The sacrament of vaccination

Back in 2020, a peculiar phenomenon began to emerge, particularly here in Victoria, but for sure in other states and territories also. It had to do with what we called the ‘weekly numbers’, that is, the announcement/press conference every Sunday morning led by the Premier Dan Andrews where he announced how many people in our state were infected or dead, and whether that was up or down from last week, and which civil restrictions he deemed appropriate as a result.

However, for many Victorians, this wasn’t just the news of the week. This was their Good News for the week. Many Victorians had become faithful adherents of a new religion, where Dan was the minister, the sermon was the weekly numbers, and the obedience of faithfully following his decrees was met with a deep sense of righteousness and justification. Stay safe, stay home, was the mantra.

This new worship came with a new type of evangelism. Faithful adherents could be spotted not only by their meticulous adherence to whichever arbitrary rules Dan had given them for the week, but by their ferocious insistence upon your compliance also.

To see a largely secular society become so ardently religious was no surprise to anyone familiar with Romans 1.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Romans 1:18-24

The thing that really shocked me wasn’t that non-Christians were worshipping, because everyone worships, the thing that shocked me was how many Christians were more excited to hear Dan’s Sunday morning good news than their own pastor’s Sunday morning good news.

In 2020 we got the mark of obedience: the mask. In 2021, we now have the First Sacrament of the new religion: vaccination. The videos of the faithful dutifully rolling up their sleeve and having the minister inject them with the sacred cocktail have already been plastered all over your news and social media. It is a religious ceremony, through and through.

It should be evident that the priority here in this reflection is on worship. Regardless of how the esteemed reader feels about the scientific claims being made for and against these vaccines, the most important thing to acknowledge is that this religion does not bring true peace. It does not bring reconciliation between a person and the God who created them, who one day will hold them to account. The only substance that can save you is the blood of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth. Astra-Zeneca does not bring atonement and Pfizer does not bring propitiation.

You will die, it could even be today, and you would do well to realise you are not in control of that. Your mask will not save you, nor will social distancing. You need to turn in repentance and faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice on behalf of God’s chosen people will clothe you with a level of protection you could only dream of.

 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:35-39