It’s the season for flu, colds, pneumonia, or whatever illness is going around.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is encouraging people to wash their hands more frequently and limit physical contact with other people.

I recently received an email that listed ways the church can help keep viruses like the flu from spreading.  One way is to have hand sanitizer readily available (we do).  It also suggested that churches no longer shake hands, share hugs with one another, or hold hands when praying.  In other words, don’t express God’s love to one another – refrain from extending the comfort and joy that we are called to do.  Just air hug.

It strikes me as odd that on the day when we gather celebrating our connectedness we are being encouraged to stay away from one another.  Break our connections, become isolated.  In other words, don’t know if someone is clean… stay far, far away!  Don’t get me wrong.  We need to be concerned about the influenza and other illnesses, but we have to be careful we do not cut ourselves off from others.  It is often those who are ill or hurting that most need to be connected.  Throughout the Gospels we see many examples of Jesus reaching out to those infected with this or that.

In the very beginning of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus reaches out and touches one who no one would touch.  He touched him and healed him.  Chapter 1:40-42 reads, ⁴⁰A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” ⁴¹Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” ⁴²Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

You may be thinking, “Well, the flu is not leprosy.”  And, you are right it is not.  But think about how everyone reacted a few months ago to Ebola.  Very few wanted to go to the African countries where Ebola was epidemic.  And many people wanted to stop those infected with Ebola from entering our country.  It was not too terribly long ago that in reaction to AIDS, people were shunning others, running them out of their neighborhoods, kicking children out of school.

Ultimately, when we react in this manner we are reacting out of fear.  Isolation is never the answer to fear.  Reaching out with love is what Jesus did, and as followers we are called to do the same.

Our world is being stretched and pulled by fear.  And, it’s not only illnesses that are causing fear.  Differences in race and religion have caused the extremes to flare up and react with fear, anger and violence.  Last week in Paris bombs went off, bullets were fired and lives were lost.  This is happening within our cities and communities as well.  People are being persecuted, beaten, falsely accused, and killed.  All because people are reacting in fear instead of love.

Do you remember segregated hospitals, schools, water fountains, restrooms, bus seats, schools, restaurants?  In the 1960’s many white Christian ministers taught that whites were the Chosen people, blacks were cursed to be servants, and God supported racial segregation. The Jim Crow laws supported their claims and churches shunned people based upon their race.

We’ve come a long way since the 1960s, no more are there Negro schools or hospitals.  But as we look around Christ’s table today, ask have we come far enough – do Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words, “11 a.m. Sunday is the most segregated hour in America” do these words still ring true?    This is a question we need to ask ourselves… and I don’t think we really like the answer.  Look around… we are not diverse, we are all very similar.  As we come to Christ’s table each week, we are celebrating our connectedness to all other Christians.  We need to acknowledge that we are isolated.  This isolation points to the fear and brokenness in our world.

As Disciples of Christ, we are called to extend Christ’s table to the world.  We do not need to go to Africa, Paris, or even go out of state.  We do not need to go very far at all.  Hurting, isolated souls are all around us.  Day in and day out we pass them on the roads, in the grocery store, in the senior center, at school, and at work.  Ohhhh if only there were a bottle of gel that we could pass around and cause openness to occur, cause fear to subside, cause doors to open.  We don’t have a bottle of gel, but we do have a loaf of bread and the cup of salvation.

The flu is raising our awareness of keeping things sanitized.  My prayer is that as your strive to stay healthy during this season, that you also raise your awareness of opening yourself to new connections – connections that cross racial and socio-economic lines.  Connections that help to extend Christ’s table to all people.  And as you reach out and make those vital connections, hear the words of Jesus when he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

with love, Laureen 🙂