Thought for Today
Ecclesiastes 1:9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
Isaiah 43:19 I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Mark 8:18 Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember?
Matthew 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
Maybe I just watch too much news on my television. Maybe, because I am ‘of an age,’ my memory is just not what it used to be. Maybe things never were truly the way I remember their being.
Many days, as I listen to the local and national news, I think Qoheleth was correct and there is nothing new under the sun. The local news we listen to each evening is full of stories about house fires, traffic accidents and scenes of violence. The national news is full of stories about violent weather, wars and rumors of wars.
Almost as much as anything else, both the local and national news stories seem to be about how divided a nation the U.S.A. seems to currently be. At every level of government and everywhere in our nation, we are divided on seemingly every issue. It seems to me that each side of every issue fails to see and fails to hear the opinions and concerns of the other side. Is this a new thing, or is there nothing new under the sun?
I have lived in regions of our nation that are dominated by opposing sides on almost every issue we face today. Currently, one side is represented by the MAGA movement, the other by the Progressive movement. I suspect each movement would disagree on the inevitability of the sun rising in the east tomorrow.
While I am in the process of questioning the world around me, how much of the discord I perceive is influenced by my being ‘of an age?’ Do my grandchildren perceive the same level of discord I perceive? Do my children see our nation and our world sharply divided between authoritarian regimes and democratic regimes? Or, when we are younger, are our minds and our attentions more focused on establishing our individual places in society, the economy and the world?
I did read or hear a comment some years ago that ‘you can divide the world into 2 groups, one that divides the world into 2 groups, and one that does not.’ Are my thoughts this morning merely reflecting into which group I belong? At this point, I probably should remind everyone reading this and myself that I am at heart an engineer. Engineers do not see the glass as half empty or as half full. Engineers merely see the glass as twice as big as it needs to be.
Irrespective of my being ‘of an age,’ irrespective of my being an engineer at heart, I am now also an ordained minister. One of my favorite titles for that position is Minister of Word and Sacrament. That functional description is in my mind today as I think about the fact that next Sunday is the first Sunday of June. Our congregation, like many others, celebrates the sacrament of communion on the first Sunday of each month.
Our congregation celebrates what is known as an open communion. I include in my words of institution “This is not our table. It is the table of Jesus Christ. All are welcome here. No matter who you are, no matter the state of your life or your faith. Welcome to the table of our Lord.” During those few, short minutes each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, I can put away all thoughts and worries about divisions and differences.
I know that not all faith traditions are identical. I know that not all faith traditions are even Christian. But during those few minutes each month, I remember the words of the hymn Blessed Be the Tie That Binds, “Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.” I remember the words of John 3:16-17 about God’s love for “the world.” I am reminded of my favorite, oft-repeated line, “in the Bible, all always means all.”
Our nation is divided. Our world is divided. That’s okay. Our world has always been divided. Cain and Abel were very different. Our nation has always been divided. There were rebels and loyalists in 1776. There were Yanks and Rebs in 1864. There have been Red Sox and Yankees since the earliest days of baseball. That’s okay.
What is not okay is when our eyes refuse to see and our ears refuse to hear. Robert Burns was right, O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us/To see oursels as ithers see us!” (en.wikipedia.org quoting from To a Louse)
Stay safe, let your eyes see and your ears hear, trust God,
Pastor Ray