Welcome all to the Thursday, May 21, 2020 post from Peachtree Baptist Church, my name is Paul Capps, pastor.  Maybe you have read recently about people literally getting up in arms about face masks. Some people feel that being required to wear one is a violation of their civil rights. Others feel that those not wearing masks should be criminally liable. It has even erupted into violence. Someone not wearing a mask was attacked by someone else wearing a mask because they felt the unmasked person was too close. In another case, a security guard was killed because he told someone to leave a store because they weren’t wearing a mask. It is mind-boggling to me. How did we get to this point and how are we to respond?

What I have noticed in the attitudes of some people is that they believe they are suffering because they feel they are not getting what they feel they deserve. The hard truth for them and for all of us is that only God is deserving. We should not be surprised when life is hard. And we shouldn’t think that we deserve something more than others. In fact, our faith calls us into suffering. Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:1, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude.” Paul writes in Romans 5:3-5, “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Peter and Paul wrote these words because many Christians were truly suffering, physically suffering, many of them killed, because of their lifestyles. They were disrupting the class structures that had been setup to benefit the rich by caring for the poor. They were disrupting the household structures by living out the equality of God’s love, living into the hope of no Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. They were being persecuted because they were willing to express the love of Jesus and suffer alongside those that Jesus loves.

We as people of faith should know how to love other people with the love of Jesus, right? Even when we are young we are taught the values of sharing, of putting the needs of others in the same place as our own needs. We are taught stories like the Good Samaritan and we are taught about how Jesus suffered and died so that we could know what true love and sacrifice looks like. We are taught about the fruits of the Spirit, that God seeks to develop love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control within us by faith. We are taught that loving God means loving others because God loved us first. We are taught that Jesus is coming to restore and renew all things and so how we treat others, ourselves and the earth should be a reflection of the love Jesus has for all creation.

And that is the attitude we use to reveal our faith so that others know we are Christians. We don’t seek our personal freedom or our economic benefit at the expense of other people; we wear masks and PPE with joy even if it feels like a kind of suffering because we care deeply about God’s love being expressed to others by our love for others. We stand up for those that unjustly suffer violence because Jesus unjustly suffered violence.

There is true suffering going on. And we should be in lament. Today I read an article about when it will actually be possible to mourn the deaths of the over 90,000 people that have already died. And we must mourn that loss if we claim faith because death is not what God designed for creation. 

Perhaps one of the most important ways we can suffer alongside those who are truly suffering during this time is to practice patience. We live in hope of a future and we patiently wait for it. It’s not easy, but can wait with joy in our hearts because we have been given the Spirit of God. Maybe hearing these words from 1 Peter 4:12-13 can aid us today: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”

The CDC also has a detailed FAQ about face coverings