In my sermon for 04-05-20, I seemed to make light of the quarantine we are experiencing. I made light of the cooking that is now possible for the “haves;’ when so many people don’t have food and/or don’t have time to make the food. Worse yet, many families are not together in this strange time. Those of us who are together, are not very mindful of the families who are apart, not getting to bond, not even getting rest.
These are the workers, the people who happen to have the jobs that are needed the most. They are driven to produce, to work until exhausted. Even if their pay has increased, money cannot equal rest and sleep and relaxation. And who is caring for the children?
And always the danger! Being right there in the midst of the minuscule droplets of the disease. While young people went off to Florida for spring break. They are paying now! The people they infected are paying now.
The great divide. The selfish from the unselfish. The exhausted from the rested. The abundant pay checks from no pay checks. The people who can breathe from the people who cannot get each breath. The people who are spending time with families from the people whose children don’t even get to see their parents for days or weeks on end.
The people who think the leaders are great from the people who think the leaders need some wisdom and humility. The governors and their legislators from the federal leaders and their legislators.
The trillions of dollars that are seemingly coming from thin air. From where does this money come? From whom are we borrowing this money? To whom do we actually owe our allegiance, on whom are we dependent, really? On whose mercy are we surviving?
Well we have God, our stronghold. Even if we perish or especially if we perish, we belong to God.
Merciful God, we pray for the suffering that evolves from a sunken economy. Lift the fear from hearts and minds as businesses have dark windows, as workers feel helpless without work, without pay. Comfort the people who are pressed into more service than they ever expected and wanted. Some of us will still fall into darkness. Wherever we are in the sliding scale, may your light shine before us. Help some of us to shed our skin of complacency and make a difference whether we are more like snails or more like rabbits, just move us to help and not hide. In the name of the Lenten Jesus we pray. Amen
Scripture Coming Alive 