contagion

[Mike Rinehart]

Dear Gulf Coast Leaders,

 

A few of you have contacted our office asking about flu precautions. Here are some thoughts.

 

Pray

Pastor Kerry Nelson reminded me yesterday that the church always leads with prayer. Pray for those affected. Pray for folks in Mexico. Pray for the family of the Mexican toddler who died of H1-N1 flu (the influenza formerly known as “swine flu”) in Houston this week. 

 

Peddle facts, not fear

Fear is contagious. I’ve received a number of panic-driven emails with boldfaced text, underlined text, exclamation points, large font sizes and so on. Many with no advice on what to do. They only stir up anxiety. The Fort Worth school system (80,000 students) has cancelled school, and asked kids to stay in their house until May 11. Egypt has slaughtered 300,000 pigs. Over-reaction? Time will tell. Astute pastor Lemae Higgs from United in Swiss Alp says this may be a dry run for a future epidemic.

 

In the mean time we would do well to remember St. John’s thesis: Perfect love casts out all fear. Facts can cast out fear as well. Keep in mind that 35,000+ people die of season flu every year in the U.S. At this stage, one person has died in the U.S. of H1N1 flu. There are currently 141 confirmed cases, 28 of which are in Texas, and none in Louisiana (see the CDC website: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu). One county health office told me yesterday, “Today, the evidence would indicate that this novel strain is less severe than seasonal flu. In the 1970’s swine flu hit unexpected and disappeared just as unexpected.” Fear can create more problems than it solves.

 

Take precautions

Another local physician told me, “…remind people about hand washing (before they do anything, including coming to church). If they feel bad, they should really stay home and consult their doctor. They should consider a flu test with any upper respiratory symptoms, muscle aches, GI symptoms. Typically, they do not have to have insurance for flu tests, usually $25. If someone cannot pay, that may be a place that the church can help.”

 

Stay home

If you don’t feel well, call in sick. Don’t ask, “What will they do without me?” They are Christians. They’ll figure it out. In particular, if you have a fever, get to a doctor. 

 

Be the Church

Jesus’ ministry is characterized by his constant presence among the sick, in leper colonies, and with those with unclean spirits. (I’d love to tease out the implications of Jesus casting the spirits into the pigs, but my better judgment forbids.) The early church was known for its care for the sick. During the plague the church moved toward those who are suffering, not away from them. The church invented the hospital. Another health official: “…reinforcing good habits is the right move… The church has a HUGE place in events like this.  Ministry to the sick and those that are just fearful is a big part of our calling. The church should not pull back, it should step up, but with reasonable precautions for H1N1, seasonal influenza, or any other illness.”

 

Listen to your local leaders

If there are confirmed cases in your area, listen to your leaders. If school is cancelled you may want to consider closing your preschool/day care center. In my last parish, our children’s center did what the local school system did. Listen to your health officials, but be sure to get copies of official reports. Don’t act on hearsay (heresy?) or inflammatory emails. Attached is the last official statement from the Louisiana Office of Public Health. Note the calm and direct manner of communication. Quite a few school systems have chosen to close. Harris County and Montgomery County (Texas) have not issued advisories at this point.

 

Holy Communion

Everything I have read points to common cup being the safest and most “clean” method of distribution. Why? Because our hands carry more germs than our mouths. In common cup, wine goes from bottle to cup to mouth. No hands. In intinction inevitably people get their fingers in the wine. I strongly discourage this practice for the time being. With little cups, hands put the cups in trays and in some congregations hand take them out. Everything I have read supports common cup. If anyone has anything that refutes this from a reliable source please let us know.

 

One practice I adopted in the parish was washing my hands before communion. I shook a lot of hands as people entered and would find myself sneezing a lot during the allergy season. Since I knew I would be handling bread or wafers that people would be putting in their mouths, I felt it a good idea to practice good hygiene. During the offering I would go back into the sacristy and after donning my chasuble, I would wash my hands or use hand sanitizer (what my 6-year-old calls “hanitizer”). I suppose you could even put hand sanitizer next to your seat, but don’t put it on the altar unless you’re wanting to add a third sacrament. Speaking of which, hand-washing before the Eucharist is actually an ancient practice (known as the lavabo proper), going back to the Roman and Gallican Rites. Some believe it may even go back to Jewish purification rituals (like the water Jesus turned into wine in John 2). Pastor Barb Simmers at Peace Lutheran in Slidell and a few other congregation use a lavabo before communion. But I digress into liturgical minutiae. (For the obsessed, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavabo, and http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09044b.htm.)

 

Above all, listen to local health officials. Use common sense. This is a time for concern, but not alarm. At this time we are not being told to halt communion practices. 

 

Passing the Peace

One local doctor said to me, “I would feel comfortable shaking hands and drinking wine (especially if it is alcohol).” The issue is not hand-to-hand. It’s hand-to-hand followed by hand-to-mouth if there is not hand-washing. So I’m thinking a bunch of bottles of hand sanitizer in the Narthex might lower anxiety and show respect for your people. But use pastoral discretion. Determine whether your community will find this anxiety-lowering or anxiety-raising. Remember, people have been listening to the news. Fear is contagious. Don’t make the mistake of thinking they aren’t thinking about this. Two people who came into my office today had sanitizer on their person (one in a dispenser on his belt, and the other in a dispenser on her purse). If you are in an area where the local health officials have specifically requested people to not shake hands (something I’ve not seen yet in any of our areas), then the peace could be done with a verbal greeting and a slight, respectful bow.

