Like many of you, my heart is breaking over the events of the past two weeks of this new year. I can scarcely believe the harm that has been done to America in such a brief time. I grew up in Germany, hearing the stories and living with the ruins of an evil war as a backdrop to the destruction in their homeland. I grew up believing this could never happen again. I grew up believing that we would never dehumanize and attack people like that again.
We didn’t know we were wrong.
I was just a child during the civil rights movement, and yet I remember ever so clearly the day Martin Luther King was assassinated. The country was turned upside down, but it was in the direction of positive change. We became a country committed to moving beyond the sins of our past, and the sins of war. We moved toward inclusion and unity as a nation.
Or did we?
To be honest, it took most of my life before I realized that much of the hate felt in the past remained below the surface. It was like an evil slime waiting to erupt with just the right catalyst. It seems the catalyst has arrived and darkness and evil has been unleashed against one another in our country.
I refuse to go toe-to-toe with an agenda of hate. THAT is not the message of the Jesus I follow.
As a follower of Jesus, I struggle to understand how other followers of Jesus could enter into such evil and vindictive behavior. It isn’t the Jesus I came to know as a little girl. This is the Jesus that transformed my life by his perfect immeasurable love. A love we should be compelled to extend to others.
If we believe as Henri Nowen wrote, it is pretty simple…’”When we see our neighbor as created in the image of God, we discover that love is not a feeling but a way of seeing.” (Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out) That doesn’t mean we don’t enforce laws, it means we treat human beings from ALL walks of life, with the respect a loving God calls on us to treat one another.
This past Sunday we remembered the baptism of Jesus. In my church tradition we say this part of the baptismal covenant:
“Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
I will, with God’s help.”
Now is the time for us to be united again. It is time for us to take a stand for that which is right. It is time for us to once again stand for and with those who are losing their identity, their safety, and their right to live in dignity.
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” Psalms 133:1
May we seek to follow the commitment made to love and serve a good and loving God in the way we treat ALL humans who are ALL made in HIS image. Lord help us to see the value and worth in every person of every nation, every color, and every belief system, as you so love them.
maggiemarcum 