DY 171: If Our Masks Could Speak

DAY 171

                              Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic                     

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-five   Tuesday 1 September 2020

If Our Masks Could Speak

“For something that’s supposed to cover our mouths the face mask speaks volumes about how crazy some have gotten. Specifically, that face mask tells us how the world’s richest and most scientifically advanced country generated a cadre of leaders and citizens who made wearing a covering over their nose and mouth to prevent the spread of a contagion into a freedom-of-speech issue and cultural marker – something no other country in the world did… . A society that can politicize something as simple as a face mask can politicize anything…never realize its full potential in good times or prevent the worst in bad times.”  - From recent newspaper article by the same title

How did we get here? More important question: how can we go from here to another place, a place of reason, a place of balance,  a place of trust, for all three of these cultural necessities have fallen on hard times the past few years and their deterioration is accelerating as we head into the November election. In it all masks have become a political symbol of partisan politics.

Ancient Israel experienced roller coaster cultural mood swings depending on the nature of who was king: some ‘did what was right in the eyes of the Lord’ and others ‘did evil in the sight of the Lord’ and the country reflected their ruler. Let us be clear: the ruler, for good or for ill, could not produce the good or evil behavior of the people, capacities residing within every human being. But their behavior modeled and therefore precipitated the behavior that was observable in the people under their rule. It is a basic principle of human existence: we become like that which we follow. When it comes to masks, it’s become ‘follow the leader’ whomever you choose to follow.

If our masks could speak – what would they say? How would they interpret their role in this  pandemic? Masks have taken on personalities of their own by design. They also speak of fear, anxiety, and an absence of a trust of the environment into which we go when we wear them. This has to do with our common humanity – masks are not partisan. Then there is the unseen mask of hypocrisy about which Jesus warned -though unseen, do we wear this mask as well? May the Holy Spirit use our physical masks to teach us about the unseen masks we wear.

Reflective question: What does your mask ‘say’ to you and about you when you put it on?

Reflective Scripture: Luke 12:2 (The Message): “You can’t hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later your mask will slip and your true face will be known.”

Reflective hymn:

“Have Thine Own Way, Lord” – Adelaide Pollard (1862-1934)

Have Thine own way, Lord, have Thine own way;

Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me, after Thy will,

while I am waiting, yielded and still.