Dear Partners in Ministry,
God's grace and peace to you as we pray for health and healing for those individuals and communities affected by the spread of an influenza virus. It is hard to gauge the severity of such a threat, even as we acknowledge and appreciate the extra precautions being taken by public health officials. Our concern is always heightened, however, when the more vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected by threats to the public health (add to this a sense of "racial profiling" reported from schoolyards in the news today, directed at those from "countries responsible"). In such a time prayer is certainly the faithful response, along with a level-headed pastoral sensitivity in sanitary precautions as the community gathers (how might we best share the peace, greet one another at the door, distribute communion). As we add this concern to the litany of pressures many people are feeling, this is a good time to reclaim the gift of our healing liturgies, as we invite people to ask for God's healing grace in their emotional, spiritual, and physical dimensions of their lives.
Last Sunday I heard a news report that the archbishop of Mexico City had cancelled worship services there because of the "quarantine" imposed on account of the H1N1 flu virus. I don't question the wisdom of such a decision, but the language of "quarantine" was interesting, especially for Christians in the Easter season. "Quarantine" literally means forty days, a time of isolating persons with infectious diseases. The forty days of Lent, punctuated by the lifting of the "quarantine" as alleluias arise from the empty tomb. The self-imposed "quarantine" of disciples sequestered in fear, into which Jesus brought a healing word of "peace." The "quarantine" thinking of disciples on the road to Emmaus, who could not recognize the hope that accompanied them, but then whose eyes were opened in the healing meal, in the breaking of the bread. Let us proclaim this Sunday that the "quarantine" has been lifted, and that the healing of the resurrection is at work among us.
"Quarantine" was the term applied to ships in port, which were required to remain there for forty days before being unloaded, so that any contagion would run its course and pose no threat to the locals. As the church is often depicted as a ship, let us declare that the "quarantine" is over, and that the contagious cargo of our holds is ready to infect the world with hope, a deeper sense of community, and as a source of healing.
Resources for responding to a "pandemic" can be found on the ELCA web-site, but another resource that was commended to me (which I must say I have not yet read) is one of Luther's writings, "Whether or Not One May Flee from a Deadly Plague." I am told he wrestles with the call to love our neighbor in the midst of a plague and his reminder to trust God above all else. The same source has indicated that this text has been helpful to global partners who have experienced the pandemic of HIV/AIDS in their communities. I draw this to your attention in case you are thinking about addressing this topic in a sermon or adult class this weekend. In this time, I leave you with the Psalm Luther cited in this text (which speaks to our second reading for this Sunday as well):
Psalm 41:1-3
Happy are those who consider the poor;
the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble.
The Lord protects them and keeps them alive;
they are called happy in the land.
You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.
The Lord sustains them on their sickbed;
in their illness you heal all their infirmities.
Peace,
Bishop Paul Stumme-Diers |