When I visit to some dear
soul in a hospital I take a moment to apply the gel at the doorway which has
next to it a sign , “GEL IN”. Sometimes
I need to put on what we all now know to be ‘PPE’, personal protective equipment,
consisting of a face mask, gloves and a body wrap.
It is this last piece that often made me late
for my visit, trying to tie the thin yellow cloth around a body size for which
the cloth was not designed. Sometimes a kind
nurse would help, successfully suppressing a smile the whole time she was trying
to make the ends meet.
Why go through this drill when
I wasn’t worried about getting sick in the hospital room? The point of asking
me to ‘gel in’ and wear PPE was not to protect me, but to
protect the dear sick soul from me. I
may think that I have the immunity system of the Pentagon, but I agree to ‘gel
in’ because no matter how immune I am to disease, I may be a ‘carrier’ of
something that would make the person I am visiting even more sick.
Churches will now be asking
people to ‘gel in’ and to wear face coverings into their worship spaces. Why? Not to protect the person wearing it but
to protect someone with a weak immune system, someone who is vulnerable to
disease, from contracting a disease that the person wearing the mask may unwittingly
have and thus pass on.
When you choose to worship
together during a pandemic consider whether you are willing to demonstrate your
love for your neighbor in protecting their health. To love God is to worship
God, and this is the first and great commandment. The second is like it. Love
your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus isn’t asking you to lay
down your life for your neighbor in church. But, until we know it is safe to do
otherwise, if you choose to gather with your neighbor to worship God in community
then, just like you would do in the hospital, consider how to protect the health
of the other ‘patients’ in the room who have come to seek the healing presence
of the Jesus you represent.
Churches are hospitals too.
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