QUARANTINE BLOG #8

April 7, 2020

Sunday I went to my favorite Chinese restaurant, Formosa II, for take out.  I ordered online and when I walked in to pay, I saw the employees wearing masks, and tables covered with white cloths set up in front of the counter.  With the size of the counter and the width of the tables, we were keeping the social distancing guidelines.  I, too, was wearing a mask.

👉 Being a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Steelers, and finding little to no reporting about the same here in the South (and really no reason to expect local news outlets to tell us about anyone other than the Braves or the Falcons – and incessantly about a certain baseball game in late 1992) I subscribe to a sports web page out of Pittsburgh, DKPittsburghSports.com.  DK is Dejan Kovacevic, a sports writer (at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) whom I first discovered during, then, annual baseball excursions to the Burgh.  This link https://www.dkpittsburghsports.com/2020/04/06/kovacevic-coronavirus-dk-2/ is to an outstanding column about the coronavirus.  It’s long, but well worth the read.

If you try the link and are not allowed to read the whole article, email me, and I’ll share it from my subscription.

👉 Google today. The caption: To all the public health workers and researchers in the scientific community, thank you.

👉 We are directed to observe social distancing, at least 6 feet apart, and a good direction it is.  But it has reminded me of an incident which occurred many years ago at Lee College in Cleveland, TN.  Lee is the main center of higher education for the Church of God, a denomination where Bonnie and I served for more than a dozen years.  Lee was very conservative in its early years and dating couples were required to have a chaperone with them if they went off campus, and on campus they were required to walk 6 inches apart, no touching.

One morning, so the story goes, the student body was gathered for the mandatory morning chapel.  As the president of the college rose to give his greetings to the gathered throng, he said, “This morning on my way to chapel I noticed a young couple holding hands, and after a furtive glance around, he stole a kiss.  Now as you know, such behavior is grounds for dismissal from Lee College, but if the offending couple will come into my office and confess, they will receive demerits, but not dismissal.”

The next morning, so the story goes, the student body was gathered for the mandatory morning chapel.  As the president of the college rose to give his greetings to the gathered throng, he said, “Since chapel service yesterday, three couples have come into my office to confess, but the one I observed has not.”

And the moral of this story – at least as I am reporting it – is keep your distance.  You will stay healthy and have an untroubled conscience.

👉 And speaking of social distancing, one of my readers sent me the following cartoon of social distance baptism.  Enjoy.

👉 A week ago, we were talking about delaying mortgage payments because of the financial effect the coronavirus is having.  It was pointed out to me that if you are seeking that relief, determine how it will affect your escrow account.  Escrow contains money to pay taxes and insurance, and if you aren’t required to make your mortgage payments, your escrow account will not have as much money in it as it would under normal circumstances.  Be sure you will have enough put back to pay the taxes and insurance.

👉 And speaking of normal, the WWE put on its 36th annual WrestleMania over two nights – this past Saturday and Sunday – instead of its usual one night.  And the event was televised from the WWE training center.  The only live audience was the television crew.

The match that I came in on was Edge, the Rated R Superstar versus The Viper, Randy Orton, in a “Last Man Standing Match.”  For the uninitiated, a LMSM is what it sounds like.  A rassler pummels his opponent until the defeated is unable to get to his feet by the end of a ten count.  As I told two fans who were watching, “This isn’t my rasslin’.”  Does anyone remember Bruno Sammartino, Superstar Billy Graham, Dominic DeNucci, Killer Kowalski, Chief Jay Strongbow, and The Fabulous Moolah?

After a few minutes, I remarked about it being a strange WrestleMania not being able to sharing the audience reaction (like when a bad match is taking place, the crowd chants my favorite, “boring” – but with the mega event that Wrestlemania has become, that chant wouldn’t have been heard anyway).

One rasslin’ fan replied, “But at least it brings some sort of normalcy.  If you count the WWE as normal.”

👉 Let’s wrap this up with one of my favorite biblical stories from Holy Week.   Matthew, Mark and John place the story here at the end, Luke puts it at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  There is no contradiction.  Each of the Gospel writers was addressing a different group, and often arranged events to amplify the message he was sharing.  Another “for instance:” Jesus turning over the tables of the money changers and upsetting the cages of the animals that were for sale.  The story appears early in His ministry in some accounts, and late in others.  It is illogical to think that he did this twice.  The hatred of the scribes and Pharisees for Jesus would have exploded, probably into murder, if He had done it twice.

But back to the story (and there’s so much preaching in there).  Jesus is being hosted in Bethany.  A woman enters, and while dinner is going on, breaks open a container of costly perfume – Judas complains that it could have been sold for an amount equal to one year’s wages.  That’s a lot of money!  Think about the amount you put on your Form 1040 this year!

Judas is not the only one to criticize her, but Jesus says, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mark 14:6-9 English Standard Version – the other locations are Matthew 26:6-13, Luke 7:36-50, and John 12:1-8).

“She has done what she could.”  In these difficult days, may that be said of us as we live with social distancing and sheltering in place, calling, texting, Face-timing, doing drive-bys.  Keep the faith.  Keep loving.  We will get through this.

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