Regarding the Death of Our Brother

A letter I wrote to my congregation.

Dear Church Family,

If you have not heard, just a couple days ago, the pastor of _______ Church here in Elk Grove died of COVID. This was, as I understand it, a great surprise. Perhaps some of you knew him.

I don’t know what his vaccination status or overall health was – I would not know him from Adam. And this brings me to the point: whether he was vaccinated or not, we must remember that his death does not prove or disprove your opinion on vaccines, nor somebody else’s. It doesn’t even prove or disprove anything HE might have said about vaccines or COVID. Not if he WAS vaccinated, and not if NOT. The truths that someone might have spoken or stood for are not by necessity invalidated by their death. Truth and reality don’t work that way.

He’s not a pawn in our vaccine debates. He’s our brother in Christ. And our Father in His infinite wisdom saw fit to cause this brother to fall asleep relatively early in his life. And so we grieve, as the Bible commands us to, with his family, and with _________ Church.

Thus we pray for them, and I’ve asked the elders to begin praying for all churches in our area, who aspire to be God-centered, Jesus-exalting, and Gospel-driven. Because, while we are an US, here at Grace Church, we are also part of a worldwide, universal US – the Church. We are not in competition with each other. We are little platoons, in the same vast army of grace.

So the next time you hear of us praying for another church – don’t take that the wrong way – nobody’s dying, nobody’s failed – we’re just praying out of our universal brotherhood in Christ. We’re all in need of grace. Especially right now our brothers and sisters over at ________ Church. 

Cordially in Christ,

Jed