Easter Monday in a time of Pandemic is a strange reality. As someone said the other day, it’s hard to tell what day it is…it feels like sometime between March and August.
These days we feel waves of anxiety, just below the surface…humming softly like a little motor…draining energy from us and putting an occasional slight tremor into our voices.
Oh there are waves of optimism and hope that we will all get through this: that someday it will be all over and we can enjoy the almost unimaginable pleasures of meeting friends for a meal, or driving to the beach or going to a movie or shopping in a mall, sitting in the bleachers or going back to Church…
Yes, going back to Church…Imagine what it will be like…Just imagine of we could only hope…
Like Saint Peter preaching about the Golden Psalm (Psalm 16), as he spoke to the crowd in Jerusalem on Pentecost Sunday. And the first line he cites seems like to could have been written by us. It's that refrain we prayed just a few minutes ago: “Keep me safe, O Lord, for you are my hope.”
Now there’s a lot we can hope in these days, and increasingly so. We can hope in those researchers who are working on a vaccine to inoculate us against COVID-19. We pray a lot for them. Or we can hope in Dr. Fauci and his team at the CDC who have taught us how to us how to “flatten the curve.” We can hope in Governor Baker, who calmly put into place policies that seem now to be working to mitigate the pandemic in the Commonwealth. We can also hope in the heroic doctors and nurses and chaplains at Saint V’s and Umass and all across Worcester County. Lotsa folks to hope in.
But Psalm 16 tells us to hope not in man or science, but in the Lord. For the Lord is our portion and cup: he holds forth my lot. In other words, even amidst the chaos and uncertainty, it is the Lord who is in control. He knows my every thought and desire, he knows my future and my past, and he knows me better than I will ever know myself. He knows when this virus will end, and how you and I will handle it.
Which is why we worship the Lord, even at night, even by streaming video and cable, for we know that with him at our right, we can never be disturbed, but will ever be confident that he is in control.
I imagine a lot of people are afraid of dying from the Corona virus. It’s a realistic fear as just yesterday six more people died of it in Worcester County. One lady was in her 50’s, while the others were in their 80’s and 90’s. Now it’s true that most of us will not even get the virus, especially if we wash our hands and wear masks and keep social distance.
But all of us know that what the Psalmist says is true: “God will not abandon us. For he is the path to life and the fulness of joy.”
And so we don’t have to be afraid.
But all of us know that what the Psalmist says is true: “God will not abandon us. For he is the path to life and the fulness of joy.”
And so we don’t have to be afraid.
