MenuServe one another, each with the gift he received, as good managers of the various gifts of God. – 1 Peter 4:10
Halloween masks in October, oh my! COVID masks from March through whenever, Oh My!! Arguments about whether masks are saving our lives or are useless (or worse), OH MY!!!
At the risk of adding more fuel to the fire (especially the last OH MY!!!), I would ask you to briefly consider “masks” in godly terms today.
Like Halloween masks or Mardi Gras masks or other costume masks, we sometimes mask our true thoughts, emotional state, mental state, or even physical state from others so they think we are something that we are not. I suppose some of that is a good and healthy measure of self-control and discipline, and helps us get along with others, but often behind that mask we have some brokenness that we are hiding from each other.
That is understandable, because that is where we are the most vulnerable – in our heart of hearts. But it is OK to be vulnerable in your heart to God. In fact, God already knows our hearts, so we cannot carry on a masquerade before God. And that’s a good thing! Jesus invites us to take our cares, our concerns, our worries, our sins, guilt and shame to our heavenly Father in prayer, so we can be honest with Him and with ourselves (no masks!) about what is really going on in our lives. And before God we actually find forgiveness because of Jesus Christ.
So beware of the worldly advice to merely “follow your heart” because our human hearts can, and do, often lead us astray, as Jesus says, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34b) So often, the things that spring from the mouth and show themselves are our words, and when our words are harsh, they reflect the harshness in our heart.
Rather than following our own selfish, human hearts, we are directed to the heart of God, which is only good. In God’s heart we find love and forgiveness, so much so that the Father sent His only-begotten Son to take on human flesh and give His blood on the cross to forgive us and win us back to Him.
And when we reflect on the heart of God in Jesus Christ, we begin to actually reflect the heart of God… first in our heart, and then in our words and actions.
And that becomes a moment of pure and blessed honesty with ourselves, with God, and with each other. Reflecting the heart of God, we take off our masks and put on another kind – let’s call them the masks of God. For then, and only then, acting in faith, we begin doing the work of God for each other, caring for each other on God’s behalf. As masks of God, we begin serving each other for the sake, not of God (who needs not our efforts), but of our neighbor who most certainly does need our support! We are to care for God’s creation (including each other), as instruments for a time of what He is accomplishing here on earth. None of us can do that alone, so God gives us each other, in our various vocations and stations in life, as masks of
Himself to minister to each other, for Him, in good works and deeds.
That’s why Peter writes, “Serve one another, each with the gift he received, as good managers of the various gifts of God. If you speak, says what God says. If you serve, do it with the strength God gives you so that in every way you glorify God through Jesus Christ. His is the glory and power forever! Amen. – 1 Peter 4:10-11 (AAT)
Rev. Jeff Nickel
Holy Cross Lutheran Church