John 4:21-24
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Reflection:
I’m not a biblical expert, but I don’t think Jesus was referring to doing service over Zoom when he said this. I’ll admit, I have trouble feeling the presence of God when watching service on TV in the same way I do in Fellowship Hall. The distractions of chasing kids around while distanced from everyone else is so foreign from what I am used to. Living up to Jesus’s challenge to worship God in spirit is proving difficult in this new environment.
Worshipping in spirit has taken on a new form for me. Rather than my usual comforts that came in the form of in-person worship and fellowship, spiritual acts are different. God’s presence is in checking on a friend, or reaching out to the elderly, or spreading the love of Christ through donations to the food pantry. Each of these acts is embodying the spirit of Christ, and in doing so, brings us closer to God. Much like Jesus foretold a new way in which we would know God, this crisis has shown me there is so much more to knowing and living like Jesus than being in a physical church building every week.
The one thing that is constant during this crisis is that life is changing. Jesus was a change agent, and this season requires new actions for us to more fully embody the spirit of Christ. But what hasn’t changed is that in those moments, God is truly with us.
Closing Prayer: 
Gracious God, we thank you for the opportunity to know you and push ourselves to live in your name. We ask that you reveal to us what we can do to experience your presence through worship and action. Amen.