 

Announcements

If you have announcements, whether you say anything about this or not must be a pastoral decision. It may be enough to have sanitizer in the Narthex. The doctor above said she really appreciated churches acting like centers of the community and passing on information vital to the community’s health. Think it through. Listen to local health officials. Talk to wise, informed people in your congregation. 

 

What Would Luther do? 

IN 1527 Martin Luther wrote a letter to the Rev. Dr. Johann Hess, a pastor in Breslau now known as, “Whether One My Flee from a Deadly Plague.” He was responding to a question from this pastor. I just finished reading it. I couldn’t find it on the web, but it’s the last entry in Timothy Lull’s, Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, pp. 736-755. Luther reminds pastors of the words in this Sunday’s gospel: “A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep but the hireling sees the wolf coming and flees” [John 10:11]. However, he points out, if there are enough pastors around to care for the sick, others may leave so as not to expose themselves to needless danger. Those in public office, he says, are under obligation to stay. To abandon an entire community when one has been called to govern is a great sin. Luther says that people should seek out daily food, shelter and safety. Avoiding death and harm is no sin. Scripture has many examples of those who flee to safety (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Mary and Joseph with our Lord). If a house is on fire, run. But don’t abandon others in the house. And if your neighbor’s house is on fire, rush in and help him extinguish it. (What might this say about us going into Mexico now, or closing the border?) Anyone who does not help his neighbor in need, becomes a murderer in the sight of God, Luther says, quoting I John 3:15 and 17, Matthew 25:43 (I was sick and you did not visit me…”) and also Ezekiel 16:49 (which is also noteworthy in our conversations on human sexuality). What was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?

 

This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

 

Zing. Hear O America… 

 

Luther says, “Now if a deadly epidemic strikes, we should stay where we are, make our preparations, and take courage in the fact that we are mutually bound together… so that we cannot desert one another o flee from one another.” (p. 744). He goes on to say, “I am of the opinion that all the epidemics, like any plague, are spread among the people by evil spirits who poison the air or exhale a pestilential breath which puts a deadly poison into the flesh.” His superstitious Black Forest upbringing notwithstanding, Luther was more on target than his pre-epidemiological folk-science realized. He continues, “If Christ shed his blood for me and died for me, why should I not expose myself to some small dangers for his sake and disregard this feeble plague?” And more: “This I well know, that if it were Christ or his mother who were laid low by illness, everybody would be so solicitous and would gladly become a servant or helpful. Everyone would want to be bold and fearless; nobody would flee but everyone would come running. And yet they don’t hear what Christ himself says, ‘As you did to one of the least, you did it to me’” [Matt. 25:40]. 

 

“Moreover,” Luther says, “he who has contracted the disease and recovered should keep away from others and not admit them into his presence unless it be necessary.” In other words, don’t endanger others. This is the same advice we’re getting from the CDC. Luther says if someone is sick and walking the streets he should be handed over to Master Jack, the hangman, as an outright and deliberate murderer. “Our plague here in Wittenberg has been caused by nothing but filth. The air, thank God, is still clean and pure, but some few have been contaminated because of the laziness or recklessness of some. So the devil enjoys himself at the terror and flight which he causes among us. May God thwart him! Amen.” (pp. 750-751) People should still go to church, he says, so that they can learn from God’s Word how to live and how to die. Everyone should prepare for death by receiving the sacrament weekly and being reconciled with his or her neighbor. That way, when the Lord knocks, we are ready. 

 

I encourage you to consider how your faith informs your decisions as we face the threat of influenza. 

 

Further reading

"Worship in Times of Public Health Concerns" is at http://www.ELCA.org/worship and information about preparing for a pandemic flu is at http://www.ELCA.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Responding-to-the-World/Disaster-Response/Ongoing-Responses/Pandemic-Flu.aspx on the ELCA Web site.

 

שלומ سلام Peace,

 

Mike Rinehart 

 

Michael Rinehart, bishop

The Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

12707 I-45 North Frwy, Suite 580

Houston, TX 77060-1239

281-873-5665

www.GulfCoastSynod.org <http://www.gulfcoastsynod.org/> 

 

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Psalm 41:1-3

1Happy are those who consider the poor; <javascript:void(0);> *
   the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble. 
2The Lord protects them and keeps them alive;
   they are called happy in the land.
   You do not give them up to the will of their enemies. 
3The Lord sustains them on their sickbed;
   in their illness you heal all their infirmities.

>From Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, "Festal Letters" (commenting on the plague of 260)

 

"Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another.  Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains.

 

Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead. The best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner, a number of presbyters, deacons, and laymen winning high commendation so that death in this form, the result of great piety and strong faith, seems in every way the equal of martyrdom.

 

The heathen [pagans] behaved in the very opposite way.  At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease; but do what they might, they found it difficult to escape."

 

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