Where Two or Three (can no longer) Gather...

Rev. Eli Valentín poses an ecclesiological query

“Two or Three Gathered in my Name [Deux ou trois personnes assemblées en mon nom]” (1886-1894) by James Tissot.
Source: Open Collection of Brooklyn Museum

The current public-health crisis engulfing the world is forcing theologians, pastors, and indeed the entire church to rethink what it means to be church. 

Social-distancing guidelines and mandated church closures have forced us Christians to stop meeting physically in our church buildings. Church practices have been altered as a result of this new mode of temporary living, especially practices of meeting together. How, then, are we to reinterpret Jesus’ promise that “where two or three  gather in my name, I am there among them” during this COVID-19 pandemic and social-distancing rules?

Does Jesus’s declaration extend to churches now gathering on social media, YouTube, websites, and the now-ubiquitous Zoom? 

Yes! 

In fact, this terrible pandemic is pushing the church to think creatively about how to gather, proclaim the Gospel, administer sacraments, and perform pastoral care. Jesus’s declaration about gathering now extends beyond physical contact and connection. Once disdained by some leaders, social media and other technological means for gathering as church have become a saving grace for these same churches and leaders. 

The meaningfulness of Jesus’s words lies not in the method of gathering, but rather in gathering at all.

What constitutes church and what guarantees the presence of Christ is the act of gathering in itself, the gathering of people who believe in the life-altering possibilities that exist in the love and grace of God. The medium is less important than the act of being together –in whatever way we can be, whether by phone, Zoom, Skype, or even the humble and disappearing letter.

I believe that where two or three people are gathered in God’s name on Facebook Live, Christ is there.

Yet, while the connectivity of the church through social media platforms is critical for the continuation of church practices during this pandemic, it is of vital importance that the church not continue to depend on these communicative means as an exclusive option for church gathering once the pandemic eases. As crucial as these tools are now, social isolation is demonstrating to the church the value of being present together physically at a specified time, in our respective settings and contexts.

We need each other in order to thrive. Likewise, the church, the gathering of individuals in Christ’s name, needs the church in order to thrive. The longing to gather in person among the people of God is now more evident and palpable than ever. The church misses church. Yet, even as it gathers through newer platforms, Christ promises to be present. 

And whether online or offline, Christ is indeed with the church.

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