Have you ever felt like the “least of these”?  Until recently, I would have said, “No.”  Increasingly over the last couple of months, however, I have started to identify with this phrase.

It saddens me the way the COVID pandemic has polarized our country, homes and even our churches.  Social media platforms have given everyone a voice and from where I am standing, that has not always been a good thing.  Many of the ugliest posts have come from some of the most righteous people I know.  Divisive words, bitter comments, and demeaning memes are all too common.  What has gotten into us????  What happened to using our words to build up others????

There are so many things to disagree about right now: COVID is dangerous and real or COVID is all hype, shelter at home or open the economy, mask or no mask, open churches or keep them closed.  Everyone seems to have an opinion and many are frantically using their phones to proclaim them to the world.

Here is the problem as I see it. Our words hold weight in other’s hearts!  Our words matter, they send a message.  I believe that it is important to be thoughtful with the messages we put out there.  Sadly, some of our messages may be causing serious damage to our relationships and even to our witness as Christians.  People tend to feel a freedom to say anything on Facebook, but would you say the same things if you were looking me in the eyes?

The issue that has left me feeling like the “least of these” is the mask or no mask debate, particularly as it relates to the church.  No masks at Target or Home Depot does not affect me the way it does at the church.  The Church is historically the one who stands up to protect the most vulnerable (the least of these) among us.  Not so much in this current situation.  Now, it is easy to find something on the internet that will validate whichever side of the mask divide your opinion falls.  At the very core though, does your  OPINION really matter?  Should the greater good have anything to do with our choices?

The friends I see on Facebook (especially my church friends) refusing to wear a mask are (without realizing it I am sure) sending the message that we – the vulnerable do not matter.  Those who say masks dehumanize people are really dehumanizing ME and MY family.  Leaving the responsibility to protect the vulnerable TO the vulnerable is absolutely antithetical to the Christian worldview.

If wearing a mask for an hour at church meant that MORE people, people like our family, would come to church….would it not be worth it?  The vulnerable and sick need and want Jesus too.  Do they not deserve to enter the presence of God and worship as a community also?  Isn’t it the Christians that are supposed to be putting others above themselves?

These are the messages that my heart has heard:

I do not matter, my family does not matter.

We are the vulnerable, and we are on our own.

The vulnerable are not as important, they have less value in the community of God.

We are not worthy of other people’s sacrifice.

No one cares that I am unable to be a part of my church family and I am not/will not be missed.

We don’t need to get into the debate of whether masks are effective.  I have more “ologists” than I have fingers (cardiologist, endocrinologist, pulmonologist, neurologist, etc.) telling me that we should wear masks to protect each other.  Organizations that have previously been trusted and respected, like the CDC, and leading scientists say that universal use of masks, when social distancing is not possible, IS helpful to keeping each other safe.  Our doctors have a good track record of keeping my kids alive, so, I tend to put more trust in their medical advice than the YouTube videos by obscure doctors who may have a hidden agenda.  Furthermore, for every politician/doctor like Scott Jensen in Carver County, you have an entire medical system like the Mayo Clinic contradicting his advice.  Mayo Clinic is a premier medical facility respected throughout the world.  I am not quick to turn a deaf ear to their professional medical advice.  I have been navigating the medical world for a LONG time now.

Church, please hear this.  WE are supposed to be the light of the world.  WE are supposed to, in humility, value others above ourselves.  WE are called to be the good Samaritans, to cross the road, to go out of our way, and to care for the hurting and injured among us.  As part of the vulnerable in MY community, this is not the message I have recieved. I’ve felt marginalized and irrelevant to many of those who were supposed to be my friends.  I feel like I am watching you look the other way as you walk past (without a mask, on your way to church).  That makes me feel that because we are vulnerable, we are somehow less important.  That YOU deserve to be able to go to church without a mask so I should stay home.  After all, you are not sick, you should not have to change the way you live for those who are.  That doesn’t feel like being the church to me, at least not any church I want to be a part of.

While I know that the messages my heart is recieving are likely not the intended purpose of the words I have read, that is the truth that has settled into my soul.  I have a hard time processing and thinking about the someday, when this is all a memory, standing together in a church worshipping with the people who made me feel less than and unwanted.  Isolating the vulnerable does exactly that….isolates us.  Instead, couldn’t we look for solutions that would be perceived as loving to even the vulnerable?  I would like to know that I matter enough to someone that they would put on a mask if it meant that I would participate in an activity.  I think we could have done better. We should do better.

At the end of the day, we didn’t choose to be vulnerable.  That choice was made for us.  The rest of the world though, has a choice.  What you do with that choice speaks volumes to the vulnerable population – for sure to this one!

My heart will heal, and I hope that someday it will forget the way this time has left me feeling alienated instead of loved, expendable rather than valued and truly part of the least of these.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'”  Matthew 25:40

What are YOU doing for the least of these among you right now?  Are your messages building people up or tearing them down?  Are you building community or walls with the people in your sphere of influence?