We are facing something that I believe none of us has ever seen before,
something we have read about in history books, and something we have
seen depicted in movies. But this is all very real. A “pandemic” means it
is an “epidemic” that is over all the earth. These are Greek words that
mean something is “upon” ( epi ) the “people” ( demos ). When we put
“pan” in front, it means it is upon ALL. We have never seen this in our
lifetimes.!
Our world is smaller today than it has ever been. Certainly it is the same
physical size as it was 2,000 years ago. But today we can travel around
the world literally in one day. We can know about events on the other side
of the world in seconds. People travel everywhere. And this virus is
spread from person to person. The most effective way to stop it from
spreading is to literally stay away from each other. I personally hate that. I
can tell you that my second favorite part of Sunday morning is shaking
hands with you as we go home after worship ( my first favorite part is
preaching ). I was already dreading not getting to do that with you for
March 15. But then the word came from our Bishop, and our Governor.
We were hoping to resume worship on March 29, although I suspect that
that is probably not realistic. We will see, based on how our nation does in
the next few weeks.!
We are social beings. We like to do things together. But for the immediate
future we will need to stay apart. We need to remember not to be selfish
in this, wanting to do what we want to do, regardless. Let’s remember that
if we are carriers, what other people might be infected by our need to go
out? Those who are elderly or plagued with chronic health problems
( especially lung issues ) could be harmed by our actions. Believe me, I
like to shake hands and hug people. But right now we just cannot do it.!
