But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.

Colossians 3:8-10 (NRSV)

Today I read an important article.

You can find it here. I don’t know the author’s other work, but her name is Kate Morgan. She’s highlighting something I’ve seen more and more of since the start of the pandemic. I recommend you read it.

Who knew we’d face two epidemics at once? One is COVID, the other is bad behavior. Should we be surprised? Probably not. 

Do you remember when mask mandates were lifted? 

Suddenly, it felt like we were surrounded by self-righteous toddlers who didn’t feel like wearing pants to school anymore. People walked into all sorts of places as if they were a part of some new civil-rights movement. They walked in with chips on their shoulders. They were looking for a fight. 

Why? Weren’t we all in this together? Morgan says that part of cause could be the helplessness that people were feeling. 

It doesn’t take much…

Humans, Morgan notes, are really not all that flexible. We think we’re adaptable, but we’re not. In fact, little things can set us off, like a schedule change, or something ringing up at the wrong price. Or being told to please wear a mask.

We get so invested in our budgets of time and our expectations that anything that throws them off is a catastrophe. When government mask mandates were lifted, private businesses still had to choose what was right for them. That led to some seriously bad behavior from people who expected not to have to wear them. 

They lashed out. They treated service workers like garbage. According to Morgan’s article, people are still lashing out. 

And who bears the brunt? 

Service workers. 

Those wonderful people who give us coffee, or help us online with tech support, or who cash us out at Target. We are like “the girl with the curl on her forehead:” when we’re good, we’re very good, and when we’re bad, we’re horrid. 

We’re horrid, because when we’re frustrated and unable to adapt, we punch down. Service workers, the article argues, do not have status, in our eyes. If they’re serving us, we place them below us. And when things don’t go our way, we can be very abusive towards them. 

But how about a Christian response? 

It shouldn’t be too hard to discern. Our passage from Colossians this week reminded us that we all have a duty to do better. We need to guard what comes out of our mouths, so that we’re not leaving a trail of wreckage behind us. People who interact with us should know our lovingkindness. 

Service workers should think of us helpful. How can they do that if we’ve heaped abuse on them for things that are often out of their control? Remember, it’s okay to be frustrated. It’s not okay to take it out on others. 

You need a release, but it shouldn’t be in the form of treating others terribly. 

How would Jesus abuse his waiter if his food was late? Simple: he wouldn’t.