It’s Sunday today, and once again Karen and I are attending church: on YouTube on our TV in our house. Since March 22 (for 2 months now), this has been our modus operandi – our way of doing things when it comes to worshiping and participating in the life of our church. That, and dropping off our offering envelopes (with the offerings in them, of course).
We’re not worshiping/participating this way because it’s our preference (because it’s not), nor because it allows me to sleep in on Sundays and still attend church (though that is a nice thing). Nor is it because this method of church is better than an in-person service (it’s not, though the pastors and staff are doing a very good job in both content and video quality). We are doing church this way for one reason: it’s the law.
Not that the law requires us to hold such online services, but the governor and other government officials have prohibited church gatherings as part of the closures and social distancing ordered to slow or stop the spread of the coronavirus. In other words, the government has stopped us from holding church services in person.
Which is a problem.
Setting aside the statistics that half of all churches in the U.S. have less than 80 attendance on a Sunday, or that precautions could be taken to limit actual physical contact within sanctuaries, there are serious issues of state interference in the religious freedoms guaranteed to Americans by our Bill of Rights. Of the many freedoms enumerated in the Bill, the very first one cited – before speech, the press, assembly, trial by jury, or arms-bearing – is the freedom of religion. It was that important to our country’s founders, and it is still that important to us today.
While most people have accepted such government interference on a short-term, emergency basis, and churches have cooperated for the love of the people who could die from this nasty virus, we are now seeing protests and lawsuits against religious restrictions. Even the US Justice Department has joined one lawsuit against a state that was overly zealous in persecuting its churches for holding services. One example of such excessive state control is the state that fined people who attended a drive-in service where everyone stayed in their separate cars: the police even recorded the participants’ license plates. Such selective and over-zealous enforcement does seem like persecution when liquor stores and cannabis shops remained open as “essential” businesses.
Our own governor has recently announced some easing of restrictions regarding retail businesses, but still categorizes churches as a “Phase 3” group of activities that must remain closed for weeks – or months – to come until the government decides they may re-open.
Which, as I said, is a problem.
Upon hearing that, I was reminded of the old African-American spiritual song, “Go Down, Moses.” I would sing it for you, but that would be banned by every government in the world and not protected by the Bill of Rights. Here are the words:
When Israel was in Egypt’s land,
Let My people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let My people go!
Refrain:
Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt’s land;
Tell old Pharaoh
To let My people go!
This anti-slavery song is based on the events just preceding the Exodus, when Moses went before Pharaoh and told him God’s command that the Egyptian ruler allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. This command begins in Exodus 5:1 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” As we know, Pharaoh refused God’s command numerous times, in spite of the plagues the Lord sent upon Egypt. Not until the final plague, when all the first-born males died, did Pharaoh relent and let them leave.
Hmmm – a deadly plague that killed people who were not sheltering at home? The call on the authorities to let the people go out and worship God? Interesting similarities, for sure. Of course, there are huge differences, too – the people were ordered in not by Pharaoh, but by God, and they were protected by the blood of the lamb on their doors (a symbol of Christ and his shed blood) and not by face masks. Still, as I hear the song in my head, I can’t help but say to our rulers:
Let my people go!
It’s time to reopen our churches, or more correctly, to be allowed to do so. This is a civil rights issue, of course, and an expression of our rights as Americans, rights endowed to us by our Creator, and not by government, according to our Declaration of Independence. But as always, we cannot separate our social realm from the biblical and spiritual. So consider the following:
1. The Church is an essential service. Humans are by God’s design spiritual beings, and need the hear his Word and comfort at all times, let alone in high-stress times of danger. Bottles of water and rolls of Northern tissue* have their roles (or rolls), but are no substitute for the encouragement in faith provided by believers gathering and carrying out the public ministry which Christ entrusted to his Church. Even those most in need of spiritual care – the sick in hospitals, the lonely seniors at home, the grieving families who have lost loved ones – have been shut off from personal in-person ministry by their pastors.
