On mask wearing: a crisis in the Church?

 

I have chosen the words for the title of this article carefully and deliberately.  We are facing a crisis, and I fear it is worse than we realize.  I have written before explaining my reasons for refusing the mask.  I have also publicly expressed concern over the decision in some churches to mandate masks.  I believe in doing so those churches are placing a stumbling block in the way of God’s people and legislating where they have no right to legislate.  

But I have a growing concern in another direction.  It isn’t with those mandating the mask, but with those on both sides of this issue who have allowed this matter to trump most everything else.  These are people who ordinarily say very little (if anything) about their Saviour on social media, but they have plenty to say about masks (for or against).   They have never had the courage to tell the cashier about the gospel, but they can look that same worker in the eye and boldly refuse the mask.   They were okay with setting aside the first 4 commandments for the magistrate but were outraged when the same magistrate told them to put something on their faces.  They don’t mind their elders closing down the doors of the church but cannot abide with the elders decision regarding the wearing of a mask.  

When I posted my open letter to the Church about church closures I was surprised - but also grateful - by the attention it got.  When I posted the article about masks I was troubled when that same article in a much shorter span of time received still more attention than the letter.  I was concerned then and have grown more concerned with the passage of time.  Always these things have a way of finding out what is in us.   "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."  What is in us has a way of coming out, particularly in times of trial and opposition.  I can’t help but wonder what this says about us.  

I have been hard on those who have been complying with the government because I believe their compliance is wrong.  But some things are more important than others.    It is more important, for example, to get the gospel right than it is to sort whether or not children of believers should be baptized.  I didn’t say that whether or not we baptize infants is unimportant.  It is important.  In the same way what we decide about masks is important, but it is nowhere near as important as matters related to worship.  The mask controversy isn’t the most important controversy faced by the Church, but I fear we are treating it as if it were.  On this - of all things - churches are dividing.  Why?  Why does a piece of cloth matter more to many Christians than their gospel witness and the worship of God?

Think back to April when most churches closed their doors and went online.  Where was the outrage then?  Where was the courageous civil disobedience then?  Why didn’t that matter like masks matter?   Is it because something other than a love for Christ is operating here?  Is this just one more example of a love that has waxed cold?  I suspect it is!

I have said from the beginning that I am worried that we are allowing second table matters to take precedence over first table matters.  So our obligations to our neighbour - whether its the magistrate, a stranger, or a Christian brother - are more important than our obligations to God.   We take risks for our family we would never take for God.  We put ourselves in harms way, we open ourselves up to the possibility of getting a virus for them but not for God, not for worship.  We bend over backwards to love our neighbour, we exert almost herculean efforts just to be seen as loving our neighbour, but we willingly give up our duty to God.  In fact, very recently we happily set aside the first table of the law in the name of the second table.  All of that is backward and suggests something very wrong.  Where exactly are our priorities?  What - who - is pre-eminent?  

• The magistrate?  
• A neighbour?  
• Your family?  
• You?

Whoever it is it isn't God.  "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12)."

Please don't misunderstand me.  I am against mask wearing.  But I would like to pose some questions to my fellow 'rebels'.  Why not?  

I ask because the ‘why’ matters!  

Is it pride?  Is it self-love?  What exactly is at stake here?  Your rights or God’s honour?  

Here are some clues that may indicate something less than God’s honour is behind your current outrage and civil disobedience:

1. You will use social media as a platform to support your position but you will not use it to share the gospel.  
2. You are angry that your elders require masks but it didn't bother you when they closed the church.
3. You are vocal about your right not to wear a mask but quiet about your Saviour.
4. You spend more time debating than praying.
5. You spend more time researching matters related to covid than you do in private worship.
6. Your conversations revolve more around masks than they do around Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

All of this speaks to a crisis in the Church.  On both sides of the covid-19/mask debate there are competing and yet related desires.  We are fighting over which neighbour comes first.  The magistrate's authority or my liberties?  My neighbour's safety or my freedom?   We are doing our math based on our concerns for self, magistrate, family, friends, neighbours but God's honour is nowhere in the calculations.  This has been a longstanding problem in the Church, and the virus simply brought it to the surface.   God asks, "where is my honour?"  And the Church doesn't have an answer.  Already our prayer meetings were suffering.  Already the cause of missions was waning.   Because even among His bride God was not given pre-eminence.   What's missing is not some jot or tittle (as if that could be lightly dismissed anyway).  What's missing is love... not necessarily love for our neighbour, but love for the One most worthy of our love.  The sad irony is that even if we have a handle on the second great commandment we are functioning as if we have entirely forgotten there even was a first great commandment.  We give it lip service, we give Him lip service, but our hearts are far from Him.