Safety, Beauty, and the Image of God

 

During the past year, nearly all of us have experienced a simplification of our lives.  Family schedules that were a frenzy of activity between school, recreation, extra-curricular activities, extended family, and various tasks for care of health and household business.  Even for those who did not experience the generous amount of down time others did, because their careers actually intensified, their time became more focused on that task as these other obligations became unavailable or unadvisable. 

 

While I know many have found that simplification beneficial as an opportunity to consider their priorities, and reorganize accordingly, there is also a loss to be mourned in such circumstances, because intense focus on safety has dramatically curtailed a vital aspect of our human existence, or at least forced us to engage it in unconventional ways.  That vital aspect is the cultivation of human ability through such things as the arts and sport, by which we have the opportunity to express our experience of life or appreciate the display of ability found in others. 

 

Cultures and religions throughout time and across continents have recognized this display as a uniquely human activity, as we are able to reflect on our experience, and hone our performance in a way not found in other creatures.  For Christians, our effort to create in a way that builds beyond mere survival is understood to be a facet of the image of God that is uniquely created in humanity. 

 

As we build, design, perform, and compete, we are exercising ability given by our Creator, and cultivating it in appreciation for His goodness.  As we enjoy the expression and performance of others, we are able to appreciate His design for creation and to be reminded of His gracious provision that exceeds merely sustaining basic life and safety.  Even under the most ideal conditions, when we participate in these displays and disciplines, we may face risk of injury, or even death, in the process, because the experience and opportunity is of such value that we accept that risk. 

 

In an eternal perspective, we also recognize that as St. Paul said, “Whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8) The one who creates this ability and desire to exercise it within us is the same one who gives His Son into death to rescue us, and while we may need to exercise caution for a time, we recognize that even those things that are not “essential” are a vital part of our nature to engage.  Knowing this, we grieve at the deprivation of something of great value, and we seek to preserve the framework to engage again while we anticipate the day when our experience of this vital facet of our experience of life will be restored.

Two Kingdoms (Updated COVID Mandate Edition)

 

In the book of Romans, Paul writes to Christians who are facing a scenario where their religion has been outlawed, and their lives are in danger for their confession of faith.  In chapter 13, he reminds them that all authorities are to be obeyed because they rule at His pleasure.  When describing this teaching of the Bible, Martin Luther describes God as ruling two kingdoms with His two hands.  With His right hand, He rules the Church by grace, and with His left hand, He rules the kingdoms of the world, along with the earthly estates of family and employment, by law, calling Christians to obey those in authority as if rendering obedience to Him.

 

However, one instance when this is not the case is if an earthly authority would command or coerce a Christian to renounce Christ or to sin against God, it is their duty to disobey that command and obey God instead.  The apostle Peter clearly expresses this in Acts 5:29 when he disobeys a sinful command saying, “We must obey God rather than men.”  

 

In the present day, Christians still live in a situation where there may be tension between the commands of God and the laws of the land.  When the secular law allows actions and behaviors which Scripture clearly forbids, Christians can still live according to their own conscience within that law.  In cases where regulations and judicial rulings attempt to restrict the rights of Christians to practice their faith in the public square or demand that they participate in actions their Scripturally-formed conscience cannot permit, they may need to disobey the secular authorities in order to obey God. 

 

Recent mandates and orders have also brought to light another tension for Christians—whether to obey or disobey orders that they believe are not legally legitimate.  Since the United States is not a monarchy, the executive branch (presidents and governors) are not the highest authority, but rather the fourth layer, after the people themselves, delegated through the Constitution, to legislative bodies, whose statutes are enforced by the executive branch.  Christians, even within the same congregation, may disagree about the legitimacy of an order, and that raises the question over how the congregation as a whole will respond. 

 

When this becomes the case, the Church is called to recognize her role as the administrator of the Lord’s gracious gifts, and not the arbiter of its members civic conclusions or the enforcer of mandates whose legitimacy is under question.  Christians who are in agreement regarding their confession of Christ seek a path to ensure the entire congregation, regardless of their level of risk, the degree of their anxiety, or the conclusions regarding civic affairs, are given the opportunity to receive the Lord’s gifts in Word and Sacrament from God’s right hand, while the individual members follow their conscience in addressing those in the sphere governed by His left. 

Why Gather?

 

For centuries, gathering weekly was an automatic assumption among Christians.  Whether the earliest years of the Church in homes and storefronts before dawn, hiding from persecution, or later in Roman public halls, or the Gothic church buildings of the middle ages, Christians would gather—at times even daily. 

 

Even when the plague killed millions, or in bombed out buildings in the midst of wars, the church still gathered.  Later, once we discovered many diseases resulted from bacteria, viruses, fungus, or parasites, rather than any of a variety of superstitions, they took a couple Sundays off, but rarely, because of the overwhelming pattern of weekly gathering that dates back to the Old Testament, and carried on in Christian practice.  I recall that I was in college before I realized some churches cancelled for snow, because in my hometown in the Thumb, this had never crossed anyone’s mind, and whoever was capable of travelling would attend. 

 

What would cause such determination to gather, even in great danger?  Of course, we have some direct commands in Scripture, like the instruction in Hebrews not to “neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some.”  There’s the Third Commandment (some readers might number it as the 4^th), which says to “Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.” Beyond these, though, what explains the answer to this question, which also explains why you see differences between how congregations and denominations approach this, is another question, “why do we gather?”

 

If Christians gather to offer something up to God, such as their prayers and praises, then it makes perfect sense if they’re reluctant to gather when a certain degree of risk comes into play, because that can be done just as well alone with one’s family.  If Christians gather to earn something in a sort of transaction with God, then likewise, they might conclude He would certainly understand if they did it a little differently for a while.  If Christians gather to learn facts about Scripture and be inspired and motivated toward better living, then those purposes can certainly be achieved electronically. 

However, if the Church gathers around something physical, where that Word not only educates but causes the very things it says, and where the main thing is that the Holy Spirit descends in the midst of Baptismal water, and the Lord Himself comes down, bringing Heaven itself with Him, as the body and blood of Christ become present to forgive sins and grant eternal salvation, then the question ceases to be whether to gather, but how, so that we can avoid causing earthly harm, but still be present to receive these gifts beyond value in the Lord’s Word and Sacraments.