The wrong security. . .

I heard on the radio that some churches are now announcing the percentage of folks in the congregation who have been vaccinated.  Some are also holding out vaccination as the criteria for being back in person for worship.  Some are also holding vaccination clinics in the church facilities and offering incentives to the members to come and be vaccinated.  Some are publishing names of those vaccinated in church periodicals.  Some pastors are preaching vaccination to the congregation along with their regular message.

Even Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich announced that unvaccinated Catholics must not be allowed inside churches without masks.  He insists that each parish station officials at the doors to check worshipers for proof of vaccination. These people will then act as sergeants of arms — blocking those who are unmasked or undocumented.  Another duty for the, well, the parish greeter/hospitality team.  It makes close(d) communion seem positively winsome!

Although I do not count for much in these congregations, I register my disagreement with these decisions.  Vaccination is the wrong security to hold out to our people either in place of or in conjunction with the Gospel.  Laying guilt upon those who for whatever reason have not been vaccinated is also wrong.  They are not the reason why there is no in person worship -- the timidity of the pastors and parish leaders are responsible for that.  While it is not a bad thing for a church to offer its facilities for a good purpose, sponsoring vaccination clinics puts a stamp of approval on the vaccine and marshals the good name of the congregation in ways that are at best inappropriate and at worst a scandal.  Making the folks who have not yet been vaccinated the new lepers is absolutely contrary to the Gospel.  Furthermore, the reality is that this fervor would not be duplicated for the larger cause of orthodox teaching and preaching.  That in and of itself is an indictment against such decisions to name either the vaccinated or those who have not been.  Preaching from the pulpit the necessity of or wisdom of being vaccinated is a false gospel offering false security.

What I am saying is that this pandemic has affected so many things in less than salutary ways.  Its effects have left scars all across our society but especially in the churches.  From our passive response to being told that we were not essential to the quickness of leaders on all levels to defer to the judgments of science and medical leaders who spoke more out intuition than evidence, the churches are suffering.  The job of the Church is not to aid and assist the medical authorities but to preach the Gospel of the cross and empty tomb.  We can and should do good as we are able but whenever social aims and purposes are mixed up with the Gospel, Jesus always loses.  

Our people are confused by science that speaks many things and contradicts itself.  Our people are wounded by leaders who dismiss their fears with promises of masks and vaccines.  What they want and need is the Gospel.  They need to know that their safety and security lie not in pharmaceutical solutions but in the life death cannot overcome.  They need to know that they are not alone in their pain, anxiety, and worry -- Jesus has walked the valley of the shadow to be with them and to lead them through.  They need to be comforted by the promise that no matter what happens, God is with them and will never abandon them.  They need to know that their life has value not because of their accomplishments or the recognition of others but because God has chosen to give up His own Son for their sake.  Preachers forget this and leaders mistake their noble intentions for the real promise of the Gospel.

It seems even a Roman Catholic bishop has used the vaccine to segregate his flock.  This bishop has said that “Singing is allowed by choirs only, whose members are to all have been fully vaccinated,”  according to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s May 19 guidelines. Bishop Webster of Santa Fe not only segregates the faithful but the priesthood.  Regarding Communion on the tongue, the guidelines state that Roman Catholics may receive Communion in this way only as long as the “distributing minister is fully vaccinated.” Another stipulation for Communion on the tongue is that the “distributing minister sanitizes his/her hands prior to and immediately after distribution.”  A very bad move, indeed!

If you are a pastor or parish leader thinking about using the vaccine to encourage your people to feel safe and secure, do everyone a favor and dismiss this bad idea.  The good value of the vaccine and the medical procedures designed to help keep us safe from COVID or any other pandemic must stand or fall on their own merits.  We must not use the cross to prop them up.  Neither must we use the pulpit to preach against them.  We must preach what we have been called to preach -- nothing less than Christ crucified and risen and the forgiveness, life, and salvation that belong to us as gift of His grace because He was strong enough to face what we fear.  The pulpits of the Church across the world have been co-opted by too many things already.  Let us not add to the confusion any more.  Let us be clear about who we are and whose we are and what we are to speak.  God help us.