Vasconcelos. © Return to the Gospel. Website: voltemosaoevangelho. com All rights are reserved. Original: The substitute cult: because public worship cannot be virtual.