Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Proper 21, year C
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Hygiene protocols at Saint Paul’s
as of September 1, 2022
Before we talk about what we are doing at Saint Paul’s, it is important to know why we do it. This time of COVID has inspired great acts of nobility, of patient endurance of suffering and hardship. It has been a time of deep grief and sorrow. In some, faith and the generous discipline of gracious surrender to the mysterious ways of God have grown them closer to the perfection of their life in and with God. In others, grumbling, bitterness, suspicion, indignation, resentment, and fear has spurred them to rebel, or to retreat into a self-made world in which the only value they share with others is contempt for opposing values.
The Rector or Priest-in-Charge of a congregation must safeguard the physical health and safety of the flock. More importantly, though, he or she has a solemn obligation to ensure their spiritual well-being. Both are needed. They do not conflict. The Rector must preach the Gospel, including the incident in which the devil tells Jesus, "Go ahead! Do something physically daring! Throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple. After all, God promises to keep you safe, right? And people will be impressed!" Yet to do so would be reckless and irresponsible. Jesus says, "You don't deliberately create situations that prod God to prove himself, just so you can make a point" (Matthew 4:5‑7; Luke 4:9‑13). Our response to this temptation is a good indicator of the direction in which our relationship with God is developing. It is important because life after the end of metabolism is not a great reset in which all bets are off and our choices of attitude in this phase of life no longer matter. Think about it: you look nothing now like what you looked like three seconds after conception, or at birth, or when you turned two or twenty-two; yet you are the same person, then and now. No matter what you look like (I John 3:2‑4), you will still be the same you a hundred thousand years from now.
What will that eternity be like for you? Will it be full of wide-eyed amazement, because you are actively learning, now, while you have the chance, to adopt an attitude of humble obedience toward God's sometimes confusing ways? Are you learning to surrender, to sacrifice, the concepts, appetites, and aspirations that you hope will give you good things in this phase of life?
If not, if you keep pushing toward what you can imagine or find desirable or acceptable, you may spend eternity cursing and railing at God, stuck forever in the frigid darkness of bitterness and rage, hating and blaming God for it, forever indignantly complaining that God should have done things differently (Luke 16:19‑31).
So just what is this "way of God" that leads to a wonderful eternal life rather than to eternal, self-imposed torment in death? It is the way of Jesus Christ who, even though he deserved honor and respect, did not seek or ask for them. Instead, he spent himself — his time, his energy, all that he had — doing what he saw his Father doing, speaking the words his Father was speaking, coming, not to have his tastes and demands catered to, but to give himself for the sake of people who, in the end, would not only be ungrateful, but who would actually hate and torture and kill him for disagreeing with them (Philippians 2:5‑11). He came, not so that others would do things to his specifications, but so that he might help others grow into a healthier, more mature, more realistic relationship with his Father (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45).
Jesus Christ both teaches and models patient endurance of hardship and suffering, even — and especially — when it is imposed by authority. His chosen, trusted followers do the same. They do not resist or fight back. They do not simply refuse to cooperate until conditions or leadership are more to their liking (II Timothy 4:2). They meet adversity and even persecution with meekness and generosity, uncomplaining (not even sotto voce or in private) (Matthew 5:39‑48; Acts 8:32). Jesus does this, not because he will get something out of it, but so as to give to his Father the obedience he lovingly owes, and to give to the human race a chance to do the same, so that we will have something better than the ideas, emotions, values, and beliefs that are obvious or seem best to us, that do not require an act of faith or trust, that just obviously, "naturally," seem right.
Jesus wants us to get past "natural" to become, like him, more than just natural. Super-natural. That is what we have been chosen for: to help our contemporaries, and our successors, get past where we are currently stuck by modelling faith. Not knowledge; faith. Not suspicion; faith. Not DIY competence; trust. That is our best, most potent testimony to the reality of the love of God. Humanity was made for so much more than to be at the mercy of our own instincts, intuitions, reflexes, appetites, hopes, fears, or expectations. We are meant to live in community with God, organs of God's very own body all working to help the other organs thrive so that the entire body may thrive. We are meant for so much more than our own will to cling voluntarily to identities, allegiances, ideologies, values, and alliances that promise whatever it is we crave and value most.
No matter what that may be — security, health, pleasure, power, attention, freedom — such "natural" desires are literally a dead end. Their rewards do not last. They may make this phase of life a bit more bearable for a while, but they will eat up our time and resources as we chase temporary relief. Worse, the time we squander on that quest reinforces our bondage instead of letting us learn the humble, obedient, reverent way of awestruck wonder that will equip us to enjoy eternity in God's company.
