Social Distancing – Heart and Mind

One of the unintended consequences of the Stay Home Orders is to view other people as germ-carriers, contaminated, and threatening. I don’t want to overstate this, but you can feel the suspicion. Many now experience dis-ease with others because of this COVID-19 disease.

You can see it in the way people wearing masks look at others not wearing them. Having been trained in social distancing, many are going to be very uncomfortable with physical proximity and touch when (or for some, since) the Stay Home Orders have been lifted.

We’re caught in a classic case of competing values: self-protection versus other-connection.

We long for connection.

Many have now experienced the reality of working from home. They found both upsides and downsides to this. Technology allows flexibility, but it has limitations, especially in relationships.

One of the first to popularize the dynamic challenge between technological progress and relationships was social forecaster, John Naisbitt in his bestseller MEGATRENDS: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives (1982). He used the phrase High Tech/High Touch. “We are moving in the dual direction of high tech/high touch, matching each new technology with a compensating human response.” Decades ago, he spoke about the mixed reactions workers had to working from home. “They like the freedom and conveniences [of working from home] but miss the interaction with co-workers. People want to be with people.”

We are created for community.

Our longing for connection is rooted in creation. In the Genesis 1 account of creation, every day closed with the refrain, “And God saw it was good.” At the conclusion of the sixth day, “God saw it was very good!” The first “not-good” designation of an aspect of creation came in Genesis 2:18, “It is not good for man to be alone.” God proceeded to the creation of woman and the establishment of the human family. But the implications of not-being-alone go beyond family to the broader network of human connection.

We affirm each person’s value.

As I continue to reflect on Jesus’ resurrection, I realize that, in addition to being a validation of Jesus’ identity as God’s Son, it is a validation of human worth and human destiny. The incarnation, the resurrection, and the promised New Creation are ultimate testimonies to our value as human beings.

In one of his most influential essays, The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis pondered the implications of the eternal destiny of human beings. He pulled back the taking-people-for-granted curtain to consider both the eternal glory that will be manifest in those who receive salvation—or the eternal horror of those who reject salvation.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

Then Lewis considered our role in encouraging everyone with whom we interact to move toward the redemptive vision.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities… that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal… Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses (C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory).

We respect each person’s journey.

Caring for one another is not optional. We are stewards of God’s grace in and through our relationships and community. Even when it’s not comfortable. So, whether we are quick to move on from social distancing, or slower to make the change, we respect and value each other in Christ.

“Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:7 ESV).

The early church expressed their love and support through physical touch. I thought of the exhortation in the New Testament to “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” When I did a search, I was surprised to learn that it occurred not just once, but in four of Paul’s letters and one of Peter’s letters (Romans 16:16: 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26; 1 Peter 5:14). In other words, this expression of love in Christ was a common practice.

While that may be true, we’ve been through an experience that won’t easily be forgotten. It’s going to be awkward at times. The important thing to remember is that “it’s not about you.” A person’s slowness to engage in physical touch is not a statement about our value. It’s a statement about their comfort and security. Love respects that.

Our priority is to be spiritually and emotionally connected, even as we sort out how to be physically present.

Luther shutterstock_223567285 — Monument of Martin Luther in Wittenberg, Germany

The current health crisis is testing our faith in more ways than one. It’s helpful to see how God’s people have responded to such situations in the past. For instance, some frame the “Stay Home Orders” of local and state governments in terms of a conflict between church and state. Centuries ago, Martin Luther thought in terms of common sense and pastoral care.

A pastor friend of mine sent me some timely advice from Luther, the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. He shared Luther’s counsel to a pastor who asked about how to minister in a time of plague.

This way not just any plague; this was the Black Plague, also known as the Great Bubonic Plague. The Black Plague was the most devastating pandemic recorded in human history. According to a variety of online sources, the Plague resulted in the deaths of an estimated 75 million to 200 million people in Europe and Asia in the 1300’s (30-60% of the population). It peaked in Europe from 1347 to 1351, but occasional outbreaks continued into the 1700’s.

One such outbreak occurred during Luther’s lifetime (1483–1546). The Rev. Dr. Johann Hess had asked Luther, “Whether one may flee from a Deadly Plague.” Luther’s lengthy response included much practical advice, such as:

“I shall ask God mercifully to protect us.”

“Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it.”

“I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.”

“If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me, and I have done what he has expected of me, and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others.”

“If my neighbor needs me however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above.”

“See this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy…”

(Martin Luther, “Whether one may flee from a Deadly Plague” written to Rev. Dr. Johann Hess, cited in Luther’s Works, Vol. 43: Devotional Writings II, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999).

Luther practiced social distancing! Why? “… in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.”

It makes me think of Paul’s exhortation to the Philippian believers:

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:2-5 NIV).

Physical distancing can be a wise and appropriate act of love and care for both our neighbors and ourselves. Our priority is to cultivate spiritual and emotional closeness. We can be very present, even when we are physically apart.