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“Even in the midst of what seems like chaos, there’s hope, and maybe we’re not that different from the men and women that we find in the Bible,” Billups said. “They were confused and doubting and wrestling and trying to figure it all out. And if they were so human, maybe we can see the hope of resurrection today.”
Nathan Gildow, who attends Ginghamsburg Church, watched the pre-recorded Easter service on a laptop computer at home with his wife Cristin and two young children. They watched at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, the time they would normally be in church.
Gildow acknowledged his excitement for this year’s Easter service was tempered a little bit, saying it’s not quite the same as celebrating with family and friends at church.
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His sons, Evan, 9, and Jack, 6, got to enjoy Easter traditions like an egg hunt in the yard, but they missed out on the in-person kids worship lessons they’d normally have at church with friends.
Gildow said with people asking, “Where is God in all of this?” he hopes good news can come out of the ongoing coronavirus shutdown.
“You already see neighbors helping neighbors and people leaning on one other in maybe a way they hadn’t before,” he said. “People showing humanity a little more in a political environment where everything’s very divisive … There’s a glimmer of hope that we have come together a little bit, because we’re all suffering from the same issue.”
Rev. William Harris, pastor at Believers Christian Fellowship Church in Dayton, shared a hopeful message in a streamed service from his McCall Street church as well. His congregation’s “thought of the week” was, “It is OK that the church is empty this Easter. The tomb was empty too! He is risen!”
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“I want the community to know that there is still hope in Christ. Nothing is too hard for God,” Harris said. “Even for those affected and infected by (the virus), he showed he has power over death, he will have power over this.”
Gov. Mike DeWine said the state would not interfere with Ohioans’ right to attend church services, but he encouraged them not to do so in person, saying the possibility of spreading the virus was significant, and “you’d be playing with the lives of your congregation.”
Most local churches closed their buildings and posted videos of services online, while a few still held in-person services.
Meanwhile, thousands of families gathered around their iPads, Galaxies and Surfaces on Sunday. The word of God hadn’t been delivered this widely on tablets since the stone ones bearing the Ten Commandments in Moses’ time.
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At St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Kettering, Fr. Tim Fahey told those feeling pain and confusion from the virus shutdown to go through life with more zeal and confidence after Easter. He compared them to pioneers trying to find their way through a wilderness.
“And suddenly you find out that a man (Jesus) has already gone through and blazed a trail. There’s a way through now,” Fahey said. “And not only do we know that it’s possible, but the guy who has blazed the trail is sitting in the wagon next to us, and he’s saying, this is the way. Turn here, turn there.”
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