One of my friends, Pastor Eric Elnes, says he is building the “new Jerusalem” in the metaverse. Most of my friends prefer the shopping aspects of hybrid worship more than the communal aspects of place-based worship. They can go to the great cathedrals, hear the great music, pass by the offering plate. They like the invisibility and magic of the digital and the virtual. Those who demur often brag about being less individualistic, more embodied, more willing to rough the tumble of the genuine human, instead of the talking or invisible heads online.
Both join Eric in destination.
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. – Hebrews 11:3 (NRSV)
What did the authors of Hebrews think? They clearly thought that faith helps understanding, which then identifies the invisible in the visible. They “see” that the worlds are made by the word of God.
I almost get it: faith is why we worship. The world of God made fresh in the regular word of God is the point of it all. The origin as well as the destination. The creation and the redemption. The alpha and the omega.
Being a Gemini, I love both. The hybrid timelessness and the 11am weekly habitual stuckness in time and place. The good singing and the wish I could sing singing. The great sermons and the ones that struggle to make their point. Nurturing faith is the point of worship; it likely doesn’t matter how you get there. It does matter that you get there.
Prayer
When we are out of gas, O God, on our long way to the New Jerusalem, let worship of both the invisible and the made visible fuel us. Amen.
About the Author
Donna Schaper is Interim Minister at the United Congregational Church of Little Compton. Her latest book is Remove the Pews.