Day 17 of Lent, Monday, March 24, 2014

 "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father."
                                                                      Jesus as quoted in John 14:12 (NRSV)


The country of India has eradicated polio from its borders.

This is surprisingly good news considering that polio spreads through contaminated water and India's large population is quite dense with many living in poverty.

However, the volunteerism it took to provide vaccinations to the poor neighborhoods is quite impressive.  This kind of effort shows that we can make a difference with global health.

The conditions in parts of India make this a modern miracle.

The United Methodist bishops set out one of their four areas of focus in 2008 as "Stamping Out the Killer Diseases of Poverty by Improving Health Globally."

I'm glad to see us making strides against these kinds of diseases where vaccines exist and it just takes the hard work to make it happen.

When I was younger, I didn't really understand the above quote from John 14:12.  After all, how could we do something greater than Jesus?  But as the Body of Christ, we have the power to change the world.

We can stamp out disease and hunger.

We can feed his sheep.

For Lent today, let us pray this prayer together and mean it:

Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellows throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger.  Give them, through our hands, this day their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give peace and joy.  Amen.

                                                                             Prayer by Mother Teresa of Calcutta



Photo by meg and rahul (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons