I have to admit something that I’m not proud of: whenever I see somebody who is not a senior citizen or who does not have some obvious health issues wearing a medical grade PPE mask, I think some not nice things about them. It was especially bad when this COVID-19 problem first began and those directly involved in hands on medical care really needed a ready supply of PPE, but were shorthanded due to the hoarding done by people not directly involved in patient care who thought that somehow wearing a medical grade PPE mask would magically protect them from the virus. The word my gut kept using for these folks was ‘selfish’ and there were a few other adjectives that I’ll keep to myself. Me with my hospital chaplain training on how to visit people with infectious diseases, I know that unless you’re an expert on how to wear and remove PPE, wearing masks and gloves will do little to protect you from getting a virus. In fact, you are just wasting a perfectly good piece of medical equipment that could rather be used to protect the lives of those involved in the front lines of this pandemic.
Now, don’t get me wrong. A mask is appropriate if worn to keep your own germs to yourself and for that reason, we should all have a ready supply of reusable homemade masks during this time and wear one in places like grocery stores where we will unavoidably get too close to other people. But, the medical grade PPE are for healthcare professionals, not us. And, yes, I wear a homemade, reusable mask when I’m shopping with the realization that wearing it won’t keep me from getting other people’s germs. It will help me keep my bugs to myself, if I got any. If we all did that, the world would be safer right now. And let me add, wearing a homemade, reusable mask is in the very least a visible sign of compassion towards those around us when we are in public.
Well, enough of the Randy Rant. I bring this mask thing up because I don’t think I am alone in feeling what I feel when I see non-healthcare people wearing medical-grade PPE, especially in how I felt early on about them. I will own up and say the problem is all mine. My feelings are my feelings and I know I’m being arrogant and judgemental about it. I am human and we as humans have some interesting reactions to people whom we perceive as stepping outside what’s good for the herd. But there is more than just herd mentality at play.
A pandemic has stepped into our lives like an unexpected and unwelcome next-door neighbour that we’re stuck with. It’s like a drug dealer buying the house next door and we have no choice but to live with him. He and his clientele have turned our lives upside down because the neighbourhood is no longer safe. We’re scared in our own homes and we’re angry and we have to do something with that anger, but it’s too dangerous to confront that drug-dealer neighbour. So, we deal with the anger by stigmatizing the guy up the street whose place looks like a rat’s nest. Likewise, in this pandemic since we cannot directly confront the virus to take our anger on it, we identify another target to be grumpy about. For me, that target is people who shouldn’t be wearing medical-grade PPE masks. To me, these folks are the identified target of my fear of and anger at the pandemic. To me, these illegitimate mask-wearers represent the mega-change we have had to make due to this unwelcome virus.
Now, I’m speaking tongue in cheek here, but imagine this scenario: what if we suddenly started to persecute people for wearing a homemade, reusable mask in the midst of this pandemic simply because they are visible symbol that everything’s gone wrong in the world. They’re not doing anything wrong. They’re doing something right. They are doing the Good. But, you know, their goody-goodiness just gets under our skin because, in a way, they are colluding with the enemy of civilization as we know it. Again, I’m speaking tongue in cheek. Imagine if we began to outright malign and abuse people for wearing their homemade, reusable mask.
Well, that’s the way people in the churches that Peter wrote to were being treated by their surrounding communities for following Jesus. Because of their allegiance to Jesus they did not worship the gods, which meant that they didn’t participate in the drunken orgies that idol worship feasts turned into. They didn’t participate in civic festivals because that involved worshipping the Emperor and that made them appear treasonous. Also, to early Christians status didn’t matter. It didn’t matter if you were rich or poor, slave or free, male or female, Jew or Gentile, soldier or senator, regardless of your position in life you were an equal member in the family of God in Christ and dearly loved by your sisters and brothers in Christ.
As time went on and Christian communities; i.e., small house churches, started popping up around the Roman Empire, people were threatened by their presence because the Christian way of life destabilized everything about the Greco-Roman way of life that was centered on idolatry and status. Christians were peaceful, joyful, hopeful, unconditionally loving, and morally upright and most people found that threatening. And so, Christians were unwelcome and unexpected guests in their towns and cities.
The presence of Christians was a shock, a surprise, to their surrounding communities. Peter writes in 4:4 “they are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation and so they malign you.” That word “surprised” in Greek is the word they used for when somebody shows up at your door unexpectedly to be your guest and you have no choice but to welcome them in and you’re realizing that their presence in your house is going to be a great inconvenience to you. In the Roman world, people, especially the civic authorities readily understood that having Christians around would destabilize their society much like this pandemic has done ours. When whole economies are built on supporting idol worship and re-enforcing the boundaries of social status – as our society is – people who don’t play that way and in turn offer a very appealing alternative way of life are a threat. They’re dangerous. The word for it is subversive. The early church was culturally subversive.
I’ll paraphrase Peter’s pastoral word to these persecuted disciples of Jesus. He says, “Don’t be surprised (like they are surprised at you) that this is happening to you. This is not something strange. This is what the world did to Jesus and so they will do it to you. You are, in fact, sharing in the suffering of Christ. This suffering, your suffering for him and his suffering for you, will lead to the ultimate defeat of all that’s wrong in God’s good creation. It is not without purpose. The Spirit of God rests on you. So, rejoice! Be glad! Shout for joy! When his glory is revealed you too will be greatly honoured.”
Peter then goes on to encourage them to continue living faithfully. First, he says be sensible and discipline yourselves with prayer. Life was very scary for them and so Peter encouraged them to keep the fear in check with the discipline of prayer. Prayer keeps us focused on God, his presence with us, and that things are in his hands.
Peter then says that above all they should maintain constant unconditional love for one another. This unconditional love in the community of the faithful was the greatest tool of cultural subversion the early church had. He says be hospitable to one another and don’t complain about what you have to give up for one another. Minister to one another with the talents that God has equipped you with because you are the stewards of God’s manifold grace. If God moves you to proclaim your hope to the surrounding community be bold knowing that you are speaking the very words of God.
Well, Peter gives very good advice for disciples who are suffering persecution. In our culture, this doesn’t necessarily apply. In our case, Christian faith helped establish the values of our culture. It wasn’t too long ago that church attendance was widely practiced and was part of the definition of what it is to be a good person. But our culture has moved away from its Christian roots and oddly the church has moved away from its Christian roots to look more like the surrounding culture. The scholars say that secular culture has subverted Christian culture. In fact, for the majority of people who still call themselves Christian, there is little difference between us and the average Joe and Jane other than we claim to have private beliefs. For the most part, we have lost our ability to be culturally subversive.
But now, in these days of the dwindling and dying off of the institution called “the Church” in our culture, we have the opportunity to be disciples of Jesus without all the cultural entanglement that we had before. But, we need to take our commitment to Jesus beyond simple private beliefs to a lived public acclamation that Jesus is Lord made evident through our way of life.
Peter’s advice, though given to the church-persecuted, is every bit applicable for us whom I will call the church-renewing. We must discipline ourselves to pray. Be hospitable to one another. This means more home-based fellowship among us to enrich the friendship that we already enjoy. As God has gifted us all with ministry-gifts, we need to sort those out and utilize them in our church life. And finally, above everything else, we must maintain constant unconditional love for one another, for our neighbours, and for our communities. Love is an active verb. From our love for one another a strong sense of mission will then arise and we will begin to look different than the culture around us in a Good kind of way and we will have our subversiveness back and once again be a surprise. Amen.
