Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,
This Sunday the Gospel offers a difficult and timely challenge: "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." (Luke 6:27-28)
In the last few years our country has gotten meaner. We see this in unruly passengers on airplanes, increased pedestrian traffic accidents, fights over masks & vaccines, and our self-sorting into blue and red regions, among many things. Social media does not help. All this reflects growing tribalism. More and more we use language that is performative for the people on our side, rather than trying to reach out to people who see things differently. Tribalism and tribal virtue-signalling seems to be part of human nature. So, loving our enemies, doing good to the haters, blessing the cursers and praying for abusers runs contrary to our very nature. How can we do something so hard? I'm pretty sure we have to rely on God's grace. And that we have to let go of some of our identity. And that we need encouragement from each other to counter the culture in which we live. Is that enough? I don't know. So, please, reach out to me with your ideas about how we as a community can be kinder to each other in our day-to-day interactions, and how we can live more gracefully with people who see the world differently than we do.
God bless you.
-Stephen