38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
– Romans 8:38-39
When I was growing up in the church, we recited a creed — a statement of faith — every week in worship. Most often, it was the familiar Apostles’ Creed. I knew those words by heart, even before I understood them. My five-year-old voice could tell of the One who was “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,” the one who “suffered under Pontius Pilate” and (on the third day ) “rose from the dead,” who “sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” We said those words every week. I knew them as well as I knew my own phone number. I knew the creed.
Yet we United Methodists are not people of a single creed. We embrace the Apostles’ Creed, of course, along with several others. In the back of our hymnals, you’ll find them all… including the one that has become my favorite, especially in this season of social distancing. It reads:
We are not alone, we live in God’s world.
We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh, to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
We are not alone. Encouraging words, aren’t they? By and large, human beings do not like to be alone. We crave relationship and companionship. Even the introverts among us seek out connections with our family members, our significant others, our friends. We feel compelled, somewhere deep in our human nature, to not be alone.
In this season of coronavirus, this season of social distancing, we may well feel more isolated, more secluded, more “alone” than ever. Yet as Christians, it is important for us to remember that we are never, ever alone. God is with us. God is always with us. God is with us in this season and every season, on this day and every day. God is with us when we crave connection and when we think we just want to be left alone. God is with us!
God is with us. It’s a fundamental teaching of our faith, the kind of teaching that is passed on from one generation of the faithful to the next… passed on in the words of scripture, and song, and creed. Let’s keep passing it on. Let’s keep reminding ourselves and others: God is with us. We are not alone.
After all:
Our God is bigger than coronavirus.
Our vision is bigger than coronavirus, too.
We are people blessing people.
We are Wesley Church.
Blessings,
Pastor Candy
Want to know more?
- Learn about our church and its ministries: https://wesleychurch.com/
- Make a gift to support our mission: https://wesleychurch.com/giving-2/
- View our recent messages: https://wesleychurch.com/sermon-message-on-video/
- View previous devotionals: https://wesleychurch.com/pastor-candys-devotionals-2/
