There is no
denying that we are living in a unique situation. Even as pandemics have come and gone in the
last few centuries, the level of preventative measures being put in place has
rarely…if ever been seen. By the time
measures were put in place with the Spanish Flu in the early part of the
twentieth century, it was too late. The
death toll from that pandemic was more than WWI and WW2 combined.
So here we are faced with another
pandemic. How we respond or don’t
respond will be measured and analyzed for centuries to come. Did we do enough? Did we do too much? Do we
need to worry so mu
ch about a virus?
One of the most interesting testing
grounds for all of this is the Church. Many
churches around the world are stopping physical meetings. Church services, Bible Studies, youth groups
are all stopping in the name of keeping people safe. ‘Social distancing’ has
become the new rallying cry for many across the world.
There are some who view this as
fear. If we close the church, we are saying
to the world that we do not care. Or
worse we are saying that we have a ‘spirit of fear’ and not a ‘spirit of faith.’
Others fear that by not gathering in worship, we are breaking the injunction of
the Bible to worship God.
To others, if we gather in worship
we are declaring our arrogance and indifference to other people in the
world. We need to practice social
distancing in order to keep the most vulnerable at risk safe from the risk of
disease. By not practicing social distancing,
we are actually displaying our unfaithful and unloving sides to a world that
needs it right now.
What is important: our need to
gather as the body of Christ or our need to love our neighbor?
But it is not actually that simple,
is it? After all, we can make an argument that there is little need for Bible
studies, but the hungry need to be fed, the naked still need to be clothed, and
the elderly still need to be visited and loved. How can we do that and practice
social distancing?
But yet…how
do we maintain a right balance to not put people at risk.
This becomes personal for me. I have an immune deficient child who I want
to protect at costs. And yet, I believe
that we should also gather as the church.
But maybe this is a time when we can
re-evaluate why we meet as a church. How
many church meetings where I have wondered about us frittering away our lives?
How many Bible Studies have we been to where people have just muttered there
way around the text, pretending to grow in knowledge….but in reality have just
been excuses to talk about other people.
What church gatherings would I risk
my life to go to?
Is there a different message sent
that if we gather to sing praise songs or if we gather to put together food for
the homeless? Is this even a correct dichotomy? Should we do both?
Maybe this is pandemic is not really
posing the question between whether we have a spirit or fear or a spirit of
faith…maybe it’s pointing us to something new.
Maybe it’s helping us redefine what is truly important. Maybe it’s helping us to define what we can and
cannot live without.
If every church gathering carries
with it the possibility of leading to someone’s illness or death, Church
leaders need to rethink the meeting.
What can we live with…what can’t we? What are we willing to risk?
In the end, we come back…as to we
have to in every situation. What is
Christ calling us to do? Is Christ calling us to come together or to remain social
distant from others for a while? Maybe it’s both? Maybe he calls some to be
together and others to be distant. Does
he call us to obey our commanding officer or to ignore that order?
Whatever our answer is…one thing is
for certain. We have to lot to reevaluate.
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