Spiritual Pandemic
- davidwperk
- Jul 16
- 5 min read
Devotional Reflection, Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Proper 10, the week of the fifth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrase for reflection from today’s reading:
17When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’
(You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.)
Daily Office Lectionary readings (BCP, 974)
AM Psalm 38; PM Psalm 119:25-48
1 Samuel 20:1-23; Acts 12:18-25; Mark 2:13-22
Today we celebrate the Feast of “The Righteous Gentiles.” (See below.)
David's Reflections
Jesus' aphorism about those who are well not needing a physician feels a bit tongue-in-cheek. Perhaps the sense is that only those who know they are ill seek the physician. Those who do not know that they are ill, who show no obvious symptoms, probably don’t. Of course, some chose not to seek a physician in spite of their symptoms. We could, tongue in check, say that a spiritual pandemic ravages all of us, but some of us deny its existence.
The metaphor of sin as disease certainly sparks the imagination. It's a disease we all share but that has different symptoms in different people. Matthew, the tax collector, had one set of symptoms--he was a bureaucrat who served the dominating empire that subjugated and oppressed his people and probably extorted more than people actually owed. The religiously upright despised him and supposed him to be beneath them in religious stature. Those resentful of Roman rule saw him as a traitor for serving their overlords. Yet, those very people were suffering from the same disease as Matthew, a disease that in their cases had different symptoms--religious pride, a sense of superiority and elitism, and emotionally violent anger.
Jesus' saying cautions us that we all are desperately ill and in need of the physician Jesus and his healing love. If we mistake the symptoms of others as the only or primary ones, we may miss our own differing (and less obvious to us) symptoms of the same infectious disease. We all need God equally as much, but we each conceal that need from ourselves by identifying sin with the symptoms of others.
As the French master poet, Charles Baudelaire, put it in his poem "To the Reader" *:
Cradled in evil, that Thrice-Great Magician,
The Devil, rocks our souls, that can't resist;
And the rich metal of our own volition
Is vaporized by that sage alchemist.
The Devil pulls the strings by which we're worked;
By all revolting objects lured, we sink
Hellwards; each day down one more step we're jerked
Feeling no horror, through the shades that stink.
Our only hope for healing and freedom is the same as that Matthew experienced, a relationship of faith in and devotion to Jesus of Nazareth. In Jesus, we will find a healer who does not despise our symptoms, whose compassion will receive us and lavish healing love on us. The Great Physician came among us because we were in the grip of a spiritual pandemic with no cure available.
*The Flowers of Evil. A Selection Edited by Marthiel and Jackson Mathews (New York: New Directions, 1955), p. 3.
Collect of the Day, Proper 10, the fifth Sunday after Pentecost
O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 231)
Today we celebrate the Feast of “The Righteous Gentiles.”
Collect of the Feast of “The Righteous Gentiles”
Lord of the Exodus, who delivers your people with a strong hand and a mighty arm: Strengthen your Church with the examples of the Righteous Gentiles of World War II to defy oppression for the rescue of the innocent; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Collect for Protection
O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 124)
For those we Love
Almighty God, we entrust all who are dear to us to your never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come, knowing that you are doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 831)
A Prayer for Light
O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)
Daily Office Gospel, Mark 2:13-22
13 Jesus went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. 14As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. 15And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him. 16When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ 17When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ 19Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
21 ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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