What Are You Spreading These Days?

There’s a lot of stuff going around lately - illnesses, I mean - around here, at least. My stomach has been bothering me since Monday morning when a friend sent me a text to warn us that her son, who had spent the weekend with us, had just thrown up all over the bathroom.

If only we spread good will and compassion as freely as we spread our germs. Imagine what the world would be like.

I’m the editor of my church’s newsletter. I was looking through the lectionary readings for the month of May this morning, working on ideas for the newsletter.  The lectionary is an organized approach to Biblical scripture that many churches use.  In it, scriptures are arranged in a three-year calendar that covers a good portion of the Bible. The lectionary scripture readings for the next three weeks, which will be used in many Christian churches, are from three different books: Acts, Psalms, Revelation and John (with a few others thrown in). Acts tells the story leading up to the birth of the church, which is called Pentecost. At Pentecost, the disciples were filled with the spirit of God (the Holy Spirit) and they were able to speak and be understood in all languages. The Psalms for this period proclaim the wonders of God. Revelation speaks of God’s kingdom coming to Earth. John says that Jesus came to teach us. Jesus is of God and he came so that we can all be one; Jesus in God and God in us. So now, we can all be one with God.  Running through this group of passages, I see a theme of God teaching us, though Jesus, how to fill ourselves and the world with the wonder and beauty of the great spirit of God. 

When I dropped my son off at baseball practice tonight, he looked a round and asked, “Why don’t we drive a big car?” I said, “Because big cars use more gas and that’s bad for the Earth.” He said, “Everything people do is bad for the Earth. The Earth would be fine if there were no people.” I nodded my head in agreement. 

But it isn’t supposed to be that way. We are supposed to cherish the Earth and all that is in it. We are supposed to cherish the blue sky, the grass, birds and animals and each other. If only we could learn to spread compassion, wonder and awe as easily as we spread germs, hate and jealousy. If only we could spread faith, hope and love.