What Mask Are You Wearing?

It is that time of the year again--Mardi Gras--best defined as a crash course in sin.

Masks are so much fun!  Remember the first mask you saw in your life?  I think mine was the Lone Ranger.   He's the cowboy that would appear in the nick of time to make things right.  His sidekick was Tonto.  I think the only word Tonto said was "Kemosahbee".  That is some Indian word for  "let's do it!"  The Lone Ranger's mask was pretty plain.  There was not much energy put into mask decorating at that time in history. 

Masks at Mardi Gras help hide our identity as we do what everyone else is doing that nobody wants to confess that we are all doing.  Usually it is not good.  Sin is missing the mark.  At Mardi Gras, it is missing the entire target.  It is like aiming the bow and arrow at the big bulls eye on the bale of hay.  Pulling back the string and swhoosh!  Then looking and seeing nothing.  I lost so many arrows I had to sell my bow.

Some folks, especially preachers, like to make out that sin is not much fun.  They need to go sinning with me!  The reason that sin is so attractive in my life is that it usually feels pretty good--for a while.  Then when the consequences of sin arrive, it doesn't look so hot anymore.  It is like the morning after.  I did what?  I pushed down how many kids to get that Mardi Gras bead.  I said what to those whom I love.  Sound too familiar?  That's why we wear masks.   Masks hide our shame which is built into the concept of sin.

But remember with me the Lone Ranger.   When he left and life was better, he would leave something behind--a silver bullet.  Usually the last line of the show was said by someone holding up the silver bullet,  "Who was that masked man?" 

Interesting huh?  The same mask that we wear to hide our shame and sin can be worn to change the world.  The same part of the human spirit that creates selfishness can be remade into a spirit that can become self sacrificing.   It is about choosing to be what God would have you be rather than settling for less.  Too often we settle for less.  We buy into the cheap stuff of life.

Mardi Gras can teach us that more of "me" means less of God.  More of sin is less holiness in our life.  More of this world  is not what God is about.  This is why Fat Tuesday is followed with Ash Wednesday.  This is why Lent (the season of sacrifice) is longer than Mardi Gras (the season of accumulation)

So what mask are you wearing?  Kemosahbee