DAY OF DEATH

It is Good Friday, April 10, 2020. It is a day to remember death, in more ways than one. In the Christian religion, this is the day of the Lord's death. He was executed in a gruesome and brutal way by order of the ultimate political authority of the day in Palestine, the Roman governor. The Romans reserved death by crucifixion for themselves as an example of what they would do to disturbers of the peace, as Jesus of Nazareth. The Roman Empire of the day was a far-flung loose state of 55 provinces, each ruled by a governor who was a virtual dictator backed up by the army. The Romans required two things of their provincial people, loyalty and taxes. Otherwise they left people more or less alone as long as no one upset the rather fragile system too much. From the Roman perspective, Jesus was nothing more than a troublemaker, a disturber of the peace. He was upsetting their system of "law and order." He had to go. Of course, no one at the time, not even Jesus' followers, had any idea what this execution was going to mean. In fact, it changed the world as no other event in human history has done. And so, it is a "Good" Friday.

Here, in 2020, all these centuries later, death is present in our lives again. Thousands of people are being killed every day by an invisible power that is doing nothing but disturbing the peace, disrupting law and order.

According to Worldometer, in the last two days, 167,272 people have fallen ill of COVID-19 in the world and 13,701 have died. This is bad news and good news. The bad is that the numbers are ever rising. The good news is that the rate of increase is slowing, at least slightly.

In America, the numbers are grim. In the past two days, 68,346 people have been reported with the virus for a total of 468,895. As for deaths in the last two days, 3,840 American have died of the plague for a total of 16,697 dead. Again, the numbers are escalating but the rate of growth is slowing slightly.

In South Carolina, the last two days saw 375 new cases and 16 more deaths. SC now lists 2,792 infected and 67 dead. In Alabama, cases are soaring. There were 641 new infections in the last two days for a total of 2,838. There were 14 deaths for a total of 78. The hardest hit state in the south is Louisiana which is reporting 18,283 cases and 702 deaths. New Orleans hospitals are overwhelmed.

So, the figures, even inaccurate and incomplete as they are, show the plague to be spreading rapidly but its rate of spread is slowing. Meanwhile, the effects of the plague are hitting hard. Yesterday, the U.S. government reported some 17 million people unemployed, a record since the Great Depression. A third of people could not pay the rent this month. Food pantries are running out of food. Programs to help small businesses survive are lost in a haze of chaos. Meanwhile, with a vacuum of leadership at the top, local governments are scrambling to meet the needs of the day.

The present fight going on in America is when to "reopen" the country. Conservative forces are demanding immediate lifting of the quarantines and closures. They are thinking of money. The medical leaders say, not so fast. We need to keep our policies in place until the threat has abated. They are thinking of people. Dr. Fauci indicated schools should be able to reopen for the next school year, which for many people would be August.

And so, we refuse to be vanquished by death. Our heroes of the hour are those fighting for life, the medical professionals from the lofty, Drs. Fauci and Birx, to the lowliest, the janitor of the smallest hospital. Our prayers should be for and with them.

Finally, the video of the day. There was amazing grace nearly two thousand years ago. There is amazing grace all around us now. Here is a lone nurse reminding everyone of this as she sings to exhausted crews in her hospital. Find the video here .

As we recall the amazing grace then and now, we should remember we are here for the living of this hour. Peace.