The Holy Week of Easter

April 5 – April 12, 2020

“The love of our neighbor is the love which comes down from God to man. It precedes that which rises from men to God. God is longing to come down to those in affliction. As soon as a soul is disposed to consent, though it were the last, the most miserable, the most deformed of souls, God will precipitate himself into it in order, through it, to look at and listen to the afflicted. Only as time passes does the soul become aware that he is there. But, though it finds no name for him, wherever the afflicted are loved for themselves alone, it is God who is present.” (From Waiting for God by Simone Weil, found in A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants, edited by Reuben P. Job and Norman Shawchuck: The Upper Room, Nashville, Tennessee, September 1983.)

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Yesterday, Sunday, April 5^th, Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday, I worshipped online with Easley Presbyterian Church. Rev. Dr. Bill Seel and Rev. Dr. Christie Gravely led in worship. Except for the organist and choir director, who sang a solo hymn during worship, there was no congregation, except online. The church building was mostly empty. We, the congregation listened, prayed and wept for joy to be at worship and not to be alone.

The governor of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, has ordered all of us to be sequestered. Except for home, work and essential activities, as buying gas, groceries or doctor/pharmacy, we are to be “social distancing,” which is 6 feet apart more or less. It is difficult not shaking hands in greeting, nor being able to hug, or pat someone on the back with affection. It is difficult to do without non-essential essentials of human companionship. I wonder if we will be forever changed by this Covid-19 virus. It has altered more human behavior in little more than a few weeks than a century which has passed before. All of us are in a state of shock, of stupor, of hoping and praying we will soon wake up from this most horrible of dreams, except it is not a dream. Reality daily greets us. Multitudes of persons are ill and many are dying. Many of us are social distancing and monitoring our temperatures and ourselves for symptoms, hoping to God this death angel does not touch our bodies with its cold icy finger, but so passes us by!

I have tried to put words to my feelings, but I am at a loss for words. Am I afraid, horrified, distraught, lonely, petrified, without speech, without understanding, or just getting through one moment, one day at a time? I am not sure I am “just getting through.”

The busyness of being a physician in this time takes all of my day. I cannot think of anything else. Using Telemed, My Chart, Doxy.me, and the good ole telephone enables me to reach out to my patients and they to me. But it is not the same, but it is something. It is a conversation. It is a conversation about life and death things. It has more urgency, more poignancy, more compassion and concern than ever before. But I cannot listen to heart sounds and only indirectly to lung sounds. But I can observe the color of the skin, the subtle nuances of facial expressions. I can see my patient smile, laugh and cry. I can listen to their medical story. Sometimes I am privileged to watching my patient walk. I give a diagnosis and prescribe a plan of care which may include medications. I set up a return visit. I calculate medical charges based on time and medical complexity. The patient can call back anytime with questions. Yet this is all on a video screen. It is like ‘Face Time’ or ‘Skype’, only more secure. I am using all these things. The patients are appreciative of the call. But it is not the same as before when I could touch the patient. Something is gained, but something precious is lost. I am not sure I like it, but it is all we have, for now. Patients do not come to our clinic anymore, because of Covid-19 and the need for social distancing to stop the spread of this unseen virus.

The virus is everywhere and it is nowhere. We are surrounded by what we cannot see. Every person we meet is potentially a carrier. Persons can be ill and yet be asymptomatic. Not everyone gets symptoms. Having a low grade fever or a cough is the sign to watch for. But fevers and coughs can be caused by all kinds of viruses and other infections which are not Covid-19. But anyone found to have a fever or a cough at work is sent home. But the ill person could have shed the virus days before having a fever, except not so many virus particles. With a fever, thousands, millions of copies of the virus are shed. Now we hear it is also suspended in the air, the smaller virus particles can suspend for up to three hours or more. We also hear that 6 feet is not enough space in a room with poor air movement. And we are told to wear a mask to reduce exposure, but what about our eyes? Don’t we need goggles, too? I heard of one physician demanding coverings for his shoes. Too much information is making us tired, or are we just going mad a little bit each day? I can speak to the emotional fatigue. I am not yet sure I am fully “mad,” perhaps only partially so. Only God knows, I suppose and my wife.

