BROADCASTS.com

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." (Revelation 1:8).

There are a few strange differences between our God and us. Well, more than a few! But a few I'm interested in right now, like these: God is infinite, but we are finite. God is omnipresent (He's present everywhere), but we can only be in one place at a time. God is eternal, but we are temporal. With our human bodies, we can only exist in one place at one time, and that only for a time.

It is these very bodily human limitations of being confined to one time and one space that has been transformed by the digital media we're using for worship these days.

All of a sudden the pastor that used to only be available at 10am Sunday morning (one time) at the church building (one place) is available anytime and anyplace if you want to have a worship service\u2014even multiple times and places at once! Just go to YouTube, and there you find the pastor, ready to worship with you, together with musicians and readers who can also join you wherever and whenever you want them to.

But, lest we think we're becoming like God with our abilities to transcend the limitations of time and space, it's worth thinking about the cost.

Because on the flip side, it is a scattered worship service, recorded on different days in different places with different people, that goes out to a scattered people, who likewise participate in the worship on different days in different places and with different people.

In gaining the abilities to transcend time and space through digital media, we have lost the embodied nature of human community\u2014that unique thing that can only be fully experienced in one place, at one time, with other embodied, three-dimensional human people.

So, what am I getting at?

Well, for now: digital worship is a huge blessing, allowing us to remain connected in common songs, prayers, and scriptures before our One God who was, who is, and who will be meeting us in that scattered worship, no matter when or where we participate. As the eternal God who is everywhere present, He's not thwarted in the least by our lack of a common time or place. He is with us in all times and in all places.

But our time and space transcending God\u2014the God who is, and who was, and who is to come\u2014is the very One who gave up His transcendence in order to take on our embodied limitations. He came in Jesus Christ to be born, live, die, rise, and ascend each in a single place at a single time alongside of real, human people.

The eternal Word became temporal flesh, the created-in-the-image-of-God kind of human flesh. Apparently, God's image and God's grace, love, and forgiveness were mediated to us better through the confines of time and space than through spiritual transcendence.

So, despite this coming to you digitally right now, I think God's grace is still mediated to us better through the embodied community of our fellow spacetime-limited image bearers than it is through the transcendence of our digital media.

If that's true, well then, maybe it's worth calling a friend or a neighbour over to your lawn or porch to safely participate in the songs, prayers and scriptures of worship with you this week. At one time. In one place. Trusting, that the transcendent God who was, who is, and who is to come still comes to us in the very embodied times, spaces and people among whom we gather when we worship and live day to day.

\xa0