Many years ago an old and dear friend was in a bad accident. The worst injury he sustained was to his femur. The femur is the largest, strongest bone in your body, and this guy was in his 30’s and an athlete, so he was in very good shape. But the force of the crash was so strong that it broke his femur in a way his surgeon said was more typical of pilots after a crash landing. Imagine breaking a stick not from bending it but from pushing on either end of it.

So, they had to put a steel rod in to stabilize his leg. After a few months of intensive rehabilitation, he was back to his old self. Everything was fine. He was able to do whatever he wanted to do, including running. And everything remained fine until he started training for a marathon. I’ve never run one, but one thing I’ve learned from others is that a marathon will expose any weakness you may have.

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Today is the 4th Sunday we’re live streaming our worship service and we’ve just passed a full month without meeting together for anything. Our President has announced a plan – criteria, really – for the reopening of our country, step by step over time. That plan has phases based on the reduction of COVID-19 cases. It isn’t clear at what point we will be able to hold public worship again, and that will need to phase-in as well. Our at-risk folks will likely need to wait longer and all of us will have to continue the various precautions to protect others.

I know what I want to do, and I bet you do, too. No matter how willing and agreeable we are to the restrictions we’ve had to observe, we want to get back at it – whatever “it” is. For some that means getting back to normal work, normal school, normal recreation and entertainment, normal church, normal family gatherings and other parties and social events. Meg and I don’t go to the movies very often, but it would be nice to know we could.

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This isn’t how it was supposed to be. You, or at least 2,000 or so people like you, were supposed to be here. The Lake Wales Chorale was supposed to be over there, at the base of the tower. The Ridge Brass were supposed to be with them. I was supposed to be on that balcony, about 50 feet up there. A bagpiper was supposed to come out of the pre-dawn light playing Amazing Grace. The only person who is where he expected to be is the Carillonneur, Geert D’Hollander – but he has adjusted his program because everything had to change.

The one thing that didn’t change is this spot and the time. This service has been timed for 94 years with the sunrise. And that is where we shall begin. Science teaches us that the sun does not rise. The earth rotates continuously and, depending on where we are standing, it only appears to rise. That is absolutely true, undoubtedly true.

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