All is Grace

 

“Celebrating the Gift of COVID-19 Vaccines” NIH

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, 

for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)

My earliest introduction to pandemics was the death of a cousin (age 19) in 1949 from the severest forms of polio.   I was seven years old and still remember the great grief of his mother and the long lasting impact on our extended family.  Fear remained until vaccines were made available in the 1950’s.   Professionally and personally, I next learned about the HIV pandemic beginning in the 1980’s.  I was most concerned with the perinatal transmission of the disease.  It didn’t change until there was introduction of antivirals and their widespread distribution.  I saw glimpses of the H1N1 influenza, SARS and Ebola but these were more peripheral to my direct experience.

The Covid pandemic (like the HIV pandemic) has separated us more than social distancing,  “quarantine”, “being high risk” or even our political affiliation.  The pandemic experiences seem so varied.  The faces of the disease are still being identified.  So any proclamation on the meaning of it all requires very careful engagement and the assistance of others.

The first task, it seems to me, is having a clear memory of what was before.  It is a history that is forgotten or ignored.  It is not just about the “wins”.   Life lessons are made out of losses as well as wins.  What makes it livable are the presence of others - for me,  communities of faith and healing. The memory must always include those who engaged and shared the suffering as well as the healing.

The second task is to be clear about the outcomes.  This is about the prognosis and not the diagnosis.  It comes in knowledge from clinical trials and careful listening.  It is what gives us hope as well as frightens us.  It is where uncertainty looks for guidance from those who have lived through other traumas.  These guides are our docents who know and share their knowledge with us.

Lastly, I look for the character of the responders and the responses.  Who are the heroes?  What disciplines have they learned?  What environments have been places of creativity?  What are the stories of pandemics that we have learned, ignored or forgotten?   We have been given great gifts in the knowledge that has been shared with us.  Their knowledge has been shared by the grace of their words and understanding.  And now we have the gift of vaccines.

Thanks be to God for being with us all in our pandemics and our current Continuing Pandemic Education.

Marvin

References:

Collins, F. (2020) Celebrating the Gift of COVID-19 Vaccines 

https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2020/12/22/celebrating-the-gift-of-covid-19-vaccines/

Hage, M. (2008) STDs and NC State Law – A Provider / Public Health Partnership 

Hage, M. L. (2012). Healing Communities - “For the Greater Glory of God”.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/11/healing-communities-for-greater-glory.html

Hage, M. L. (2012). God’s Grace.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/10/gods-grace.html

Hage, M. L. (2014). Healing Ebola

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2014/10/healing-ebola.html

Jones, S. (2019). Call it grace : finding meaning in a fractured world. New York: Viking.

Brueggemann, W. (2020). Virus as a Summons to Faith: Biblical Reflections in a Time of Loss, Grief, and Uncertainty. Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Hage, M. L. (2020). Healing Faith.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/06/healing-faith.html

Healing Ends

 

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming

Traditional German carol, pub.1599

Personal Photo December 13, 2020

Asking hard questions seems to characterize the advent season this year.

“Are we there yet?” Is a common memory from the backseats of family trips.  It painfully recurs in the prayers of advent and now within the tragic context of a pandemic.  We desperately look for times and events that signal an “end”!  The vaccine distribution is one answer to those prayers but the “end of the pandemic” is still remote for most of us.

 

There is another related advent question,  “Will we receive  the gift?”  This question now finds its parallel in the issue of vaccination acceptance.   The underlying issue to any acceptance is “trust” in others and and their work.  Even those on the “science side” of this question know about the uncertainty of results.  

So during this time of prolonged waiting and questioning in this world, I find again that healing is not an event.   It is not the “hard stop” of vaccination, but a process of living with uncertainty in all its forms.  It comes in small bits of understanding and acceptance.  It even comes in the midst of a winter of grieving.

At this time of advent may we all remember and receive the blessings that surprise us like a rose blooming in the middle of winter.

Marvin

References

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming Carol

https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Lo_How_a_Rose_Eer_Blooming/

Hage, M. L. (2012). Awaiting “Good News”.

http://healingagents.blogspot.co.ke/2012/12/awaiting-good-news.html

Hage, M. L. (2018). Living the Dream.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2018/12/living-dream.html

Reading Together

And if we learn from this moment to be better together, 

we won’t just endure this crisis. We will thrive. 

Vivek Murthy, March 2020

"Keep close. You can't understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. 

You have to get close."

Bryan Stevenson’s grandmother in “Just Mercy”

In the past, I read predominantly in the growing mountain of professional literature.  It required close attention to and knowledge of the material.   It was focused reading to bring the best and newest evidence to the pressing questions of diagnosis and prescription.  In my lifetime, this became facilitated by powerful computer searching tools and electronic media.