Eternal well-being does not come from what what we can pay, intimidate, cajole, or trick people to give us. It doesn't come from like-minded family, friends, or neighbors who will applaud us. It certainly won't come from an increasingly hostile world. We are not slaves to tempting but inferior goods. We are not deterred by threats to withhold good things until threats to punish us or deprive us of things we desire and cherish so deeply we think we need them. As with Christ, who did not pursue the dignity, honor, or or respect that was legitimately due to him , so we, as organs of Christ's Body, the Church, do not insist on what is legitimately ours: were we to do so, someone new in awareness of God might mistake our freedom for God's indifference, and embark on a way of life founded on erroneous beliefs (I Corinthians 8:9‑13).
This is why attending to hygiene protocols is not simply a matter of health or science or personal assessments. Like everything else, from stewardship to sex, it is deeply interwoven into who we are and how we live for God (or don't). We have seen medical and pharmaceutical advances in recent months. In many, COVID symptoms seem less severe. Infection rates retreat from time to time (though never permanently). Yet people continue to die of COVID or complications, even close to home. Prophylaxis and treatment comes at a heavy cost, financial, social, and in terms of unknown long-term effects.
So we do what is within our power for the sake of the spiritual well being of the Body of Christ. The simple gesture of proper masking communicates love that is genuine, mature, and deep. Jesus Christ did not shun torture, physical or psychological. He hung, bled, and suffocated on a cross for you and me. No wonder he expressed dismay that his three foremost disciples could not stay awake even an hour, but left him to pray in anguished solitude (Mark 26:40; Mark 14:37). Compared to this love, what is 60 minutes a week of discomfort or humility? It may not demonstrably, totally, prevent infection, or even minimize the chances of weeks in an ICU. It may, in fact, do no more than reassure an anxious fellow believer enough to risk coming to church because we care enough to forgo our preferences out of love for them. That should be enough.
This is what God's written Word says. This is what God's incarnate Word teaches and models. All we can do is call attention to him, in hope that the Holy Spirit will succeed in imparting faith to hear, trust, repent, and fulfill the law of love (Romans 13:8). We do not coerce compliance. Our strength comes, not from political tactics — as if God's will and truth could change if only a vocal enough majority were to vote that way. Bargaining, bribes, threats, withdrawal, grumbling, malicious gossip, or overt attacks — these are the ways of the world, not of God or of God's church. Our only weapons are spiritual. We wield them only in spiritual combat, both against sin and against the counterfeits of virtue. Our desire, identity, mission, and vocation is not to blend in with contemporary, prevailing ideas about ethics and the church, but to call each other and the world back to the orderly Creation God has put in place so that his Children may mature to perfection (Ephesians 4:1-6, 11-27, 29‑32).
For all of these spiritual reasons, Saint Paul's will follow the procedures below until further notice.
Please pray for the safety and health, for the consolation of those who have lost loved ones to COVID-19, and for an end to the pandemic.
The Rector or Priest-in-Charge of a congregation must safeguard the physical health and safety of the flock. More importantly, though, he or she has a solemn obligation to ensure their spiritual well-being. Both are needed. They do not conflict. The Rector must preach the Gospel, including the incident in which the devil tells Jesus, "Go ahead! Do something physically daring! Throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple. After all, God promises to keep you safe, right? And people will be impressed!" Yet to do so would be reckless and irresponsible. Jesus says, "You don't deliberately create situations that prod God to prove himself, just so you can make a point" (Matthew 4:5‑7; Luke 4:9‑13). Our response to this temptation is a good indicator of the direction in which our relationship with God is developing. It is important because life after the end of metabolism is not a great reset in which all bets are off and our choices of attitude in this phase of life no longer matter. Think about it: you look nothing now like what you looked like three seconds after conception, or at birth, or when you turned two or twenty-two; yet you are the same person, then and now. No matter what you look like (I John 3:2‑4), you will still be the same you a hundred thousand years from now.
What will that eternity be like for you? Will it be full of wide-eyed amazement, because you are actively learning, now, while you have the chance, to adopt an attitude of humble obedience toward God's sometimes confusing ways? Are you learning to surrender, to sacrifice, the concepts, appetites, and aspirations that you hope will give you good things in this phase of life?
If not, if you keep pushing toward what you can imagine or find desirable or acceptable, you may spend eternity cursing and railing at God, stuck forever in the frigid darkness of bitterness and rage, hating and blaming God for it, forever indignantly complaining that God should have done things differently (Luke 16:19‑31).
So just what is this "way of God" that leads to a wonderful eternal life rather than to eternal, self-imposed torment in death? It is the way of Jesus Christ who, even though he deserved honor and respect, did not seek or ask for them. Instead, he spent himself — his time, his energy, all that he had — doing what he saw his Father doing, speaking the words his Father was speaking, coming, not to have his tastes and demands catered to, but to give himself for the sake of people who, in the end, would not only be ungrateful, but who would actually hate and torture and kill him for disagreeing with them (Philippians 2:5‑11). He came, not so that others would do things to his specifications, but so that he might help others grow into a healthier, more mature, more realistic relationship with his Father (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45).
