Masking our true feelings

I imagine that if you are in the business of selling masks this is the time of year you must like. For tomorrow it is Halloween and many children – and adults – dress up as ghouls and ghosties and long legged beasties. And many people will wear masks.
Then on 5th November we have bonfire night. Some people still make models of Guy Fawkes and use Guy Fawkes masks. In fact many of the protestors in the City of London are wearing Guy Fawkes masks based on the mask worn by a character in the 2006 cult film V for Vendetta in which a central character takes Guy Fawkes as his model for blowing up Parliament.

I don’t know what the history of masks is. I suspect they go back to ancient times. Certainly in ancient Greece perhaps 5 or 6 centuries before Jesus, masks were used in theatre productions. All actors wore masks. The masks were able to bring the characters' face closer to the audience, especially since they had intensely exaggerated facial features and expressions. They enabled an actor to appear and reappear in several different roles, thus preventing the audience from identifying the actor to one specific character. Their variations help the audience to distinguish sex, age, and social status, in addition to revealing a change in a particular character’s appearance.

And this idea of actors wearing masks was part of the theatre in Rome as well. And when an actor put on a mask the actor put on a persona. And the “persona” represented the character in the play.

Today that Latin word “persona” is used by psychiatrists to describe the personality we present to the world. In other words, many psychiatrists argue that many people hide their true feelings to the outside world by putting on a persona. And if you’re not sure what I mean, think about the phrase “putting on a brave face”. We all know what that means. It means pretending to the outside world that everything is fine when inside we may be upset.

Or another way of thinking about it in the phrase “the tears of a clown”. The clown on the outside is all happy and jolly whereas inside he may be secretly crying.
But it is not just in personality terms that we put on masks. Sometimes people put on “masks” to try and portray their lives in ways that are different to reality. I can’t say I was a fan of the TV series “Keeping up appearances”. But the whole point of that programme was that the main character – Hyacinth Bucket – pronounced Bouquet – liked to appear that she was something she wasn’t.

I’m sure we can think of examples of people who behave in such a way. Sometimes in a very tragic way.

IN Matthew 23: 1 – 12 Jesus talks about this issue. The issue of putting on an appearance whilst in fact living a different way all together. Of living behind a mask or façade.

In God’s Kingdom, in a world where the values that are important to God exist, then what is important is being humble. What is important is being honest. What is important is not being a hypocrite.

When you think Jesus lived 2,000 years ago, it is incredible that what he said then is as true today as it was in his day. Well actually it’s not incredible for Jesus’ teachings stand the test of time and are in fact timeless.

And by changing about 20 words this passage of scripture could have been written today:

1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The MPs are in place to make the laws we live by. 3 So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5 “Everything they do is done for men to see: They wear sharp suits. They like to appear on Newsnight and get their pictures in the papers 6 they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in concerts and civic meetings and on aeroplanes 7 they love to be recognised and greeted in the marketplaces. And for people to say “I’m really pleased to meet you sir.”
8 “But you are not to be called ‘Sir’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ.[b] 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

People in many Western democracies are becoming very disenchanted with the way things are. I’m not so cynical as to believe that all politicians throughout the ages have been as hypocritical as many today seem to be. Whilst some great politicians of the past were not perfect people, they were it seems to me conviction politicians. Trying to do the right thing. But now we see politicians telling us one thing and doing another. We see politicians putting on masks to hide what lies beneath. And to this extent we can find examples from all political parties.

We saw the likes of John Prescott telling us about climate change and being chauffeured round in gas guzzling Jaguars. We hear David Cameron telling us “We’re all in this together” knowing full well that he and most members of the Cabinet are millionaires”

Is it any wonder that people are so cynical? And so uninterested in politics? I think it was Billy Connolly who said “Don’t vote for politicians it only encourages them” and in a sense I tend to agree with him.

Sadly though it is not just politicians who are guilty of double standards. Of putting on a mask to hide what is going on beneath.

There are plenty of examples of the Church, collectively the followers of Jesus, throughout the ages operating double standards. Accumulating wealth whilst talking about caring for the poor. Abusing children. Failing to treat women equally whilst telling Jesus message of love one another. And in this last 2 weeks we’ve seen the façade of St Pauls crack. With some members of the clergy there seeking to support the protestors and others apparently more concerned that income is being lost because tourists can’t come in and pay the £14.50 entry charge.

An excellent opinion column in The Guardian newspaper this week summed it up:

“The dean and chapter appear to have decided that health and safety considerations mean they must be rid of the makeshift camp. These grounds are frankly risible. Pretending otherwise compounds the first mistake, which was to shut the cathedral altogether, rather than expose visitors to the sight and smells of a couple of hundred protesters. A cathedral isn't really there for the tourists, even if it can charge visitors £14.50, as St Paul's does. It is a place for prayer and worship. The congregations who come for these, the real purposes of the building, should remember that Jesus talked to publicans and tax collectors. He might even have talked to merchant bankers. He would certainly have talked to the protesters camped outside.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/25/leader-st-pauls-cathedral-occupy-london?newsfeed=true

And at least one member of the St Paul’s clergy Giles Fraser seems to have recognised this and has resigned from his post in protest.

It seems to me that Jesus would want us to challenge hypocrisy wherever we see it. He wants us to look beneath the masks and see what is happening underneath. However, that includes all of us as well. We are challenged to look beneath our own masks.

11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

And by the way, as a friend of mine commented there's an orony in that St Paul was a tent maker.

Women in the Church

BBC Radio 2 is holding its annual Faith in the World week. And this year it is focusing on the role (or lack of?) of women in religion. As part of this, this week the Pause for thought on the Chris Evans show is given by a woman.

On Monday 24th Rev Canon Ann Easter was the speaker. She's a regular and is good value. But I have to admit to getting a bit annoyed at what she was saying yesterday. She was talking about the church not having been accepting of women for many hundreds of years. And I was with her there.

But as the talk progressed she seemed to substitute talking about the church (meaning the body of Christ, the church universal) for the Church of England.

Now the Church of England's atitude to women in ministry is still very poor in my opinion. Why 20 years after the ordination of women as priests they are still faffing around about women bishops is beyond me. Especially when in other parts of the Anglican communion there are women bishops.

But Canon Ann, the Church of England is not representative of the whole church. I know Anglicans tend to have that imperialist view but you know there are other denominations. And there are other denominations with a far better track record in terms of women in ministry - at least over the last 40 or so years. Denominations such as the United Reformed Church and the Methodist Church for example.

So Canon Ann I'm with you entirely about the way the Church of England treats women ministers. And the lack of progress towards women bishops. But please remember that the Church of England is not the church. It is part of Christ's body.