In our Piedmont area the oak trees are blooming. Pollen is so thick our vehicles are coated in yellow. So now I have a sore throat from breathing in the pollen. I have sneezed vigorously several times today. But I know this is pollen. But is frightens anyone who hears me sneeze. Tomorrow I take an Allegra. I had none today, but Dorothy bought two bottles at Costco.   She was so pleased to obtain some hamburger meat and some apple juice. We already had toilet paper. It is amazing what becomes precious when one does not have it.

The holy week of Easter is about Jesus’ passion, his entering Jerusalem riding on a donkey. It is about preparing out hearts to worship God to remember our Savior, crucified and dying on the cross. The scripture testifies that Jesus died for the sins of humankind. Isaiah testifies in chapter 53 that “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned each one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6NKJV)

This scripture is strangely comforting to me. Jesus did for me what I cannot do. He redeemed me while I am still in my iniquity. He brought peace to me while I am astray. He brings me healing when I have none. Because of what Jesus Christ has done, my sins are forgiven. I am healed and I am redeemed!

In this most strange of Holy Weeks, this holy week of Easter, 2020 it is really hard to remember Easter has arrived so quickly while we are all in the midst of a great dying across the land. What an awful time to celebrate Easter! The dogwood trees with their blood tipped blooms are all around us. Jesus’s crown in the bloom is staring out before us. But we cannot go to church to decorate the cross with our flowers. This is a holy week like none other. The whole world is out of joint.

I am trying in this holy week of Easter to stop, relax and celebrate the gracious gift of God in the person of Jesus Christ. He lived, he taught, he did miracles among us. Then he went to Jerusalem so that he could suffer and die for us. On this coming Easter Sunday, we will proclaim again Jesus Christ’s resurrection for us, proclaiming God’s power over death and the grave! I suppose if one thinks about this long and hard enough, he or she will finally realize that any death from any cause is a bad death. I am made to be alive and to worship my God and to enjoy my God forever! So, any death is a bad death, whether it comes from the Covid-19 virus or not. Whether I live or whether I die, I belong to God who loves me and died for me so that I might live with him.

A lot of us are dying this week and the next week, too. But come sooner or later, this is the lot for us all. The Covid-19 has surprised us and brought death to us too quickly and too dramatically for us to have had time to prepare ourselves properly. So, let us make ourselves ready to meet Jesus this Easter week. What better time to be ready to meet God! So, whether I live or whether I die, I still belong to God! Thanks be to God for this wonderful gift! Perhaps what I needed is a wake- up call to remember to make myself ready for the bridegroom’s coming. Perhaps Covid-19 is about as good a wake- up call as I can have. It is not the wake-up call I would have done, but it surely is good enough for me.

Prayer: “God our heavenly Father, Jesus Christ the most Holy Son, and Holy Spirit of redemption and compassion, Lord God, One God, hear our prayers as we pray:

We admit, O God, that we have not made ourselves ready. We are still asleep and living in a state of slumber. We neither hear you nor do we know you that well. We are not ready to meet you if you should call us today and we are not certain we will be ready if you call us tomorrow. But, we are grateful for the forgiveness of our sins, for the chastisement of Jesus that brings us peace. We are grateful for his wounds by which we are healed. We are grateful for these words of the Holy Scripture that tell us that even as incorrigible a sinner as I am can be forgiven, healed and redeemed! Lord God, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world and my sins and our sins, hear our prayer and in your mercy and by your grace forgive us. Forgive our sins and heal our land, in this holy week of Easter, in the name of Jesus Christ our only Savior and our only Redeemer. Amen and Amen!

Let all of God’s people say, “Amen!” “Amen! We praise you, Lord Jesus Christ!”

Bill Wilson, servant of God by God’s grace and mercies.

“Amen and Amen.”