Now, my reading is frequently recommended by others and requires reading as a basis of the conversation that follows.  The communication is about the many ways the same story/information is understood and applied.  

Here is one example from my church community.  We began using the narrative lectionary that organizes how specific stories meet the larger narratives in the Bible.  This is a four year curriculum of directed faith community reading.  It has been a wonderful gift to see how the narrative connects to our individual lives and encourages all of us to struggle together.

An example was joining another community and reading “Just Mercy” together.  This was a broader group that we were able to have conversations around the many stories reported by Bryan Stevenson.  These reflective times allowed me to form relationships and learn together even at a distance.

Thanks for communities that practice reading together.

Marvin

References: 

Sharma, D.  Reading and Technology Reading And Technology In 2020: Why Writers Are Bypassing Bookstores To Find Fans And Community? 

http://www.businessworld.in/article/Reading-and-Technology-in-2020-Why-writers-are-bypassing-bookstores-to-find-fans-and-community-/07-10-2020-328864/

Murthy, V. H. (2020). Together : the healing power of human connection in a sometimes lonely world (First edition. ed.). New York, NY: Harper Wave, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Narrative Lectionary

https://www.workingpreacher.org/home-narrative-lectionary

Stevenson, B. (2014). Just mercy : a story of justice and redemption (First edition. ed.). New York: Spiegel & Grau.

Hage, M. L. (2018). Healing Together.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2018/01/

Hage, M. L. (2020). Our Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/05/our-healing.html

Public & Personal Healing

Dr. Özlem Türeci and Dr. Uğur Şahin

 Covid Virus Pandemic Map - November 13, 2020

On Monday, November 9, 2020, there was a very big announcement that gave the world a sense of hope - the first results from a unique vaccine trial..  The back story of the “dream science couple” vaccine researchers is inspiring as we heard about the long personal preparation for their rapid innovative response to the pandemic.  This is an immigrant story from Germany.

Earlier this month, we were informed about individual response differences to the disease. - how our individual genetic codes the responses to the virus infection. We are beginning to identify specific individual risks to the Covid virus. 

The bad news is that the pandemic is reaching new records of cases and deaths.  There is a race to approve, produce, and distribute limited amounts of vaccines.  The efforts by teams around the world will continue to search for our best responses - public and personal.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story,

Marvin

References

Herper, M.  Statnews

https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/09/covid-19-vaccine-from-pfizer-and-biontech-is-strongly-effective-early-data-from-large-trial-indicate/

Oltermann, P The Guardian

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/10/ugur-sahin-and-ozlem-tureci-german-dream-team-behind-vaccine

Meffre, E. Iwasaki A.  Interferon deficiency can lead to severe COVID

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03070-1

Coronavirus Outbreak

https://www.bloomberg.com/coronavirus?sref=tT4nCvWQ

Hage, M. L. (2020). M & M - “Who’s Presenting?”.

https://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/03/m-m-whos-presenting.html?spref=fb&fbclid=IwAR2k95e9LN4lldPtQSH6XcxrP6zHa1k36bzFPyw8iDmZ2Uq_z7SMArn7pCw

Hage, M. L. (2020). Healing Faith.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/06/healing-faith.html

Hage, M. L. (2016). Invited.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/01/invited.html

Healing Intersections

 

Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, Personal Photo 2012

“Science, in the form of innovative technologies, increasingly views the patient as an amalgam of dysfunctional parts, while the arts, since time immemorial, have probed the meaning of being human. The former focuses on curing a disease; the latter aims to heal a human being brimming with uncertainty, discomfort, and dread.”

Bernard Lown, M.D. in the forward of Scales to Scalpels

Our lives get compartmentalized and fragmented.  How can we find meaning and bring these components together particularly during this pandemic?

A recent novel by Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent kingdom, tells a story of the intersections of race, gender, faith and science.  It is a provocative tale of the cross cultural life of a Ghanaian immigrant to the southern town of Huntsville, Alabama.    Even though this is a fictional story, the protagonist’s story resonates with the real life of the author.  It is a captivating and beautifully written novel.  

In a different kind and earlier report, Lisa Wong, tells the true story of the Longwood Symphony in Scales to Scalpels.  This documentary explores the many facets of music and healing.  For the author, it is a kind of memoir of how this organization began, grew and has become  essential to the members of the orchestra.  It is an inspiring look into the souls of the “medical musicians”.

Most recently with the pandemic the world has been introduced to the National Virtual Medical Orchestra.  We get to hear some beautiful music and see the the “medical musicians”.  This has become a way of finding healing at the intersection of these disciplines as reported by the PBS NewsHour.  

