Pandemics and Kickstarters: Episode 361

Well, welcome back to Voices in My Head. As always, I'm your host Rick Lee James, and I'm so glad that you're here with me today for this, uh, what is going to be a brief podcast. Um, I am trying something different today that I haven't had a chance to try out before on this particular podcast, and that is the new, uh, live, uh, feature for Podbean. I wanted to try it out just to see how it was because things are a little different right now in the times that we are in. And I'm sure if you're like me, your world has been changed quite a bit since this time last week, and we're kind of wondering what the next thing is. And I'm going to talk a little bit about that today on the podcast. But first, just let me welcome you to Voices in My Head, and I'm still getting to know some of the features of this live, uh, Podbean feature that they have. So bear with me as I try this out today. I tried it out just a couple of days ago on my other podcast, which is Welcome to the Neighborhood, a Mr. Rogers tribute podcast, and I think it went fairly well. So I decided I would give it another try. It's Wednesday, and usually on Wednesday I already have a podcast out in the morning, but this has been a nuts week. I mean, just trying to get groceries has been a difficult task, as many of us are finding., and I live in Ohio, so pretty much the entire state has been shut down on almost every level. Restaurants are closed, the gym I go to is closed, schools are closed, most of the churches are closed, and you just name it. Grocery stores are open, that's about it. Gas stations are open, but they're strongly encouraging us to stay in and protect the most vulnerable among us, and I want to be about doing all that we can to protect those who are at the most risk for this, this virus that's going around. So I just wanted to come on and say a couple of things today. First of all, I wanted to celebrate with you because thankfully we reached our goal with our Kickstarter project for the new music video for Love Our Enemies. So yay! We've been celebrating and praising the Lord. I didn't think we were going to make it. Oh me of little faith. We had some very generous donors come in in the last few days of the campaign, and we not only made it to 100%. We went 105%, so we have a little bit of extra money to work with that I didn't know if we were going to have. I always budget these things as tightly as I can because I hate asking for money anyway, but that extra just helps us to, to not have to be quite so tight and be just a little bit more comfortable in what we have to work with. Now, that being said, because of all the things that are shutting down and because of Governor DeWine— and by the way, Governor DeWine has done an excellent job, and I just want to give praise praise is due. People, some are saying he's overreacting, but I think he's working with the good information that he has from the CDC and other scientists who are saying we really need to flatten this curve and not let this virus get out of hand. So I'm very glad that he is— really, my state of Ohio has been leading the way in this for the rest of the nation, and I'm so grateful for that in, in a time where we maybe feel like there's a lack of leadership, we're really seeing it from here in Ohio. So I'm very grateful for that. But that being said, I didn't think it was going to be a good idea for us next weekend on March 28th to come together in a, you know, medium-sized room with a bunch of people from all over the U.S. to come and film a music video and be confined together for a number of hours while we make this. So I spoke with the videographer, uh, and I spoke with the studio where we're renting space. All of them have been wonderful to work with and totally understood, uh, wanting to, uh, move the date back. So we have changed the date of the music video to June 6th, which is a Saturday. Put it on your calendars because you are invited to come and be in this music video. Hopefully we will be through some of this craziness by then and we'll feel like we can get back out in public again. But I just wanted to, uh, to make that announcement today that we are changing the music video date. And I also wanted to kind of make a plea with you this morning. Uh, you know, we're— I work at a church part-time, and we're trying to make plans for what to do to protect the people among us who are the most vulnerable. And we're praying for the Spirit to lead us in these things and to make wise and good choices in all matters. And, and it's a difficult thing to know exactly what to do. Do we open up for just a very small group, but then we have the problem of small groups getting together and you're even more confined because you're a small group, and, and that doesn't necessarily bode well for the health of many. So I think we're all kind of in uncharted territory right now, and we're really trying to do the right thing for each other. But I did make a post this week actually, I think it was last week on my website, um, but it was about, uh, being the church in the time of, of a pandemic and, and figuring out what it means to, to be disciples and whether or not we're going to be disciples in this time. And, and, you know, in the early church, the followers of Jesus, they took his word seriously. And we do see that in John chapter 13, verses 34 through 35. If we look at that passage, which is so often used for Maundy Thursday, Jesus says A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. And we can look back in history at times when, like the 2nd and 3rd centuries, where we have records that Christ followers, they did put their own lives at risk to care for the sick and for the dying during pandemic conditions. And in one— one— from 165 to 180 AD, a plague which is now believed to have been smallpox became this pandemic, and it was known as the— I think it was the Antonine is how you pronounce it— the Antonine Plague, and 5 million people died from it. And in 251 to 266 AD, the Plague of Cyprian spread from person to person in Africa and throughout the entire known world. And the plague was transmitted by person-to-person contact and sometimes even by touching clothes of people that had it. And when these pandemics happened, officials from the government and the wealthy citizens, they fled for their lives in those