Jesus Christ both teaches and models patient endurance of hardship and suffering, even — and especially — when it is imposed by authority. His chosen, trusted followers do the same. They do not resist or fight back. They do not simply refuse to cooperate until conditions or leadership are more to their liking (II Timothy 4:2). They meet adversity and even persecution with meekness and generosity, uncomplaining (not even sotto voce or in private) (Matthew 5:39‑48; Acts 8:32). Jesus does this, not because he will get something out of it, but so as to give to his Father the obedience he lovingly owes, and to give to the human race a chance to do the same, so that we will have something better than the ideas, emotions, values, and beliefs that are obvious or seem best to us, that do not require an act of faith or trust, that just obviously, "naturally," seem right.
Jesus wants us to get past "natural" to become, like him, more than just natural. Super-natural. That is what we have been chosen for: to help our contemporaries, and our successors, get past where we are currently stuck by modelling faith. Not knowledge; faith. Not suspicion; faith. Not DIY competence; trust. That is our best, most potent testimony to the reality of the love of God. Humanity was made for so much more than to be at the mercy of our own instincts, intuitions, reflexes, appetites, hopes, fears, or expectations. We are meant to live in community with God, organs of God's very own body all working to help the other organs thrive so that the entire body may thrive. We are meant for so much more than our own will to cling voluntarily to identities, allegiances, ideologies, values, and alliances that promise whatever it is we crave and value most.
No matter what that may be — security, health, pleasure, power, attention, freedom — such "natural" desires are literally a dead end. Their rewards do not last. They may make this phase of life a bit more bearable for a while, but they will eat up our time and resources as we chase temporary relief. Worse, the time we squander on that quest reinforces our bondage instead of letting us learn the humble, obedient, reverent way of awestruck wonder that will equip us to enjoy eternity in God's company.
Eternal well-being does not come from what what we can pay, intimidate, cajole, or trick people to give us. It doesn't come from like-minded family, friends, or neighbors who will applaud us. It certainly won't come from an increasingly hostile world. We are not slaves to tempting but inferior goods. We are not deterred by threats to withhold good things until threats to punish us or deprive us of things we desire and cherish so deeply we think we need them. As with Christ, who did not pursue the dignity, honor, or or respect that was legitimately due to him , so we, as organs of Christ's Body, the Church, do not insist on what is legitimately ours: were we to do so, someone new in awareness of God might mistake our freedom for God's indifference, and embark on a way of life founded on erroneous beliefs (I Corinthians 8:9‑13).
This is why attending to hygiene protocols is not simply a matter of health or science or personal assessments. Like everything else, from stewardship to sex, it is deeply interwoven into who we are and how we live for God (or don't). We have seen medical and pharmaceutical advances in recent months. In many, COVID symptoms seem less severe. Infection rates retreat from time to time (though never permanently). Yet people continue to die of COVID or complications, even close to home. Prophylaxis and treatment comes at a heavy cost, financial, social, and in terms of unknown long-term effects.
So we do what is within our power for the sake of the spiritual well being of the Body of Christ. The simple gesture of proper masking communicates love that is genuine, mature, and deep. Jesus Christ did not shun torture, physical or psychological. He hung, bled, and suffocated on a cross for you and me. No wonder he expressed dismay that his three foremost disciples could not stay awake even an hour, but left him to pray in anguished solitude (Mark 26:40; Mark 14:37). Compared to this love, what is 60 minutes a week of discomfort or humility? It may not demonstrably, totally, prevent infection, or even minimize the chances of weeks in an ICU. It may, in fact, do no more than reassure an anxious fellow believer enough to risk coming to church because we care enough to forgo our preferences out of love for them. That should be enough.
This is what God's written Word says. This is what God's incarnate Word teaches and models. All we can do is call attention to him, in hope that the Holy Spirit will succeed in imparting faith to hear, trust, repent, and fulfill the law of love (Romans 13:8). We do not coerce compliance. Our strength comes, not from political tactics — as if God's will and truth could change if only a vocal enough majority were to vote that way. Bargaining, bribes, threats, withdrawal, grumbling, malicious gossip, or overt attacks — these are the ways of the world, not of God or of God's church. Our only weapons are spiritual. We wield them only in spiritual combat, both against sin and against the counterfeits of virtue. Our desire, identity, mission, and vocation is not to blend in with contemporary, prevailing ideas about ethics and the church, but to call each other and the world back to the orderly Creation God has put in place so that his Children may mature to perfection (Ephesians 4:1-6, 11-27, 29‑32).
For all of these spiritual reasons, Saint Paul's will follow the procedures below until further notice.
Please pray for the safety and health, for the consolation of those who have lost loved ones to COVID-19, and for an end to the pandemic.
- Holy Communion will be administered to you at your seat in one kind only for the time being.
- Distancing, proper masking, handwashing, and hand sanitizing remain strongly advisable, especially as a sign of love for those at risk of contagion or complications, the unvaccinated, and for anyone who has had recent contact with a COVID-positive or symptomatic individual.
- Anyone who tests positive is asked to help by absenting him- or herself until a negative test has been obtained.
