“We are now nearing the end of the first month of the second year of the COVID19 pandemic lockdown. While there are glimmers of better times ahead, with vaccinations continuing in their piecemeal, stuttering roll out, we have to acknowledge that the end of this pandemic is not on our horizon.

We can continue to be numbed, or shocked, or outraged as the death count continues to climb. We can affirm that more than half a million of our fellow citizens have died of COVID19. As part of my job at the two hospitals where I now work, I hear the daily litany of new cases, transmission rates, deaths, numbers of people vaccinated, where on the queue of people waiting for vaccines we have reached. It has all become part of the way I live and work. A long, slow process of acclimation to what should have been unthinkable. And then something comes along that rouses me from the day-to-dayness, the shuffling torpor of our current way of being.A study released roughly ten days ago showed that one out of five Americans had lost someone in their family or their circle of friends to COVID19. One out of five. If you live in a community of color, that number climbs to one out of three.”

Lectionary Readings:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
Psalm 51:1-13