times, and they were leaving the cities, they were escaping to countrysides in order to try to keep out of contact with those who were infected. And often the Christians stayed behind. And they became caretakers for those who were infected and were putting their own lives at risk. And many of them in fact did die in the process, and maybe some of them even spread it. Um, but Bishop Dionysius of Corinth praised the efforts of these Christians in an Easter Sunday message in 260 AD. He said, most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves. And thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy. For they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. The early Christians dedicated themselves to Jesus' teaching, caring for their neighbors as themselves, even during times of sickness and pandemics. Well, in Matthew 10, we see Jesus sending his disciples out on their mission. The followers of Jesus were commanded to proclaim this message: The kingdom of heaven has come near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. And the question I posed on my website blog was, the mission hasn't changed, have the disciples? And I, I want to tell you that this is something I think we need to seriously grapple with. We need to do all we can as Christians, I think, to be the first responders to those that are in need, but I also think we need to be very careful in how we do this. One thing that we need to consider when we're caring for those in need is how do we do it without putting them at greater risk, without putting our families at greater risk. And without just doing dumb things that we shouldn't be doing in a time of a pandemic. We know from looking at the science, and we're finding out new information every day, they say that people who have this coronavirus, that they're probably going to spread it to at least 3 other people. And do the math, those 3 spread it to 3 more, those 3 to 3 more, and before you know it, we have things like Italy that we see. And well-meaning people caring for others can carry that disease and continue to spread it. So We need to start thinking about how do we love our neighbors? How do we care for those who are in need? How do we help those who are sick? But how do we do it in a way that's not going to make it worse for them just because we might want to say, hey, we're doing our discipleship business? But how do we care for them in a way that does not make the situation worse? Um, I think one way that maybe we can help in this time— I don't know if you have felt this need, but I think some of our elderly people, they're finding that when they get to the grocery stores, the shelves are empty. It's not only discouraging to some of them, but sometimes it's scary as well. And I think one way that we might be able to help is I've been trying to reach out and make myself available to people if they want me to help them make a list online where I can go pick up their groceries for them, and then I don't even have to interact with them. I can take the bag, just leave it at the door, knock knock on the door and leave because I don't want to take a chance of infecting them and I don't also want them to be without food or without what they might need. People are very stretched thin right now but people are also sequestered and somehow we have to, while we are trying not to make this disease worse, we still need to figure out ways that we can help other people who are in need and may need help So make sure that you're taking time, you know, maybe give your neighbor a phone call or check on the elderly people in your community that you know of, or even people who are diabetics. I'm learning more about the virus and it really has a brutal effect upon people who are diabetic and people who have pre-existing conditions. So I think we're all asking together, what's the best way that we can help? But let's not forget, in the midst of this, we're disciples of Jesus, and we are called to do whatever we can to heal the sick, and, uh, and whatever best way we can do that. We need to be compassionate, but we also need to be smart about it. Sometimes the most compassionate thing we can do is to maybe stay away, um, for their own benefit. It doesn't do any good for us to come in and try to rescue them in ways that aren't smart, if we in fact may find out later we are carrying this virus and we end up making it worse on them in the long run because our symptoms haven't showed up for a couple of weeks. So this is just a call to, to be disciples, but also to figure out how to do this together and be smart. There's a lot of great resources on the web. I encourage you to look at those. The last thing we want to be as disciples is like snake handlers, you know. We don't want to take dumb risks, uh, saying, hey, God will protect us. But at the same time, we do want to be faithful to our mission and to our calling and not leave behind the most vulnerable and those who are most susceptible to this sickness. We want to do our best to serve them and help them in any way we can. If serving them means we need to, to stay away, if serving them means we need to shut down our churches for a while so they won't risk coming out, then It's okay, this isn't gonna last forever, but we need to flatten that curve for sure. So that's about all I have today. I'm in my office here at church right now. I've got to get back to work and get some other things done related to things I'm talking about. So anyway, I hope you are doing well. I wanna thank you all for joining in on this live episode today of Voices in My Head. And thank you for supporting indie artists, especially in this time. I just sold 6 CDs this morning, which is so needed because I depend on this for my income. So much. And I want to thank you for the support that people like you who have been ordering my music online at rickleejames.bandcamp.com— that's such a blessing to me and to my family in these days. And I know so many of us are out of work, but I just want to thank you so much for the love and support that you have shared with us. So let's try this again on this live thing here. Let's see if we can do some outro music, okay? All right, God bless you guys. Thanks for listening to Voices in My Head, and, uh, follow me at rickleejames.com, on Twitter @RickLeeJames, and my other site is @MrRogersSay. God bless you all.