November 01, 2007
What's Behind the Mask?
My normal practice for banking is to use the drive-up window. On Halloween however, I needed to do my business inside the building. A sign scotched taped to the front doors read, PLEASE REMOVE MASKS BEFORE ENTERING. Good idea! I’m thinking the same signage on the church doors might be applicable.
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Gail;
-----I think if we all removed our masks we would die. In fact, I think maybe our masks are not as much masks as they are those clear, shiny shields on an astronaut’s space helmet. For we were made to live in a warm and protective environment, an environment where giving and love are like atmospheric pressure, always trying to penetrate and fill up every void they can find. But that all was taken from us with God’s presence. We now are souls living in the non-atmosphere of selfishness, where everything is trying to get for itself, creating a sucking vacuum that tries to suck all substance out of anything it contacts.
-----Jesus brought the giving and love from the Father to us in all that He was. But He too wore a shield. He told His mother, and at times His disciples, that time was not right for a further revealing of who He was. When that time came, and when He removed the protective shield, the wicked sucking of this place sucked Him right onto the cross. If we removed our shields, would the same happen to us? I know some to whom it might. But with me I get the vague impression that my shield is as much to protect me from the sucking that is outside me as it is to protect you from the sucking that is inside me.
-----Of course, the analogy must end there, maybe. For there is need for some transparency, or maybe much. As the astronaut’s shield shines to protect from the deteriorating rays of the universe, our shields must reflect back the truth about this world. But in addition, there must be a shining forth of what is being sheltered in our hearts from the deteriorating suction. For there are in all of us intricacies beyond our imagining, forming deep inside, that will be our Scriptural understandings of tomorrow. These will effect the truth reflected back at the world. And the same can be said for the marvelous understandings each of us know and hold today. They came from yesterday’s growth of intricacies deep within that needed shielding then from the deteriorating suction so that they could reach maturity without the twist of the world.
-----For inside this protective suit of individuality God gave each one of us is a relationship with God through Christ that is far deeper than can be any relationship with another. The additional depth of that relationship is were He generates in us new life to be grown up and brought out for relationship with others when it is mature. But before then it is adolescent and maybe ready for some discussion, but definitely not for the load of practice. While in other ways it is young and childish and needing tender, intimate incubation. This small ground is for you and the Spirit alone. It would be ruined by the trampling feet of those who do not fully understand it as you and He do. If well shielded, His Spirit will ready it for its day of appearance as well.
-----So as I see these masks in the church, I try to remember that they have an element of shield about them. And that after patient waiting the removal of a portion of the mask/shield will reveal something to the church which will be truly worth the waiting. And thank you for patiently allowing me to repackage Paul's analogy of a suit of armor into one of a custom fit space suit.
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