We Are Not Alone
Easter 6A
This just in from Janice Hopkins Tanne in The BMJ (the
online British Medical Journal):
Half of all Americans are experiencing a measurable level of
loneliness and it is a serious threat to their health and to that of their
communities, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has said in an opinion column in
the New York Times.
“Loneliness is more than just a bad feeling. When people are
socially disconnected, their risk of anxiety and depression increases. So does
their risk of heart disease (29%), dementia (50%), and stroke (32%). The
increased risk of premature death associated with social disconnection is
comparable to smoking daily—and may be even greater than the risk associated
with obesity,” he wrote.
Murthy said that loneliness harms communities as social
disconnection is associated with reduced productivity in the workplace, worse
performance in school, and diminished civic engagement.
“When we are less invested in one another, we are more
susceptible to polarisation and less able to pull together to face the
challenges that we cannot solve alone—from climate change and gun violence to
economic inequality and future pandemics,” he wrote. “As it has built up for
decades, the epidemic of loneliness and isolation has fueled other problems
that are killing us and threaten to rip our country apart.” He said that
because of the costs associated with these effects, “rebuilding social
connection must be a top public health priority for our nation,” and “will
require reorienting ourselves, our communities, and our institutions to
prioritise human connection and healthy relationships.”
Social isolation means people have few social relationships,
social roles, and group memberships, and infrequent social interactions.
Loneliness is a subjective, distressing internal state which was a problem
before the pandemic but made much worse by it. Communities whose residents are
more connected with one another do better on several measures of population
health, community safety, community resilience when natural disasters strike,
prosperity, and civic engagement.[i]
People who worked from home during the pandemic have
continued to do so. Instead of shopping for groceries, many take advantage of
Insta Cart delivery. I went to the bank for the first time in several years,
walked in, and was first, disoriented because it had been totally renovated, there
were three, down from as many as five, cashiers, and I was the only person in
the lobby! I went in specifically to talk with old friends at the counter, but
only three were left.
Against this current background, Jesus says to us today: “I
will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world
will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.
On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those
who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself
to them.” [ii]
That is, we are not alone. Not now. Not ever.
One dimension of our Baptism is that, unlike others in this
lonely and alienating world, we see Jesus; because we love Jesus; therefore,
God the Father loves us and reveals Jesus to us! Those of us who have a church
are lucky. We have social interactions with one another, and with Jesus, at
least once a week. We pray together. We sing together. We laugh together. We
share the body and blood of Christ, together. We are not alone.
Our liturgy accentuates this, but is hampered by English
using the same pronoun for “you” singular and “you” plural. The liturgy means
for us to hear it always as “you” plural, yet we tend to hear it as “you”
singular, which only adds to all other social forces that tend to isolate us.
For instance, the invitation to Holy Communion says, in
part, “The gifts of God for the people of God; (so far so good, “people”
connotes community). Take this in remembrance that Christ died for you (that
is, y’all) and feed on him in your hearts (plural) by faith, with thanksgiving
(which, by the way, is what Eucharist means – “thanksgiving).” Even the
simple formula, “The Lord be with you,” is meant to be, “The Lord be
with y’all!”
When we are baptized by water and the Holy Spirit; when we
renew our Baptismal promises; we commit ourselves to be part of the Body of
Christ – which is this congregation, and the Church Universal (which is what “One
Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” means – universal, the whole church,
the whole enchilada, including those communities of Christ we do not know and
do not understand). When we say that we, plural, will “Seek and serve
Christ in all persons (plural), loving your neighbor as yourself,” we mean
first and foremost the entire Church Universal, but also all those from other
religious traditions and those who have no faith at all!
When the chrism, the oil of baptism, blessed by our bishop,
traces a cross upon our foreheads, we are blessed and commissioned to connect
our lives to all these other lives, because Jesus loves us, and the Father
loves us all as well. It’s just that simple. We come from love; we return to
love (as Jesus is saying he is about to do); and love is all around – in all
those God loves!
We, the Church, Christ Church Forest Hill, Rock Spring
Parish, have been, since 1805, a place where the healing of a culture of
loneliness can begin! As if all of this is not enough, Jesus gives us “the
Spirit of Truth,” the Holy Spirit, whom we will know “because she abides
with you, and she will be in you.” I say “she” because I once showed a film
to a group of teenage girls about the Holy Spirit in which the part of the Holy
Spirit was played by an African-American girl. When I asked them later who the
Holy Spirit is, one girl replied, “That girl with the big Afro!” That’s how I
have seen the Holy Spirit ever since!
In the midst of this epidemic of loneliness, we are the
luckiest people of all, for we have Jesus, we have the Father, and we have the
Holy Spirit! And, of course, we have one another, us, plural! We are not alone!
Because God in Christ loves us all. God is good! All the time! All the time!
God is good! And so are we. So are we!
[i] “Epidemic
of loneliness threatens public health, says US Surgeon General” https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p1017.full
(The bmj, May 4, 2023)
[ii]
John 14:15-21
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