I don’t remember ever thinking about the January month-end in the ‘Before Times.’ Then, January was just part of winter, sliding into February like a runner hitting a triple and sliding safely into third base. As we enter our junior year of the global pandemic, life is still like groundhogs day. I have to manage life with comorbidities (that word!). I understand we have to get back to functioning in life, but I don’t understand the push from specific sectors of society to act as if the pandemic is over, PSA, it’s not!

I see pictures all over social media of events in churches, services, special training, conferences, and more. But, what is most disturbing to me, the very place where we learn what it means to love our neighbor is the exact place that continues to be hosting super spreading events in our nation. You see, when I look at the photos, I see sometimes hundreds of people gathered, sitting or standing close together, mask-less. They are singing mask-less.

And then there is this bit of controversy out there that you can read about here and here. I don’t have anything to add, other than again, how the Church has missed the opportunity to be a counter-culture voice during this plague is what saddens and disappoints me most. I am not so much painting with a broad brush as I observe, especially evangelical, charismatic, independent churches around the country. I am honestly sickened by the ‘faith over fear’ message I hear. To me, this is a mantra from the ‘powers’ of sin and death. You see, for those of you that believe in ‘powers,’ I am using what Walter Wink refers to as the “Principalities and Powers” as the invisible Spirit behind a vast network of societal structures that have fallen into a state of spiritual malaise and are stuck in an ever reinforcing cycle that prevents change.

I have been reflecting on what it means for the Church to bring a prophetic witness to the power of death that has taken as of today in just the US alone, 908,131 people. Have we become so numb to this amount of death that we just go into denial and pretend people are still not dying from this virus? Because it seems to me, as a follower of Jesus, who is the embodiment of resurrection life, the Chief Physician who can heal every disease, told us what the greatest commandment is and it was not faith over fear. It is:

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him,”  ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. ‘This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You can read this story in Matthew 22:35-40.

I know it is stretching and demanding for Church leaders to make decisions right now. It is all so divisive; to mask or not, promote vaccinations or not, to social distance. Yet, where do we error? On the side of safety for all, people like me who have comorbidities or to those yelling about ‘rights?’

As we leave January 2022 and enter our final month of winter in the western hemisphere, I pray for church leaders to be the prophetic witness our neighbors need. The Church is called and commanded to be a sign, agent and, witness to God’s purposes of putting the ‘principalities and powers in check. We are to join with the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus as co-laborers bringing the good news of salvation, rescue, deliverance, liberty, and so much more to all. We are to proclaim, demonstrate and embody this message.

I have to tell you; I have many friends and relatives who don’t understand how some churches pride themselves on ‘faith over fear.’ To them, it is not the outworking of foolishness for the sake of the gospel; it is the outworking of folly activated by the power of sin and death. Yet, the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead and declared victory over sin and death is at work in us to love our neighbors in times of rampant death. There is a heresy in our land. It is called Christian nationalism. If you would like to learn more, here is a link to a webinar on the subject. Christian nationalism believes that American identity is inextricable from Christianity. It manifests in many different ways, i.e., not wearing masks in church, poo-pooing social distancing, refusing vaccinations (without a valid medical reason), and so it goes. It is heresy because it is an attack on the true gospel—the gospel of self-sacrificing love modeled by Jesus, who laid down his life for the sake of love.

The apostle Paul gives us an imagination for what it means to emulate the love of Christ in his letter to the Philippians. From Philippians 2 in The Message:

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.

Amen