Rector's Reflections - 18 April, 2020
4-18-20
Reflections by the Rector
By Rev. Shirley Porter
“I have been tortured without and tormented within by raging fires of tribulation…I have been forced to muster what strength and courage I have to withstand howling winds of pain and jostling storms of adversity. But as the years have unfolded the eloquently simple words of Mother Pollard have come back again and again to give light and peace and guidance to my troubled soul: ‘God’s gonna take care of you.’” From Strength to Love, 1963
Note: “Mother Pollard was one of the oldest and most dedicated of the Montgomery Bus Boycott participants. King cites her words one Sunday during an electrifying sermon to his parishioners in Atlanta”. 1963
The above words and note are taken from a small book in my library named: MLK: A Celebration in Word and Image, Martin Luther King, Jr. Edited by Bob Adelman.
It is a small book with under 100 pages but it gives pause of thought as I look at pictures of King’s legacy and hear words he used during times of crises.
I thought these words might fit our feelings or emotions or confusion during our journey through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Karen still struggles to hang on and recover. The numbers increase daily of those who are infected and those who have succumbed. We stay inside to keep ourselves and others safe. We are told by health authorities that this helps slow the spread of the corona virus…and yet it spreads.
We do all we can to help our city and state and country get past this moment and yet we are not sure of what progress could or should look like at this time.
We visit each other by phone, face book and zoom meetings. And yet we miss each other’s bodily presence mightily. We read our Prayer Book and watch services on Live Stream, and yet we feel a technological disconnect to friends, family, and the normalcy of habit.
We like Jesus are beloved by God. Jesus carried the world’s sins to the cross and died to make us right before God. We like Jesus and Dr. King are beloved children of God. Dr. King carried much of the world’s concerns on his shoulders as well and yet…God was with them both. Both sacrificed life to help a future life be possible for God’s beloved.
Perhaps …and I say this with humble reverence in my heart…those who sacrifice their lives now, will help future lives survive. Those of us left behind mourn their departure but we also must believe somewhere in our faith and hearts that God’s gonna’ take care of us as only God can.
Perhaps death was a way to relieve them from further suffering. Perhaps life for those who live to tell it, is giving us time to creatively imagine how to minister to each other in the love of Christ…now and when we get to the other side of this virus.
Life, church and community will probably never be the same as before. We now can make room for new and different ways to be with each other. We will mourn and miss the past. God will make room in our hearts and lives for new expressions of ‘the grace of God’ as we face an unknown future.