Maundy Thursday in a Time of Pandemic Plague

This is probably not the first Maundy Thursday in a time of pandemic plague, but for most of us, we probably weren't alive for any of the past ones.  Perhaps a few of us remember the great flu epidemic of 1918--did that impact Holy Week?  And we weren't alive for the huge scourges of the past (bubonic plague in the middle ages and subsequent centuries, the smallpox plagues that wiped out most of the native populations in the Americas when Europeans arrived).

This is not the first Maundy Thursday we've spent in isolation, but most of us haven't experienced it.  Certain populations have always spent the holiest days in isolation:  the sick, the elderly, those cloistered for other reasons.

Most of us have experienced the sadness of a holiday that isn't what we expected it to be.  Most of us understand the loneliness we feel when we can't be with our beloved communities.

Some of us are luckier than past generations:  we can be together virtually.  We can see each other when we speak by way of technology, if we have the technology.  We can have screen to screen communication.  My church will do a livestream of a stripped down Maundy Thursday service.  There are lots of resources out there, and many of us will have access to them.  It could be worse.

But it will be strange.  And maybe we will discover that the feeling of strangeness helps to enrich our experience.

Those of us who have been worshipping for years may have become inured to the power of these Holy Days.  In past years, the familiarity of the readings may have helped us zone out.

This year, nothing feels familiar.  This year, many of us feel broken open in new places.  This year, perhaps the Holy Spirit will move in us and through us in new ways.