Sorting Out Thoughts on Reopening (Part 1)
Update: Sorting out my Thoughts on Reopening (Part 2) is now available.
Dear Future Self:
As you read this, we here in 2020 are living through what some have called a once-in-a-century pandemic event. We have been living in varying degrees of state-ordered lockdown for around two months. To date, an impossible to fathom 100,000 people have died because of COVID-19. Almost every possible norm in the regular rhythms of life have been upended for many, including, physical gatherings of our church community at West Covina Christian Church. We are now beginning to discern what the future looks like for the gathering together of the church and this blog is my attempt to chronicle and process my thoughts prior to meeting.
What’s Important
There are several principles (that I can think of) that govern my thinking on this topic:
- The biblical mandate to love God first and foremost
- The biblical mandate to love my neighbor and pursue my neighbor’s interests above mine own
- Closely correlated: the biblical mandate to consider the poor, widowed, and orphaned - especially of the household of faith.
- A biblical framework that recognizes (but does not idolize) the rationality given to us by our rational God
- The honoring of and submission to good-faith authorities
- Humility
- Charity
Loving God First and Foremost
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
Matthew 22:37
Everything that follows, flows from an ultimate desire to honor and glorify God and to do that in a way that is consistent in obedience to scripture and the nuance of Jesus' life and teachings. Ultimately, for the Christian - there is no sting or true fear of death - there is a peace and abiding joy that comes from the reality of what Jesus has done and is doing. It’s from this posture that I strive to not act out of fear, but out of love.
Loving my Neighbor
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Matthew 22:39
If Jesus' first priority was securing the primacy of loving God, the second is notable: to love our neighbors. In the parable of the Good Samaritan our neighbor is not defined as someone who looks, sounds, acts, or even has the same beliefs as me. It’s someone who in fact can be extremely different from you. How do I love my neighbors who are elderly? How do I love my neighbors who have asthma? How do I love my friends who are immunocompromised? I have none of those conditions, I cannot relate to their experiences. What about the poor? Those who have lost their incomes? Can I temporarily be willing to abridge my experience of civil liberties for the sake of others?
Of course my neighbor is more then those particular groups as well.
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:10
The church as a body of believers (not constrained to a building) are to be doers of good. There is room to figure out what doing good for the household of faith looks like. As we cautiously begin considering plans for a phased church reopening we balance loving our many neighbors by preventing the spread of communicable disease AND the doing of good and loving of our neighbors vis-a-vie an in-person communal experience.
Accepting Rationality
Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
Isaiah 1:18
I had to put this here because there is a lot of anti-science mis-information being spread. God has created us uniquely to be like him - to have some capacity for creativity and rationality. Science is one out-working of that. This is not to say that all science is 100% truth, but when a majority of reputable scientists are expressing concern about a singular virus: any policy we draft should take that seriously.
Honoring Good-Faithed Authorities
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Romans 13:1
This is closely correlated to the previous principle. I am not an expert in infectious diseases. Because it is a novel Coronavirus I accept that what we understand about it is an evolving process. The R0 value, what constitutes the best precautions, the severity of illness, etc. The uncertainty however, does not dissuade me from allowing myself to be subject to those who I believe are trying to act in the best interests of the governed. It also reminds me to respect those who are working in good faith to govern. The major question here that I struggle with is what constitutes “good faith”.
When government leaders promote division, discord, or falsehoods, I do not consider that “good faith”. Do I ignore them? No, but I probably will evaluate direction from authorities that lack good-faithed credibility much more than those who have no such lack.
Humility
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Colossians 3:12
There’s always pieces of the picture that I know I’m missing, and so I hope to always come to the table with a learner’s attitude. It’s very on-brand these days to put aside humility in favor of “confidence” and a “never-admit-you-are-wrong-ever” attitude. I think those cultural features of our day are grotesque and particularly void of a recognition of the depths of our own sin and capacity for self-delusion. I continue to learn in life, that even as I regularly tell myself, “I’m humble”, that I’m often in fact full of myself. I hope that as I approach this difficult topic of reopening, that I conduct myself as Colossians 3:12 describes.
Charity
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32
The virtue of Christian charity is one that, in the popular narrative, is effectively absent - replaced by the divisions of the ongoing culture war. Can we be kind to those who disagree with us? Tenderhearted even? Forgiving one another when we, inevitably, get it wrong? I hope so.
Finally
I ended up writing a lot more than I anticipated, so these thoughts are now going to be split into a two part-er. I’ll try and write up my thoughts on specific implementation details for a church reopening plan soon.