As we continue to take steps toward normalcy as church communities, we will face the challenge of people who haven't worshiped together reconnecting.

I believe these rules of thumb that have been so helpful to me this past year, will be helpful for us as community as we come back together.

1. People will be inconsistent.

Amid the debates that surround COVID, the government, and masks, it is tempting to point out people's inconsistencies. But acting the same way in every situation is not necessarily the definition of wisdom. Wisdom negotiates between a myriad of competing ethical demands, and makes a judgment call on which path is the best way forward.

In the time of COVID, we are constantly asking ourselves, "When will I have follow restrictions and when will I not." This is not an easy decision. And there are numerous ethical issues weighing into the judgment: the safety of the vulnerable, the impact of mask-wearing and isolation on our relationships, our obligations to the government, accommodating the differing views of others in our community, the willingness to not fear and trust the Lord. A person making different decisions in different situations is not necessarily hypocrisy. Hypocrisy means saying you value something and then acting against that value. But if you have many values, that often seem in competition with each other, it is not hypocrisy to weigh them differently in different situations. In fact, most of the time in life, we have to make judgment calls based on our intuition. We must apply moral reasoning to our decisions about COVID. But we must also admit that many of these judgment calls will be based on our intuition weighing a variety of ethical concerns. We may not always be able to perfectly explain why we landed where we did.

That is okay.

I know that my own inconsistencies come from a complex mixture of ignorance, love for people, fear of man, and biblical reasoning. Some inconsistencies are justified; others likely aren't.

But also, those who seek to be totally consistent (for example, in either mask-wearing or non-mask-wearing) may not be weighing all the ethical issues at stake. This makes the decision simpler, but not necessarily more virtuous. We are all flawed and imperfect. So we should accept people will be inconsistent.

Because these judgment calls are so complicated and difficult, we need a second rule of thumb:

2. Show Mercy.

Many of those who have the strongest ethical intuitions about COVID restrictions will say that these convictions have risen to the level of conscience. Both those in favor or mask-wearing, and those against it, will have trouble justifying these conscience issues from the Scriptures.

The New Testament recognizes that the church will have many people with varying conscience issues. This will impact the fellowship of God's people. (The conscience issues around food laws in 1 Corinthians 8 is the most obvious example.) How do the apostles advise the church to handle conscience issues? Mercy. Show mercy to the person with a tender conscience. If you can't justify your conscience issue from Scripture, I don't want that to keep your from our fellowship: so mercy.

It should be added though that conscience issues that "go beyond what is written" should not be legislated over the whole community. The consciensious person is accommodated, but they don't get to make the rules for everyone else.

Our church has accommodated both those who insist on mask-wearing and those whose conscience forbids mask-wearing in worship. Neither conscience rules the whole community. Only God's word does.

How then is a community with diverse consciences going to stay unified? That is the third rule of thumb.

3. Do not judge each other.

What a relief that God not only allows us to not judge each other, but commands us not to! The reason this is so important is that in most ethical, conscience issues, we think we are obligated to judge people. It is unjust to not judge them. That is how our moral compass works.

What a relief to know that it actually pleases God when we don't judge each other. You are free. You are free from the burden of being the judge. You get to leave that to God. And just think how many things God for centuries and centuries leaves unjudged. If he, the Holy God, can do it, how much more you and me, sinners we are?

How do we not judge each other?

First, recognize that not all biblical doctrines are equal. There are first tier doctrines like the Trinity and the diety of Christ that you have to believe in to be a Christian. There are second tier doctrines that the Bible talks about frequently, but not all Christians believe. These include the inerrancy of the Scriptures or the sovereignty of God. These are doctrines to leave a church over.

There are also third tier doctrines that members of the same church disagree about. These are issues the Bible does not speak clearly about. Mask-wearing is third tier. We need to tell ourselves that over and over. Reminding ourselves of this turns the temperature down on this issue, and makes for peace.

Second, no judging also means being careful about how you speak about people who disagree with you. Just don't say things like, "I am so against..." That will create factions. You can say, "I feel pretty strongly this way, but it is complicated, and definitely third tier..." If we are going to come back together as a church, we must in our words makes space for those who disagree with us.

4. Major on spiritual health, not politics.

As our church makes decisions about our communal life, we will have to consider our relationship to the government in that process. The danger here is that everything has the potential to be politicized. Politicizing will definitely not help us do what the Apostle Paul said to the church in Corinth:

"I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and same judgment." (1 Cor. 1:10)

How do we avoid politicizing? The answer is to insist that our decisions are not primarily about commending or condemning the government. We don't take our cue from politics. Our guiding principle is the spiritual health of our church.

So if we deviate from the state's mandates, it is not from a desire to stick it to the government. It is because God has entrusted to our church the spiritual care of our people. That is always the burden behind what we do. We are not interested political action, but as Paul said, "I am in labor pains until Christ is formed in you."

This is our sincere desire: Christ formed in our church. As we trust him, follow him, listen to him, pray to him, depend on him, God will use this challenging year to do just that: make us more like our master.

And so he is our final and most important rule of thumb.

5. Trust that Jesus is among us.

When we think about our church the most important thing we should think about it is: Jesus is here. He is why we go to church. He is why we worship. He is present in our midst.

Whatever strong feelings we have about the pandemic must be tempered by this gigantic wonder that the Savior of the world is among us. He has gathered each soul to the community by his Sovereign Word. He has loved each soul there as a Good Shepherd.

We must repeatedly return to this truth as we think about one another. Why am I here? Why are you here? Because Jesus is among us. He alone can blend the diverse people that have been gathered into the church. He alone can guide us in the way of wisdom and love.