The impact of the Coronavirus, COVID-19 is real. The impact of the virus is felt and experienced in many different ways in different levels of reported physical. economic. societal and emotional severity and this virus is attacking on an uneven playing field with those with the fewest resources being hammered the hardest. According to research done by the Kaiser Family Foundation over half of U.S. adults (56%) report that worry or stress related to the coronavirus outbreak has caused them to experience at least one negative effect on their mental health and wellbeing, such as problems with sleeping or eating, increased alcohol use, or worsening chronic conditions. Stress and worry around the coronavirus also seems to be affecting larger shares of frontline health care workers and their families (64%) as well as those who experienced an income loss (65%). This information is already just over a month old, so certainly those numbers have grown.
There is more than enough grief and difficulty to go around. We can definitely see Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s stages of grief coming in to focus. The thing about her definition of stages is sort of misleading because they aren’t stages like on a rocket, where one the first stage is used it goes away. The stages of grief can fluctuate and return. The first two stages are denial and then anger and with this pandemic we are seeing these writ large and we don’t always react very rationally in the midst of these stages. We expend a lot of energy on blame and the possibility of self-destructive and system destructive behaviors. “This can’t be true! I’m not going to let this interfere with my life.” and we rant and rage. One symptom of grief is lashing out at those around us. This anger and frustration is driving the inhabitants of this planet apart when we need to be connected and working as one the most. There is a profound need for us to realize that different people and different groups have what is called “different Dosage exposures”. Some have been exposed to this virus and have become very ill and some have died. Others have suffered severe economic exposure and there are a whole host of other ways that people have been affected by this pandemic. In the midst of widening separations and divisions between us we need to hear the Gospel for today and remember that God has sent us an advocate, a helper, a comforter that can strengthen, enlighten and walk with us, especially in times such as these.
Remember what the Holy Spirit’s action was on that first Pentecost. The room was filled with people from all over all speaking their own languages, observing their own customs, doing their own thing when the Spirit entered. Through the Spirit’s power all the people were understood one to another. The Holy Spirit United and brought amazing understanding. Our faith has been used as a weapon and as a bringer of division for far too long. We will always have our differences in culture. Here in Southern Florida different languages and cultures abound like I have never seen. That is one thing that makes this area exciting and enriching, with a broad diversity of opportunities to experience many wonderful cultures. Our differences can actually make us stronger and the Holy Spirit can bring us to understanding and unity. The world is hurting we must reach out rather than turning inward because that is where the Spirit is calling and empowering us.
As humans we tend to want problems solved quickly, especially other people’s problems so that we can get back to doing our thing. So often we jump to fixes or we tell people or ourselves that we or they just need to get over it, or they just need to talk it out, or go to counselling, or take some medication, or just try to forget about it. There’s Nothing quite as off putting or aggressive as someone that knows how to solve your problems for you or how to fix you or who insists that they are capable of hearing your fears and experiences and handling it all while having no idea what they are asking for. Truthfully, so often when we try to rescue others our attempts have quite an unsettling effect. When I took lifeguard training some years ago, I learned how one of the most formidable adversaries you could face was a drowning person. Even for a well trained and prepared person it is a dangerous undertaking. The victim will climb on or fight and actually drown the rescuer while trying to gain safety. So knowing how to swim and even being a strong swimmer does not mean that we can jump in after a panicking, struggling swimmer. We learned to reach, throw, and row and other advanced methods of lifesaving. Rescuing is not easy and not for the untrained or unprepared and so is in helping others who are in crisis, stress, or trauma or dealing with life’s difficulties. People need people that can walk with them through the mud of life not someone to try to magically make it go away. Faith is not magic, “get your religion right and poof it’s all good, sunshine and roses.” That’s just not the way it is. People are complicated, especially when hurting, and they are difficult, and they are angry and they are sad, and they are frustrating and they can be irrational and stubborn, but they, every single one of them, every single one of us are beautiful and beloved children of God.
In Greek mythology there were five rivers that flowed in the underworld. One of those rivers was called Lethe. It was Also known as the Ameles potamos the river of unmindfulness, the Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness. The idea was to Bathe yourself in the waters of the Lethe. And baptize others there…you know, for their own good, a solution for your problems, forgetting. It seems like a way out. Bathing in the Lethe sounds a lot like our turning to illicit drugs and alcohol to forget or to other unhealthy behaviors to dull the pain, or escape or forget. Sometimes the well intentioned throw in religion and a little scripture into the mix and focus on the sweet by and by and dismiss or ask us to dismiss our current pain and grief and just forget about the here and now and our very present and real grief and problems. I assure you that forgetting or metaphorically bathing in the Lethe is not what Jesus was about. It is not what the cross of Christ is about. Jesus joined himself to us here, in the midst of problems, pain, suffering and death. He offered, not a baptism in the Lethe, the waters of forgetting, avoidance, amnesia or denial but a baptism in the waters of forgiveness, in the waters of truth that set us free, in the waters of grace and hope, in the waters of the cross.
Why all this talk about a mythical river? Because the root of the greek word “aletheia”is the word lethe or forgetting and the “a” at the beginning means “not” or “un” “unforgetting or not forgetting” and Jesus told us that alethia the truth will make us free. The truth is at the cross of Christ and our need for the paraclete, a helper an advocate, that spirit of truth, someone to walk with us. Jesus came and suffered ridicule and death on the cross. He understands the depth of human suffering and does not take it lightly. He sends us others those that are willing to set themselves aside, humble themselves and offer the help that is needed, not easy solutions or glib answers not the help THEY want to give but the help Christ wants to give. The Spirit propels us to give of ourselves. Here’s my sacred space, here’s my shirt, here’s my lunch, here’s my time, my tears, my money, my laughter, here are my ears to listen, or I’ll stand over here and patiently wait for you as long as it takes, but I’m here for you. When people choose to talk or share with us we have to just listen and care…we often cannot fix the problem, we can’t bring back their loved one, or get their job back, or make the young again or repair abuse…..but we can stand by them and hear them and help them or provide them with further resources, our time, our talents our money all resources and gifts from God to share. We are called to the cross to walk with Jesus and those in need. So as we trod through this COVID valley let’s do so together, lifting one another up from the mud and walking with the Spirit in the light of truth until we reach the other side.
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