Since moving to Washington, we have lived in Skagit County. Mount Vernon, where our rental home is located is the county seat. Our son works here. However, he lives in Whatcom County, the jurisdiction north of Skagit County on the Canadian border. Five days a week he commutes from one county to the other. The church we attend and where we are now working is in Whatcom County as well, so we are making the trip from one county to the next nearly every day now. As we drive back and forth we notice the traffic. We are aware that we are not the only ones who are going back and forth. And, because Whatcom County is on the Canadian border, we see plenty of cars and trucks that are going across that border as well. The Canadian Border has been closed for all non-essential travel most of the time we have lived here, but that has changed now and US citizens are now able to go into Canada for tourism, shopping and other reasons. The highway signs say that wait times at the border crossings are short, mostly less than five minutes. That means that traffic crossing the border is light compared to a typical time before the pandemic, when border crossing times were 15 minutes and longer.

Borders, whether they be between counties or countries, follow arbitrary lines, agreed to by politicians and governing bodies, and drawn up long ago. They are meaningless to the birds that fly and wild animals that find their food. Certainly the border between Skagit and Whatcom Counties is no barrier and if it weren’t for signs on the highway we wouldn’t even notice when we go back and forth across the border.

The counties, however, are jurisdictions for the reporting of Covid-19. The New York Times has a dashboard of pandemic data and it reports by county as well as by state. The Washington State Department of Health’s COVID Data Dashboard reports by county the numbers of confirmed cases of infection, hospitalizations and deaths caused by the virus. What that dashboard shows is that hospitals across the state are experiencing record numbers of hospitalizations due to the virus. In Whatcom and Skagit counties, the pressure is on as area hospitals struggle to serve record numbers of infected and sick people. Both counties are reported as having “very high” numbers of cases.

Whatcom County saw 440 new confirmed Covid-19 cases and one death in the last week. Confirmed cases have grown dramatically in August, with 300 cases one week earlier, and 206 cases two weeks before. Skagit County has smaller numbers, as it also has smaller population, but the rate of increase is equally high. Over the course of the pandemic, 83 people have died of Covid-19 in Skagit County and 110 in Whatcom.

Reading the statistics from the Bellingham Herald website can be daunting. It seems as if we are surrounded by bad news. The pandemic, which we thought would be easing by now as more people are vaccinated, continues to rage. Although we’ve become a bit dulled to the news because of the longevity of the pandemic, it is clear that Covid remains a major factor in our area.

The church, of course, is called to proclaim the good news in the midst of a world that declares bad news. We are called to live that good news - the Gospel - regardless of the statistics and regardless of the news we read in the media. Despite the reality of death ever present, God’s power to resurrect is the core of our faith.

It is, however, a deep challenge for churches and for church leaders to live responsibly in these times. We have learned a lot about building community even when we are not able to meet face to face. Online and hybrid worship have given us ways to remain connected when safety protocols have demanded that we maintain distance.

With the rising numbers, the governor of Washington has reimposed the indoor mask mandate that has been lifted in recent weeks. Starting on Monday, wearing masks inside public buildings, which has been advised all along, will be once again mandatory. In our church, the Covid advisory committee has maintained wearing masks as the norm since early in the pandemic. That means that we have been wearing masks at work all of the time that we have been working in our new job except when we are in our office with the door closed. It is a bit of an inconvenience. My glasses fog up when I’m wearing a mask. Changing our masks frequently means more laundry that needs to be done. I’ve tried to maintain an open office door throughout all of my career, and closing it when I am working seems very strange to me.

The inconveniences in my life, however, are small, especially when I consider the amount of grief that surrounds our church community with 110 deaths from Covid in Whatcom County and 83 more in Skagit County. Those deaths represent a much bigger number of people who are living in the midst of grief from the loss of a loved one.

In the midst of all of this, our church is struggling with how best to serve not only those who are members and friends of the congregation, but also the wider community. Yesterday the Mission and Justice Board along with the Faith Formation Board, conducted a Food Pantry Drive. People donated much-needed items by bringing them to the church parking lot where masked volunteers helped unload and prepare items for distribution. The drive was very successful and truckloads of items were donated. Later we learned that the pantry distributed all of the donated items within three hours of the close of the drive. The need was obvious and immediate.

While we will be worshiping in hybrid style, with some members in the church building and others participating online, this week, we don’t know whether or not we will have in-person worship next week with the rising numbers. The Church Board will meet later this week to make decisions. Whatever is decided, we continue to be a church. We continue to be called to proclaim good news in the face of the bad news of the world. And we continue to be called to serve our community.