STAYING SAFE

Part 3

“So, tell me, why should we be afraid?” the Pastor, a dark-skinned bald man in a creased up grey suit, has at his homily. With the quietness and rapt attention of his audience and the too seriousness in his voice, one could easily conclude that he’s giving one of those sermons about the nearness of the end time or the second coming of Christ being at hand; you know, those types of sermons that would want to make the born again get born again, that would stir its listeners to want to desist from every appearance or perpetration of evil and sin, only to return to them after the sermon wears off from their ears. But after sitting on one of the cushioned chairs in the church to listen for a while, it begins to get clearer what the pastor is saying.

“All they want to do is make void the power of God,” the pastor continues. “But never will their schemes and gimmicks see fruition, in Jesus’ name.” The church, except for me who is trying to understand the ‘they’ in the prayer, roars ‘amen’. As the church roars, my attention is drawn to a woman, who I suspect to be the pastor’s wife, on the pastorate seat. She is wearing a gown and one of those satellite hats peculiar to born again women. Her lips are as red as the butt of a baboon in heat. She’s the kind of Christian the pastor of my former church would describe as unbroken Christians—Christians who still have some parts in the world.

“They cannot silence the potency in the name of Jesus, no matter how much they try,” he rides on. “The word of God makes it clear the power that the believers carry. Jesus himself said it that we shall take up serpents, and if we drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt us. So, what are they trying to do by trying to kill God’s power in us? We will never let them win over the church. NEVER will THEY win us.” He speaks with a crescendo in his voice and anger. Though I’m beginning to understand what his message is, I still do not understand who he’s referring to as ‘they’. Are they physical or spiritual forces against the church? I still cannot seem to place which kind they could be.

“Now you can see what they’re trying to do with us, asking us to wash our hands every now and then. They obviously want to turn us to members of the opposite religion. But their desires shall not see manifestation in Jesus’ name.” The church, again, roars ‘amen'. Now, as I begin to understand what his message of protest is about, I become impatient to know who these ‘they’ he’s becoming emphatic about are.

“Look at it again, they’re asking us to sanitize ourselves with some hand sanitizer. Tell me, what could sanctify any man better than the blood of Jesus that has sanctified us from the filth of this world?” The question is a rhetorical one. Nobody answers.

“They’re also demanding that we wear face mask. Why? Why?” he asks as though invoking the ‘they’ in his message to answer the question. As he asks, I notice some of the eyes around me roll at me. Till now, I’m the only one with a face mask on his face in the whole church. I had worn the face mask to avoid the penalty of not wearing it, but now, it has become obvious that I’m the outlaw in the church. It’s true what they say that when a sane man finds himself in the multitude of madmen, he has become the mad one while the madmen become the sane ones.

“Tell me, why should we wear it? Are we hired killers?” he enquires.

Upon realizing the interpretation that the pastor and his congregation have given to the wearing of face mask, I stylishly remove the handle of the face mask on me from my right ear and later do the same with the one on the left, and then put it, in a surreptitious manner, inside my pocket, as though I had done something lawbreaking.

(To be continued tomorrow)