Let me start as I believe all good conversations start—putting all of the cards on the table. The reason I want to start this way, which may be risky, is because it serves the point of the article. So, let me get a few things out of the way off the top.
The point of this article is not what I believe about the efficacy or necessity of masks in or outside of church. The point of this article is not what I believe or don’t believe about the Coronavirus pandemic. The point of this article is to point out that our personal thoughts or beliefs are not the only personal thoughts and beliefs that exist. The point of this article is that this is a time in history where there is absolute craziness going on. And, times like these are precisely the times when you must fight for the unity of the Church—for your own good. Even more, the most important thing for us to remember is that the world needs a Church sure of its footing in the Savior, not one shooting each other in the foot.
Please stick with me, even if you consider my next four sentences as dangerous, wrongheaded, ignorant, redneck, whatever. Besides, if the next three sentences make you so mad that you close your laptop and curse me out in your head, then you will have demonstrated the point of this article in the first place. Here goes: I am not a mask-mandate guy. Please note that I didn’t say that I am not a mask guy, I said I’m not a mask mandate guy. To be fair, I don’t like government mandates of mostly any kind, really. So, this isn’t exactly an abnormal position for me.
Still with me?
That being said, I worshiped on Sunday morning—after about 4 months away—wearing a mask. And it was good. It was great, really. Great to be hearing the songs of fellow believers rise around me. Great to be in the room as the word of God was preached. Great to go through our corporate readings, even as we all tried to mumble along while keeping our masks both below our mouths and above our noses. It was not ideal, it was not normal, but it was good.
Unity is at a premium right now. Whatever unity our churches had left after months of not meeting in person is now getting backed up on, ran over, backed up on again, and ran over again through the back and forth on masks, shutdowns, protests, stress, and more stress.
Christian, one of your most important callings right now is—as it normally is—the unity of your local church.
Your fight is not against church members. Your fight is alongside church members.
It may be tough for us to remember at times of high stress, strong disagreement, and confused surroundings, but our fight is not with each other. At least, it should not be. Disagreements we have with fellow church members about anything related to coronavirus ought to be handled as disagreements in the family, not duels to the death between sworn enemies. Your fight is alongside your fellow church members, not at them. Your fight is to go alongside them and to take the gospel to a world that is in desperate need. You will not be able to reach out to your neighbors when you are too busy reaching to your church family members neck to choke them out—physically or digitally.
Your fellow church member is not who CNN tells you they are. Or Fox News.
I don’t know what news station you watch, but I know that the people next to you in the pew are not the monsters CNN tells you they are. They aren’t walking around, brazenly unmasked, looking for people to cough on and old ladies to push over. Conversely, the neighbor in the pew is not the person Fox News might be saying they are. They aren’t ready to attack you, condemn you, take away your business, or call the cops on you because your mask is below your nose.
It is sad proof that we are discipled by the world when we see that we are handling our disagreement exactly like the world. The world can’t handle discussions without dogmatic castigation of the other side, and we can barely do It better in the church—precisely because we have been discipled by them and not the other way around.
We have been discipled to be polarized, to assume the worst of our brothers because of a difference of thought, and to write them off as neighbor-haters (one way or the other). Or, better yet, we just assume they are the world’s dumbest and most selfish people. Most of the people around you are conscious, concerned, and doing their best right now. The name-calling, motivation-assuming, and strawman-ing of the “other side” right now is distinctly un-Christian, and we need to put a stop to it, no matter if we desire our face to be covered or not.
Stop Slander and Gossip.
Just because we type something in a text message doesn’t mean that we have skirted God’s absolute hatred towards our gossip. Just because we say something nasty to someone’s facebook instead of their face doesn’t mean that it is somehow sanctified. A lot of the talk going on right now, behind each other’s backs, about pastors, deacons, fellow church members, is downright gossip and slander. Slandering someone else’s motives is still slander, even if their actions are different than yours.
“Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.”
Psalm 101:5
Be ok with being sinned against.
Part of building up unity is being ok with suffering some wrongs from fellow Christians. Even more, maintaining unity is being able to stomach areas where you and a fellow believer disagree. When love covers over a multitude of sins, it isn’t just in forgiving them, but in being able to suffer injuries, even if the other person has failed to apologize or recognize their guilt (1 Peter 4:8). If we continue to be focused on all of the ways that all of our fellow church members are horrible, then we will divide up our church in more amazing fashion than Satan could ever dream of.
This whole situation is mainly about how people manage risk in their lives—at least that’s a large part of it. If someone in your church is not managing risk the way that you are, then you have the part to play of kindly telling your fellow member you want to keep your social distance, and they have the part to play to make sure that they respect that. You both have a part to play of Christians, not pagans.
One may think, based on data, that that person is now going about their unmasked life perpetuating the curve and harming others, but you don’t have control over them. God didn’t give you control over them. Which stinks. Life would certainly be easier if we had control over every other person we come into contact with, but that just is not reality. And, I think we will be happier if we learn to accept that instead of try to control them through our texting, sideways glances, or social media arguments.
(That last bit of advice goes for the masks and the un-masks among us.)
Yes, this is political. Acknowledge our idols. (A quasi-political addendum.)
An interesting and sad aspect of this whole thing is how a virus has become a political football. Remember Mid-March, when it was all “We’re in this together” and “Kum-Ba-Yah?” That’s gone now. This topic has become politicized. It shouldn’t be, but it is. So, some of the reticence your fellow Christian may have about masks and non-masks is not merely about a cloth covering, but about their perception of a political landscape.
Now, we all have the duty of freeing ourselves of our Republicanism, Democraticism, Libertarianism, etc., and viewing things on the basis of our Christian-ism. However, none of us manage to do that perfectly. It may not be clear thinking, but the reality is that some of people’s reticence about masks does ultimately get tied up in their larger political thinking. Should the decision to wear a mask be a political decision? No. However, here we are.
Give grace to your fellow church members that they may have more things rattling around their brain than the mere statistics about spread in the masked or unmasked communities. This is yet another opportunity to put aside all the ancillary strife and deal with each other as gracious, mature adults.
The main witness the world must see
At the end of the day, I think that the whole point of this article is this: what the world needs most is to see a Church that still knows how to worship the God of scripture, even with all of their warts and struggles. We need to be able to be humble before God so that we can be humble unto one another. The world needs to see a calm, joyful, grounded Church in the midst of a panicking, morose, drowning culture. The world needs to see a love that covers a multitude of sins. The world needs to see people who demonstrate their complete faith in a sovereign God by digging their heels in, smiling, and loving one another, because Christ still loves them—mask or no mask.
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:35
More Resources:
Blog: Calm Joy in the midst of Coronavirus
Sermon: Voddie Baucham: Serving God in the COVID-19 Era