So here is a template for each of us as we are confronted by the increasing stresses of a pandemic and social chaos.  We need to confront the chaos with the healing arts that have been given to each of us and share with others.  If you don’t like classical music, you might want to try Quarantine Blues - you will feel better after listening!

Marvin

References

Gyasi, Y. (2020). Transcendent kingdom (First edition. ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Wong, L. (2012). Scales to Scalpels: Doctors Who Practice the Healing Arts of Music and Medicine: The Story of the Longwood Symphony Orch. Open Road Media.

National Virtual Medical Orchestra

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/09/900523029/meet-the-medical-professionals-playing-classical-music-together-online

Quarantine Blues

Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra & Wynton Marsalis

Hage, M. L. (2013). Healing Music

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/05/healing-music.html

Hage, M. L. (2019). New Year Prescription

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2019/01/new-year-prescription.html

Healing Disconnections

 

 

Prison Cell of Nelson Mandela

Robben Island, South Africa

Personal Photo, 2012

                  

Edmund Pettus Bridge

Selma, Alabama      

Personal Photo, 2020

And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Matthew 29:39 (NIV)

Africa, the cradle of humanity, has given America a priceless gift

—the language of Ubuntu.”

Mark Mathabane,

How do we heal our disconnections?  Can ideas of unity prevail over the ideas of power and privilege?  We need big ideas that result in resolution.  We need courage to cross the rivers that deeply divide us.

One such unifying and powerful idea that has provided a framework of healing responses is “ubuntu”.  It has roots in South African Zulu culture.   It was the underlying idea of the transition from apartheid to a more inclusive society in South Africa.  How can we learn and implement this idea?  

We need cross-cultural reporters like Mark Mathabane, but we also know what ”ubuntu” looks like in the lives of Rep. John Lewis and C.T. Vivian.  Their works are described as “love in action”!  

We need to “see” what connects us.  Together we can pursue connections within our best faith traditions and its music.  We will find our lives filled with purpose, meaning and beauty.  Our stories and songs of unity have and will reveal that healing!  Check out the song “Glory” from the movie “Selma” that reveals what “ubuntu” looks like in America.

Marvin

References

Mathabane, M. (2018) The Lessons of Ubuntu: How an African Philosophy Can Inspire Racial Healing in America (p. 235). Skyhorse. Kindle Edition. 

Bumley, L (2020) John Lewis and C.T. Vivian belonged to a long tradition of religious leaders in the civil rights struggle.

https://generocity.org/philly/2020/07/20/john-lewis-and-c-t-vivian-belonged-to-a-long-tradition-of-religious-leaders-in-the-civil-rights-struggle/

Hage, M. L. (2012). Rx Ubuntu.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/04/rx-ubuntu.html

Common and John Legend, “Glory” from the movie Selma, 2014

Healing Images

God’s First Covenant

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, 

and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.  

Genesis 9:13 (NIV)

Staff of Aesculapius

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”   So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

Numbers 21:8-9 (NIV)

In a time of chaos and pandemics, we all are looking for either old or new prescriptions for healing.   Where will we find relief?  When will it end?   Can images promise healing?

Walter Brueggemann and Thomas Wright present biblical responses to the current pandemic, but the threat is even bigger than just the disease!   The economic and social effects are severe in their own dimensions.  People around the world are frightened and grieving.  I was left with the conclusion that the essence of the pandemic responses are ones of faith.  

The added reality were the horrible images of death delivered by the hands of others.  Those images seemed to change everything.  Whole populations found something they were willing to die for and walls of separation and distance began to disappear.

Historically, we have seen the pentecostal moments of communities of faith (Azusa Street Revival) and it could be argued that we are seeing one again.  The movement is still not completely defined, but there is no question it is a time of seismic shifts in our thinking.

Can we expect healing?  My answer is “Yes” and one that has been promised to all of us.  We have had to look hard at what has wounded us as communities and individuals.  More importantly, we are faced with the question “Will we live into the healing promises of the images?”  We have seen glimpses of a deeper healing that is more than just a cure for a viral infection.

Thanks be to the God who hears and sees the suffering of his children.

Marvin

References:

Brueggemann W (2020) Virus as a Summons to Faith: Biblical Reflections in a Times of Loss, Grief and Uncertainty.  Cascade d

Wright, T (2020) God and the Pandemic. Zondervan

Brooks, D (2020) America is facing 5 Epic Crises All at Once

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/opinion/us-coronavirus-protests.html

Hage, M. L. (2014). The Arc of Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-arc-of-healing.html

Azuza Street Revival

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azusa_Street_Revival

Hage, M. L. (2013). Reconciliation and Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/12/reconciliation-and-healing.html

Shalal, A. After George Floyd's death, a groundswell of religious activism

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-usa-religion/after-george-floyds-death-a-groundswell-of-religious-activism-idUSKBN23G1FSweew