As we enter the season of Lent, and close out two years with the coronavirus, now is a good time to contemplate our care for ourselves and for others.
For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
— 1 Cor 6:20
It’s been a long two years. We have come through the most profound public health crisis in our living memory. As I type this, the Board of Pensions is back in its offices with a full staff for the first time since March 13, 2020. The City of Philadelphia has lowered the threat level to moderate. We return with anticipation and some anxiety. Yes, it has been a long two years.
As we draw closer to God this Lenten season, and prepare for renewal through God’s grace, the time is good to recall words from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: “Your body is a temple.” God wishes for each of us lives that flourish. After two years of the coronavirus, and uncertainty still with us, tending to our health is essential if we are to flourish.
Everything the Board offers — benefits, education, assistance — supports members in answering God’s call to live our best lives. We want to foster holistic well-being in our members, which includes the area of health. Recently, you’ve heard us talking about care navigation, starting April 1. It’s meant to simplify the healthcare journey, and we’re excited about it. But there’s more to helping Benefits Plan members be proactive on their health.
On March 10, we will present the webinar Taking Charge of Your Healthcare for members, spouses, and surviving spouses. If you can’t make it, it will be recorded. Anyone with a Benefits Connect login can access our webinar recordings. The webinars focus on all areas of wholeness, and there are two in the collection now that are specifically related to health — Healthy Bodies: Thinking Beyond our Weight Series and Being Your Own Healthcare Advocate.
Our monthly Wholeness Moments are available publicly, on pensions.org. These brief videos feature someone knowledgeable in an area of wholeness. In February, the Reverend Dr. Willard W.C. Ashley Sr. talked about healthcare inequities. The pandemic brought these inequities into sharp relief as people from marginalized communities experienced disproportionate rates of severe illness and death. Dr. Ashley reminds that as people of faith, we should be taking “a public, prophetic stand advocating for better healthcare, advocating for equity.”
Dr. Ashely’s words, as do Paul’s, provide direction for our inner journey this Lenten season. God’s wish that we flourish in life is a wish for every one of us. We glorify God in the care we give our bodies. And we show gratitude for the gift of Christ Jesus through care for others. As Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians, “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”
There is much to contemplate in Lenten season 2022.
Grace and peace,
The Reverend Frank Clark Spencer
President
