Where two or three are gathered

In the midst of the COVID-19 spread and the entire hubbub that has come with it, conversations are rolling day after day within church circles about the decisions made by some church leaders to close their doors for worship.

Some members applaud the leadership for cooperation with the country’s Government in trying to curtail the spread of the COVID-19, while others bash and lambast the ‘lukewarm’ church leaders for their lack of faith in God’s ability to shield them from the pandemic.

I have always struggled to understand the concept of ‘faith’ that some persons cling to. Some quote scripture passages like Psalm 91 in which the Psalmist declares, “Because thou hast made the LORD … thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling,” as evidence that no SARS, MERS or distant cousin of either will touch them.

The foundation of my confusion has always been this: both the lawful and the lawless, the righteous and the wicked, churchgoers and backsliders have faced disease. They have all faced some form of crime, poverty, unemployment, natural disaster or other hardship.

Even Solomon (known for his wisdom), in writing the book of Ecclesiastes, agreed with me here. In fact, I think we can all see that this is true. All types of people have faced the disastrous hand of calamity in some form or another, at some point or another. Why?

Some will say they didn’t have enough faith in God to protect them. I am not sure how to respond to this since faith, after all, is the essence of things not seen. And it in itself is not seen. How then can we ever know if our faith is enough faith to shield off the wicked efforts of the devil? I suppose we won’t.

What I can say is that from a biblical perspective, it seems a little unsound to expect that in a world riddled with sin (in which we all live), where everything good has become tainted and perfection only exists in dreams, Christians will simply declare that they will be safe, have faith that it will be so, and reap the benefits of a near-perfect life.

SELECTIVE FAITH

I think matters are even further compounded when we deliberately do reckless and dangerous things and expect God to come to our rescue at the drop of a hat. Why should He?

Outside of this, though, one thing I do know is that there is a bit of inconsistency in the actions of some faithful church people who hold to this theology. They advocate for church gatherings to continue, since they put their trust in God to protect them from the coronavirus, but go about their daily business fully armed with hand sanitisers and soaps. My mind gets very cloudy trying to understand this type of faith and how selective it is.

The belief is, apparently, that the same God who can (and will) protect them from contracting the deadly virus during church services can’t (or won’t) do the same outside of church. But then again, this explanation is woefully lacking, since many, before the ‘no more than 10’ rule which saw many churches closing, would use the sanitisers in church!

I think many Christians have the perception that God’s protection is heavily scaled up within the church walls and perhaps less powerful in, let’s say, the supermarket. I’m not sure why this is felt. I am also not sure that there is any scriptural justification for this feeling.

And then there are Christians who will agree that, yes, they may very well contract the COVID-19 while at church, but in sickness or in health, they will praise God. The same Christians will agree that worship can take place anywhere, though. I have never met an individual who thought they had to be at church in order to worship. Why adopt that mentality now? Matthew 18:20, which says “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” is evidence enough, I believe, that God is not particular about the size of the gathering.

TAUGHT US A LOT

This virus has taught us all a lot. I have genuinely come to believe that, in the case of many devout Christians, it may have never been about worship in the first place. Especially for many Jamaicans, worship is not worship unless everyone can see that you are doing it. Everyone must see the arms waving with palms raised up to Heaven and must see the head shaking in penitence.

And if shrieks of “Hallelujah” aren’t forthcoming, it is simply a lecture and not a worship session. This is how many Christians think. Now that we are forced to stay home, we can’t manage because “it just isn’t the same”. But what is it that is different? All that has changed is the elimination of the usual social interaction and the inability of church brethren to see each other in full-blown worship mode. If neither of those was the motivation for attending church before, then we should have no problem staying home.

Furthermore, in light of the Government’s allowance of 10 church attendants (who should all practise social distancing), some churches will still be doing live streams. Others are using the technology to fellowship through cyberspace. Not bad at all.

We should continue to make the best of the bad situation called COVID-19 and worship God in spirit and in truth! In fact, the stay-at-home time presents an even greater opportunity for Christians to draw closer to God in personal devotion.

The Bible does say that God has “not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”. Maybe too many persons stopped reading at ‘fear’ and didn’t get to ‘sound mind’.

Christians should be responsible. I believe this is what God wants. It is for that reason we were endowed with reasoning capabilities. It makes no sense lighting your house on fire only to ask God (however earnestly) to put out the fire and save your house! Similarly, if you don’t want to catch the virus, tan a yuh yaad! It’s the least you can do. Do what you can and let God do the rest.

Kristen Gyles is a mathematics educator and an actuarial science graduate. Email feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com