Masking Up Once Again

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

After consulting with our Trustees and Staff, we will return to a mask requirement for all people, during worship and other in-person events at Kessler Park UMC.

I didn’t want to have to write these words to you today, and I’m confident you don’t want to have to hear them. If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent much of the past week dreading this very news.

But, here it is. And in the effort to be both consistent and safe, we will make this change, effective immediately.

Throughout this past year, we’ve tried to be as clear as we can that we will follow CDC guidelines related to COVID-19. The new guidelines recommend masks for *all persons* for anyone in a “hot spot” area. Dallas County is currently considered one of those areas based on the data.

And so, we invite you to do the following:
— Even if you are vaccinated, please wear a mask at all KPUMC in-person functions.
— If you are concerned about transmission, please consider staying home and watching our livestream.
— If you are unvaccinated and eligible, PLEASE get your shot today. And please stay home and limit your contact with others until you do.

Some might even question whether or not we should continue in-person worship at this time. There are rational reasons to believe that continuing in-person worship is still reasonable:

First, the anecdotal sense that the vast majority of our members are vaccinated.
Second, the factual data that more than 80% of our zip code is vaccinated.
Third, the reasonable assumption that some of you may well now self-select to stay home in your own desire to be cautious.

Again —and I can’t stress this enough— we will continue to livestream worship for the foreseeable future. (In fact, we’ve just upgraded our livestream camera this week!) So, if you are at all concerned, please feel free to worship via livestream.

We will continue our “plans” for more in-person events —possibly outside gatherings— once things cool off a bit. But we will make this change for indoor events, for now, and prayerfully ask your participation.

I must say, I HATE writing this to you.
I returned from a renewing vacation last week, full of excitement about planning for our “return to normal” Fall. Having been fairly off the grid in Big Bend Country, I hadn’t been following the news much until we got to staff meeting and started talking over what was likely coming.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was *super* depressed most of last week as I dreaded this moment today. I think it’d be fair to say that the whole staff was fairly solemn last week as we meditated on all of this.

But, by yesterday’s meeting, the announcement had been made, and our Trustees and Staff knew what we had to do. “It is what it is,” and we realize that this affects us all.

Perhaps you are still somewhere along this same path. Perhaps you are angry at the unvaccinated. Perhaps you are fearful for those in your family —including children— who are still not eligible. 

Just know that you are not alone. We are all in this boat together, and while this feels like a setback, we will do what we can to keep the boat safe. In fact, for those of you who *are* vaccinated, I’d suggest that you’re being asked to do the most self-LESS thing yet. The data is that vaccinated persons are not dying, except for a few with pre-existing conditions. 

Therefore, in choosing to “mask up” again,  you are selflessly protecting even those who perhaps won’t protect themselves.

I’m reminded of Rev. Dr. Zan Holmes’ reading of the “Parable of the Good Samaritan.” Zan points out that Biblical scholars have now understood that the road from Jerusalem to Jericho —the road the unwitting Jewish travelers were taking— was KNOWN as a place where bandits and thieves worked.

It was probably UN-safe for him to be traveling alone, and he was probably warned of this before the journey. (In fact, Zan suggests that perhaps these bandits went down the road and set up again…eventually attacking the three folks who walked by!)

Perhaps the three religious leaders pass by the wounded man because they think, “He deserves what he gets for traveling by himself…”

We might say this about the unvaccinated today.

But the Samaritan has compassion, even for the man who has apparently put himself at risk. 

To be clear, I don’t always have this level of compassion myself. As I write these words, I’m beyond angry, frustrated, and tired with those who can, but won’t, get vaccinated.

But I also hear this call to an unconditional love of even those who won’t keep themselves safe. And I invite you to consider that this is the deepest, and most profound, level of Jesus’ calling to us to “love our neighbor.”

Thank you for your patience and for your continued support for KPUMC in this time.

And please continue to urge the unvaccinated to get their shots and to pray for all those affected by this surge today.

Grace and Peace,
Eric Folkerth