Not only are churches vital to their members, they are also essential to their communities. People are so used to there being social services and agencies, they forget that most such care-providing organizations (and their workers) only exist because of Christians who put their love into practice to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and clothe the naked. Food and clothing banks, housing, night schools, relief efforts during catastrophes, and even hospitals, have their origins and major support from churches and individual believers.
Many of our national founders, including John Witherspoon and Ben Franklin, spoke of religion’s value in maintaining a self-governing republic. George Washington said in his farewell Address, “religion and morality are indispensable supports” for “political prosperity.” He said, “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.” The very ability of a society to survive is the self-regulation of faith and obedience to godly commandments. There aren’t enough police or jails (as we are learning) to control everyone who might do evil. Only the fear of God allows us to serve and not harm each other.
2. God commands us to respect and obey government. This is true, even when we don’t like our government or didn’t elect it; after all, how many Christians in biblical times actually voted for the Roman emperor? Key Scriptures tell us,
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” (1 Timothy 2:1-2)
“Jesus said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.'” (Mark 12:17)
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. . . . For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.” (Romans 13:1, 6-8)
Lutherans especially have recognized the two ways in which God provides for his people: through his “proper work,” symbolized by the right hand, which is the Church and its proclamation of the Gospel; and his “alien work,” symbolized by the left hand, which is the government, which acts to protect people and punish evil (Romans 13:3-4). Note that Moses appealed to Pharaoh to let the people go, and they did not leave until Pharaoh allowed it. They didn’t rebel or fight their ruler, but obeyed God and let him handle Pharaoh to get them permission to leave. Likewise, we must pray and let God change our leaders’ hearts when he knows the time is right.
3. But God also commands a higher authority: himself. Note that when Jesus said to render to Caesar, he also said to render to God that which is his. When the two commands conflict, as they have throughout history, the obligation to God is greater than our obligation to government. That is why Christians have always met to worship, hear God’s Word, and receive the sacraments even in times when Christianity was outlawed, Christians were persecuted and even martyred, Bibles were burned, services and catechism were banned, and priests/pastor jailed.
We have a higher calling to obey God and not men. When the authorities ordered Peter and the other apostles to stop preaching in Jesus’ name, he replied in Acts 5:29-30, “We must obey God rather than men.” When the Chinese communist government expelled all foreign missionaries and banned churches, believers formed churches in their homes and the faith grew exponentially. When the Nazis tried to run the churches in Germany by assigning approved “bishops,” believers formed “The Confessing Church” and remained loyal to Christ. When ancient Rome called Christianity an illicit religion and banned it, the faithful still met to worship and pray, even if the location of their final church service became the arena. As you can see from these examples, obedience to God is not contingent on happy and easy times. As the Lord said in Deuteronomy 4:30, “When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice.”
4. When we re-open, we must still obey the greatest commandment: to love God with our whole heart and our neighbor as ourselves. We still have the obligation to each other which Christians have always had, to protect and care for each other. This means we should still follow the components of preventive health: physical separation, masking, cleaning of surfaces, and frequent hand-washing. We can find ways to have church that take these principles into account. We can pass the peace without shaking hands or giving a “holy kiss” (2 Corinthians 13:12). We can commune safely while spaced apart and the pastors using gloves (though we may need to drop our masks to actually partake of the bread and wine!). Because we care about each other, we can take the right steps to protect each other, but that should be our responsibility, and not by the government’s permission.
This is a difficult time for the Church, and for Christians who long to gather once again. We need each other; we are all parts of the body of Christ which need each other to function (See Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12). At some point, we need to stand up and assert our rights as believers, acting respectfully and peacefully toward the government, yet standing firm in fulfilling our greater obligation to God, even should it cost us penalties, for as Peter said, “We must obey God rather than men.”
So, to all those who wield authority over us during this pandemic and beyond, I repeat, “Let my people go!”
Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.
Read: Romans 13:1-9, 1 Corinthians 12, Acts 5:17-29, Exodus 5-12
* Like my previous blog in which I cited Charmin, I am just being fair, and am not endorsing Northern nor receiving any payment for naming or using it. Although, if rolls of either (or both) showed up mysteriously on my doorstep, I would be tempted to keep them . . .