In a recent online gathering with California Lutheran University, a student was pondering a phrase heard often during these months of coronavirus, that “we are all in the same boat.” After some deliberation, she delivered a comment that stuck with me, saying “I don’t buy it.”

The more I speculate if indeed we are all in the same boat, I more I wonder if we are even in the same water. Through my conversations, I’ve begun to wonder if we are all in the same storm.

Some of us are celebrating our second vaccination. Others are tired and impatient, trying to get an appointment for that first shot or waiting to be eligible.

Some are celebrating a year of new growth and learning. Others are frustrated by not having internet access or a computer that reliably offers a connection to the outside world.

Some have rejoiced for being able to work from home. Others lost their jobs, and cannot see a way to pay this month’s rent or food bill.

As these months pass and I hear such a range of stories, I realize we are not all in the same boat. We may be in the same water, but we are navigating this world in quite disparate boats.

Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2021, is the beginning of Lent. A year ago, congregations gathered as usual and began the Lenten journey. Many of us attended midweek services, and shared soup and bread. All was interrupted with the arrival of the coronavirus. As of March 15, 2020, many congregations suspended midweek and Sunday worship. Most of us did not imagine this fast of physical gathering would last a year, let alone become a new and strange “normal.”

We are heartened by the speedy creation of the vaccines that are now being hastily and sometimes clumsily distributed. As encouraging as this news is, now is not the time to rush back to face-to-face worship in large numbers. 

“Covid is behind us” is a dangerous message. In his latest podcast, Dr. Michael T. Osterholm warns that the next month is crucial in understanding how quickly the newer and more infectious strains of coronavirus will spread.

We are in a race between how many people get vaccines and how many people get infected with this more aggressive virus. Now is not the time to let up on our good practices, lest we unleash another surge. Olsterholm boils his message down to three words: Stop Swapping Air.

And perhaps that is why Lent—albeit very different from many we have experienced in the past—is so essential to our faith. We need to be reminded that despite our boat or situation, we float upon the common waters from which God called forth all living creatures.

In this life-giving water we are all connected to something greater than ourselves—God’s love for the world shown to us in Jesus—and to each other. 

Lent may look different than we have known in the past, but we can still engage in works of love, self-denial and prayer. Your works of love may be supporting your congregation and neighborhood, or advocating with those who have no one to stand with them. Your self-denial may include wearing a mask (or even two!), socially distancing, and practicing patience. Your prayer may be a prayer for hope that we might enter with Christ into Jerusalem through the High Holy Days to Easter.

This 40-day journey invites us to look into our lives and rely on Jesus’ love to transform us, to find a love that grows humility within us, expand our love for others, and bear witness to God’s love for all.

Blessings on this Lenten season,

The Rev. Deborah K. Hutterer
Bishop
Grand Canyon Synod of the ELCA