If we believe that “grace does not destroy nature but perfects it”, we must believe that God’s ordained means of worship are not designed to engage Christians in piecemeal fashion but holistically. Further, if our observance of the ordained means of worship leads us to spiritually separate man, body from soul, in worship, we must question said means. To invoke Flavel, “The union of soul and body is natural, their separation is not so.”
In some way, online administration of the sacraments, even if not strictly private, separates the body and soul in participation. The presence of Christ may be objectively there, but the presence of the partaker is not. The angst felt by many Christians in online forms of worship is brought on by a metaphysical contradiction, or rather, a separation; one previously only expected at death. We should not be surprised, then, if months’ worth of body-soul separation in worship proves spiritually detrimental to our congregations. Read the full article by Timon Cline.