From the Pulpit…Why I wear a mask

I don’t like wearing face masks. They are uncomfortable, hot and stuffy at times, and it’s hard to talk through them and nearly impossible to pick up nonverbal facial expressions that add to better communication. It’s especially hard on the hearing impaired who rely on reading lips.

Faced with an abundance of information and mis-information, conflicting voices of “expertise,” and no shortage of inconsistency from different government leaders, the mask has also become a divisive political symbol, with the “masked” and the “masked-nots” tending to assume the worst about each other, many using social media to expound their views.

For Christ-followers, it’s important for us to rise above personal preferences and political partisanship to think through what our faith would call us to do with regard to wearing or not wearing masks. As much as I dislike wearing masks and sympathize with some skepticisms about them, my Christian faith leads me to wear one when I’m in indoor public places.

The Scriptures encourage us to “in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:3,4 NIV).
I have been frustrated that the science on masks during this pandemic has been inconsistent. It seems everyone from the surgeon general to the CDC to the WHO have flip-flopped back and forth on mask guidance. We probably won’t know for years what was right and wrong, but a consensus is emerging that wearing masks does slow the spread of the virus and save lives. Even if it’s annoying to wear a mask, and even if you aren’t convinced by the science behind it, why not wear one anyway and err on the side of more protective measures for the sake of those around us?

For me as a Christian called to love my neighbor as myself, wearing a mask in public indoor spaces where physical distancing cannot be guaranteed seems like a relatively easy way to practice neighborly love.

Will that involve giving up some of my freedoms? Yes. Being a Christ-follower sometimes involves giving up some of my freedoms for the sake of the Gospel. Paul talks about doing this: “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more to Christ….To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:19, 22-23 NIV)
It's a powerful witness when someone gives up their rights and freedoms for the sake of another, and our Christian witness during COVID-19 can be this. The non-believing world can see us willing, out of Christlike love for those around us, to forego some of our freedoms. And, if the small annoyance of wearing masks might help not only save lives but possibly show the love of Christ as well, I figure it’s worth it.