Over the last few weeks I’ve found myself saying to friends and family that I hope to see them “Soon”. It isn’t a joke and almost always the immediate reply from them is that they share that hope. So it was curious to me when I realized how thin and far away “soon” was starting to feel.

Two weeks ago I confessed my love of Oreo Cookies. I feel compelled to mention it again because there is always a moment in that relationship with my food, when I run out. All of the cookies are gone. I have shared them with my wife and eaten them myself until this moment when the next time I have any Oreos is, “Soon”. There is a hurdle to cross before I can have more, going to the store. No small matter in Covid-tide.

There it is again. Covid. A deadly and terrible sickness hurting and killing some, while distorting time and perception for the rest of us. The press of the pandemic is a weight that shifts but does not seem to lessen. It pushes “Soon” farther and farther away.

In Eucharist, there is a moment called the Anamnesis. It ties past, present, and future together in one all encompassing now. On Sunday we will say it this way, “Christ has died. Christ is Risen. Christ will come again.” Definitions fail in describing this. In Anamnesis, Christ is on the cross, stepping out of the tomb, and welcoming us on the last day all at once.

The reality of God’s love is not limited by time. “Soon” is just as much “now” as it is “past” to God. When we come to the table together and receive the presence of God in the Eucharist we too can experience that gathering together of all time that is outside of time. We are gathered together as we hope to be.

Soon.

In peace,

Rev. Deacon Chip Russell