COVID AND THE CHURCH
COVID has changed the world and the way we do almost everything. It is a true paradigm shift where the rules that governed the way things work have been changed significantly enough that it feels like a different world than we lived in before.
Paradigm shifts are terribly difficult things to maneuver. The world still looks the same and spring came, as it always does, all by itself, in spite of the pandemic. The flowers, trees and grass didn’t care about the virus and did what they always do in the spring.
While the world looks much as it did before this global pandemic, we have had to change. A lot. And this is no truer than in the church. The Augsburg Confession begins to define the church with these words, “The Church is the gathering of believers….” So, how can we be the church if we do not gather together in person? The answer is: Very carefully!
There are certain core values that tie communities and congregations together. I want to suggest that these two core values will serve us well during this COVID wilderness journey.
The first is that we are all in this together. We need to care for each other even more than we did before. Every person’s individual life has changed and everyone I know is completely stressed out by these changes and wondering what the future will bring. Everyone is also dealing with a great deal of grief: from dreams deferred, from loss of income, from loss of the life they thought they were going to live, from the death of loved ones because of COVID. In and through all of this, we need to stick together so that everyone is cared for during this time, especially those most vulnerable.
The second core value is that the work of the church is even more important than ever. Both the care needed by the members of our congregation and those in our community has grown greater because of this new virus, which means that we have to figure out how to be the best church we can be with the resources we have…and do so as quickly as possible. Every decision we make sets a precedent for the way forward, so we will approach every decision – especially where the safety of our members is concerned – very carefully. Someone described the kind of work we were doing as building a bridge while we are walking across it. Tricky stuff.
I believe that it is possible to keep everyone safe and be a healthy, vibrant church during this strange time we are living through right now. It isn’t easy, but if we all realize that we are in this together and that the work of the church is even more important than ever, it can be done, and it can be done well.
One thing I want to ask of everyone, however, is that you be soft-hearted with those who differ with you on certain issues. I know that there are different opinions on COVID in this community. Some do not believe that it is much different than a bad flu virus and that little, if any, changes need to be made in our communal lives. Others, and I include myself in this group, take it very seriously, and see this as a life and death matter. It can be a very contentious difference and contention is what we need to avoid. Instead, we need to come together and bear with each other’s weakness.
In the eighth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul writes to them about food sacrificed to idols. This meat could be obtained quite cheaply so it was a good, affordable source of meat for those on a tight budget. The church in Corinth, however, consisted of a mix of Jewish and non-Jewish members. Many of the non-Jewish members had formally offered sacrifices to these idols and the “gods” they represented. Eating this meat was an abomination to them because of their former lives and how they viewed meat that had been sacrificed to an idol. For others, most of them Jewish, it posed no problem at all because these idols are not really gods, as there is only one real God.
Paul is less concerned with whether or not it is “lawful” to eat this meat and much more concerned with how it will affect those who used to worship these idols when they see their fellow church members eating meat at the temple of an idol. Those who did not ever believe in idols Paul designates as the “strong” in this scenario; they have knowledge that the other ones do not have: there are no other gods so this meat is just meat. But by engaging in their liberty to eat this meat, they can cause great damage to those “whose conscience is weak.” Paul goes so far as to say, “So by your knowledge {that these other gods are not real} those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.”
Allow me to give you this advice. If you are among those who do not think COVID is a deadly serious thing, please bear with the “weakness” of your brothers and sisters and respect their need to shield themselves from this virus through social distancing, masks and avoided large groups of people, especially indoors. You are free to believe what you wish, but your calling toward all believers, even those with whom you disagree, is still to “outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:10). We are in this together, my friends, and we will have to live with what we have done during this wilderness time long after this pandemic is a distant memory. There is a division between the knowledge that some of us believe is true and the knowledge that others believe is true. To this, Paul writes, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
Whatever COVID is, life will not always look the way it does now. We will get through this, sisters and brothers, but how we will look on the other side of this will be determined by the love with which we treat each other right now.
And I ask that you respect me with regards to COVID. A good friend of mine with whom I pastored at Saint Paul’s in Pine Island, for a year and a half, died in April from this virus. He died tragically early and he died alone. I take this very seriously.
I am 62 years old and in very good shape for my age. I ride my bike a LOT and my lungs work terrifically…except when they don’t. I have allergies and asthma and went through two bouts of acute bronchitis in the last year that required prednisone and antibiotics. If I catch this virus, it could kill me. I hate being at risk, especially when I feel so good most the time. But I have to be careful because I do not want to die from this. My children and grandchildren lost their mom and grandma at the age of 59 to pancreatic cancer. It would be bad form, indeed, for me to be careless and die from this pandemic. So I’m going to be very careful; I ask you to honor this, as well as everyone else who believe themselves to be at risk.
So much of today’s public discussion is about who is “right”; this has also been exasperated because this is an election year and the rhetoric coming from either party is exceptionally inflammatory. This is done to stir up the parties’ bases and to win an election. It is not done to shed light on the truth of the matter, it is done because they want to hold office, so the truth becomes a malleable thing.
When political discussions ensue – including discussions on COVID – what I hear is people who are convinced in the rightness of their beliefs looking down on those who are “foolish” enough to hold an opposing position. Heck, we can’t even agree on what is “fake news” and what is real news. And I’m sick of it.
Don’t get me wrong. Right and wrong matter and accurate knowledge of reality is important, but not as important as the love that binds us together.
I do not see anyone winning this battle of who is right and who is wrong. I do not think anyone is able to convince others that they are wrong in their political beliefs and in how seriously they take COVID. Personally, I’m batting 1000 on NOT changing anyone else’s mind. How about you?
I do see it possible for us to put away our stark differences and bear with one another in love, respecting the “weaknesses” in others, especially those whose beliefs on certain issues differ from our own. We will get through this. Together.

Let me close with these words from the fourth
chapter of 1 John:
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 
Peace and joy in Christ, Pastor Darby