to provoke unto love

Let us hold faſt the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:23-25, KJV)

Aw, heck. How are we supposed to do that, in a time of physical distancing and pandemic prudence? How can we not forsake the assembling of ourselves together? Well, first of all, we can ... phone each other? pass each other with a greeting on the street? facebook/zoom each other? how come you never write? ... but first of all, we can pray for each other.

Pray for each other: in this way, we are always together; as we always are together, in Christ. We will proclaim the Lord's death until he comes, as the liturgy demands, even as we cannot gather in the same room together. Indeed, we are together as always with those we never see in the same room together: those we meet only in the Eucharist - or in prayer. These include faraway friends of today but includes as well the martyrs of the past and ... our sisters and brothers of the future. 

We hold out hope today not for ourselves only, but for those who are to come. When it was that we could not meet in prayer together, we met in our hearts in our minds and much more in our prayer.

That is our legacy and our witness. And our hope.

***

For Good Friday our current lectionary prescribes:
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Hebrews 10:16-25
or Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 18:1-19:42
Psalm 22

The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, gives these Readings for Friday before Easter:
The Epistle. Heb. 10. 1. (to v. 25)
The Gospel. S. JOHN 19. 1. (to v. 37)