A Virtual Sermon for the fifth Sunday of Lent during the COVID-19 Pandemic
This is the sermon that I offered up during Morning Prayer on March 29, 2020. This service was held via the zoom platform for St John's Episcopal Church in Dubuque, Iowa. The reason that services weren't held in person was due to the COVID-19 pandemic that prevented the congregation from gathering together. The scripture readings were Ezekiel 37:1-14, Psalm 130, Romans 8:6-11, and John 11:1-45. Let us pray. O God, bring us Grace at this time, this time of hardship for many, to believe in you and to bring us to you. In your name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It’s been quite a week. Week two, of course, is when this all hits home. We’re no longer on a staycation, We who have the privilege available to stay home and practice physical distancing should do so. The headlines, too, are an uncomfortable reminder that death is a part of life. The reading from Romans today tells us to ‘To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the