The Body of Christ and Wearing Masks

I lived in South Africa a number of years ago, and I often reflect on the formative experiences that I had there. Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about one specific sermon from that year where the Pastor read from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and preached about the “Body of Christ.” Reflecting upon health crises that impact various communities around the world – and specifically the community where we were gathered that Sunday morning, the Pastor proclaimed that if we are all part of the body of Christ and if there is even one member of the body who has HIV/AIDS, then the entire body of Christ has HIV/AIDS. The Pastor’s call was for us to care, radically and communally, for those with HIV/AIDS – in the same way that a body works to heal from illness or injury. This sermon reframed Paul’s “Body of Christ” imagery for me, helping me not only to reflect on my interconnected position in the world, but also to think differently about how I (as an eye, or ear, or any other part of the body), must care, radically and communally, for other members of the body.

We at Wilderness Canoe Base have been considering the interconnectedness of our community quite a bit this past week. Throughout staff training, the staff have participated in a variety of conversations that have helped us to think deeply about how we live and relate to our world. We began the week by considering words from Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, professor of Theological and Social Ethics, who invites everyone to “see the lens in which you see the world.” Moe-Lobeda’s words served as an excellent starting point for our other trainings, which included conversations and readings around LGBTQIA allyship; Youth Development and Mental Health; Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the outdoors; Land, Native Voices and settler-colonialism; and Bible Study programming about God’s expansive love for us and for the world around us. Each of these conversations have provided us with opportunities to understand how our minds and bodies connect and interact throughout every moment of our lives. What we say, what we do, what we think, how we act, and all other parts of our lives are bound up in all of creation, and have the potential to come together in radical and communal ways.

For us at Wilderness Canoe Base this summer, radical communality is lived out not only in our inclusive, inviting, and welcoming actions to people from many backgrounds, but also in our practices related to staying safe and healthy during COVID-19. We have worked diligently to social distance, to wash our hands, and clean and sanitize our facilities as often as we can. Furthermore, a significant way that we have radically and communally considered our actions related to COVID-19 at Wilderness Canoe Base is by wearing masks at all moments when we are in community.

One of the most communal, caring, and counter-cultural aspects of mask-wearing is that it is not solely done as a way to protect yourself. While we have been groomed within this society to focus on ourselves (“pull yourself up by your bootstrap,” “just focus on what you need,”), wearing a mask is, as I understand it, as much about protecting others as it is about protecting oneself. My wearing a mask may not prevent me from receiving COVID-19 if an unmasked person sneezes on me—but when everyone wears a mask, the risks of community transmission are greatly reduced. Mask-wearing reorients us to consider our neighbors and not just ourselves. It drives us to consider the interconnected body of Christ.

We at Wilderness Canoe Base have wondered about how mask-wearing might mean more than just practically preventing the spread of COVID-19. Wearing masks has helped us consider how we include and welcome all peoples into the Wilderness Canoe Base community, especially given the data that show that older persons and communities of color have been most affected by COVID-19.

In the same way that our staff are considering how our words, policies, and actions either invite or prevent people from different backgrounds and walks of life to participate in Wilderness Canoe Base activities, so too do our policies and procedures related to protecting peoples’ bodies impact someone’s ability to participate in Wilderness Canoe Base. Each action that we take can be looked at through a lens of how we welcome all people into this expansive community that God has created.

If our call is to care, deeply and entirely, for the body of Christ, we must proactively consider how we are orienting ourselves to the world and how we are inviting all people—and, in particular, those who are most vulnerable or underrepresented—into our spaces. I invite each of you to consider how you are caring for a body of Christ that has COVID-19. It may feel overly cautious, inconvenient, uncomfortable, or disorienting, but wearing a mask is one important way that you can communicate with others that you are actively trying care for all of creation in a radical, communal, godly way.

-Nate, WCB Director