Of the many losses brought to us by the COVID-19 pandemic, one of them must feel particularly among Christians. They said unto me, Let us go to the house of the Lord. (Salt 122,1). Millions of believers are now confined to their homes, for fear of an invisible enemy, unable to properly gather and worship the Lord in their churches on Sundays.
Some, however, have questioned whether the technology at our disposal does not fulfill this task of taking us to worship when we can’t go there, video conferencing apps, social media and media sites bring us very close, maybe we shouldn’t. online services, or perhaps even manage the sacraments virtually?
- Please don’t get me wrong.
- My intention is not to deny the wonderful benefits that technology has brought us.
- A few days ago I received a video that touched me a lot: 48 people.
- From 14 different countries.
- Recorded their voices at home to form a virtual choir.
- The result is beautiful! The tones are perfectly matched and synchronized in the edition.
- So you can almost believe that it really is a real chorus singing on your cell phone.
The actual presence of each voice suite is missing, each one’s face-to-face rehearsal is lacking before the performance, the choruses line up with each other while they wait for the director’s order. When I was a tenor in my choir church, I often covered my ear singing, to hear not only my own voice, but also that of my next-door partner, to see if we were in the same tone. You can’t do the same when you’re alone. The virtual choir experience is beautiful, but it’s not complete because it’s not real, it’s just virtual. If you doubt my argument, I ask you: would you rather watch the World Cup final on the sofa at home or in the front row of the stadium?Listen to your favorite singer’s CD, or go to the program recording?Could pornography be a real sexual relationship?
The reason for the answer? Not all of these questions are very simple: we are real, flesh-and-blood human beings. And even if the number of? Parts? That man is made, there is no doubt what they are: a material substance. , an immaterial substance, and both are essential at the time of worship. It is not possible to dispense with one of them when we worship the Lord, because a human being is not an inanimate body, but he is not an incorporeal spirit, he is not an individual person, or in a more technical word: a psychosomatic unity. While technologies have evolved to the point of providing image and video quality very close to reality, Internet transmissions are not real human beings, so we cannot equate a public service with internet meeting.
I heard a fellow pastor comment that if a church wanted to have an online service, there would be no problem, because although distant, they would all be together in the same spirit. But why only, in the same spirit, is our mind more precious than the body?It seems to me that it was this ancient heresy, gnosticism, that stated exactly this: the spirit is perfect, but matter is not. evils in the 1nd and 2nd centuries, for example, it is necessary for the apostles to reaffirm that Jesus had a human body like each of us (cf. 1 Jn 4. 1-6 and 2 Jn 7-11). [1]
Jesus’ humanity is an essential element of the Christian faith, because it needed to become fully human, to offer an acceptable sacrifice to the Father, for our sins and for us (cf. He’s 2, 5-18). Virgin birth, perfect life, and the bodily death of Jesus were the perfect worship presented to God, of which our worship is only an imitation. This is the argument of the author of Hebrews in 10. 19-25: We are brave enough to enter into the presence of God (v. 19), only by the death of Jesus as a man (v. 20) The direct implication of Jesus’ cultural sacrifice is clear: let us not cease to unite (v. 25).
The Lord wants us to be present in body and soul in worship. Take advantage of the resources that technology gives us, but don’t give to God unless He wants to. Therefore, brethren, I pray you for God’s mercy to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your rational worship (Rom 12:1).
[1] It is also worth reviewing the teaching of reformed confessions about the person of Christ in his humanity: Confession of Faith of Westminster, Chapter VIII, paragraph 3; Great Catechism of Westminster, question 38; Westminster Minor Catechism, question 21; Belgian confession, Article 19; Heidelberg Catechism, Questions 16, 17; Second Swiss confession, Chapter XI, paragraphs 6, 7.