DOES THE INCARNATION MATTER?: Covid-19 and the Celebration of the Sacrament

Each week we recite the words of the Nicene Creed in the Divine Service, “and was made man.” At that point we bow or recognize in some ceremonial way this incredible reality that God has assumed the humanity into God. It is that wonder that means He shares in our death. He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He touched bier of the dead man and raised him to life. He was touched by a woman who was bleeding for twelve years and had spent all her money on physicians seeking a cure. He dealt with lepers and freed them from their skin of death. Then, there is His own resurrection where He triumphs over death and the grave.

By His death and resurrection, He makes all things clean. The Church struggles with this as we see in Peter needing a vision about the unclean foods being made clean. Likewise, we are called not to fear death for we trust that its power has been swallowed up in Christ’s victory. Remember that the dead bones of Elisha brought life to the dead man thrown on top of him in an open grave for death is held captive by Christ. See how the Church has reverently treated the bodies of Her dead over the centuries and consecrated the grave until the day of the resurrection. Faith in Christ led the Church to be merciful to the sick, visiting in their homes, caring for them, and eventually developing hospitals. They established orphanages and gathered alms for those in true need. After all, the authority to forgive sins is the freeing power that Christ has given to His Church, but we are also to care for those who have physical needs like the paralytic whom Christ then commanded to get up and walk. Those who see their neighbor’s needs of the body always confess that “works serve our neighbor and supply the proof that faith is living.” (LSB 555:9)

So, tell me, why are we treating our elderly and hospitalized like lepers today? Why are pastors not allowed to visit the homes of their members or give them the Blessed Sacrament? Why are we acting like meeting with our church family may kill us? Haven’t you all been buried with Christ by baptism into death? Those who have already died with Christ have been raised with Him and need not fear the second death. When Christ meets His disciples on the night of the resurrection, He breathes on them that they might forgive sins. In the present world, even before Covid, many would be offended by this. Christ breathed our poisonous air of death without fear and now He gives His lifegiving breath in the preaching of the Church, the germladen hands that hold infants at the font, the air filled with death as we kneel at the Supper that only His Body and Blood offered up on the cross and received in the Supper can cleanse.

Why have we decided pastors should put on masks and gloves to serve the Supper? The incarnate Lord has given us this Sacrament and all ceremonies should reflect His Words of Institution. It is “given and shed for the forgiveness of sin” and “where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.” Faith trusts what our Lord says and that means “no poison can be in the cup that my Physician sends me.” (LSB 760:3) A pastor in a black mask and with black gloves sends the message of evil or danger in connection with the Lord’s Supper. Any mask is at best a distraction, and at worst an insertion of fear. Such a message is inconsistent with our theology and the public administration of the Sacrament. I could never say that it is impossible to get sick, but I also know that those who drink the cup share in His sufferings and His glory. Ultimately, we have Christ’s promise that those who live and believe in Him shall never die. The question remains: Is this the Body of Christ? Is this the Blood of Christ? Did He conquer disease, death and every enemy? Then, eat His flesh and drink His blood and He will raise you up to eternal life. You are all one in Christ so do not fear the germs on your pastor’s hands or in the cup. The celebrant must in every way confess that the Holy Body and Blood of Christ are given and shed for the recipient’s good.

If you are going to be consistent with this view of wearing masks, then you may have to wear them permanently, for as Roseanne Roseannadanna would say: “It’s always something.” Will it be more Covid, stronger flu strains, other viral horrors? We don’t really know, but we do know that the Word of Christ is sure and certain. If nothing else, let us return to trusting the words of Christ and confessing by Word and ceremony that the Sacrament is His great gift to the Church for this is what will not fail. The world says, this is new and troubling, but we listen to the words of Solomon about this world of weariness, “there is nothing new under the sun.” Then we return to the altar and Christ nourishes us until the day when He draws us to the eternal feast.

For further consideration, I also commend to you the comments from the St. Catherine’s seminary in: Facts and Faith: What we know to be true in the face of a pandemic: A Faculty Opinion in the Tradition of Gutachten, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vwWW08_1wQYLRo8Kx_5n5FxDbCrRmprJ/view