Piloting Faith: You have to look in a mirror...

A Word for the Day...

In my lifetime, our nation has never been more divided than now. We are divided because there are no overarching dreams or convictions large enough to unite us. That division makes us weaker and more vulnerable. It plays into the hands of those who wish ill for America.

I remember two times in my life when our people were solidly united. The first was during World War II, and the second was just after the attack on 9-11. Our differences and our conflicting opinions on a variety of subjects did not disappear during those times. But there was one powerful affirmation that gave our differences less importance. We are all Americans! We are “one nation, under God, indivisible”. We believed that.

Sadly, today there are those with large megaphones who remind us daily of the things that divide us. They amplify them, enlarge upon them, and work to further divide us. Rhetorically, they separate the whole world into “us” and “them”. As long as we can think of people unlike us as “the other”, we are free to dehumanize them, devalue them, and fear them.

Each night, before going to bed, I look into a mirror. It is important to me to be able to feel good about the person looking back at me. I can’t feel good about me if I give in to the temptation to separate myself from those unlike me. I can’t feel good about me if I see diversity as a threat rather than what it has always been when our nation has been at its best: an opportunity for growth and enrichment. If I want to walk in the company of Jesus, I cannot think of “us” and “them”, because in God’s family there is only “us”. I know that every human being is a child of God and a person of infinite worth, no matter what other characteristics may seem to define them. I know that, when we are at our best, the things that unite us as human beings and as Americans are more important and more powerful than those lesser things that divide us.

Over sixty years ago, as a young pastor, I memorized a poem by Edwin Markham, and I still like it and try to live by it: “He drew a circle that shut me out – heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win, We drew a circle that took him in.”

That looks and sounds like Jesus to me!

- Rev. Dr. James R. McCormick, UMC Pastor and author of The Right Order of Things

Prayer for the Week

God of all that is good,

Today I seek not the passing rewards of recognition, power, and wealth, but your kingdom of love and justice. I turn again from self to follow the way of Jesus.

So, Holy One, may your kingdom come - in this world and in my life.

Direct my intentions and energies to the higher, enduring reality springing up all around me, pushing back the darkness. I'm desperate to discern where your Spirit is moving.

So, Holy One, may your kingdom come - in this world and in my life.

Even as I contemplate the kingdom Jesus came to announce, I am conscious of my own weakness and need. I want to stay on your path, but it's easy to lose my way.

So, Holy One, may your kingdom come - in this world and in my life. Make me new once more in You.

Amen.

(adapted from The Prayer Wheel by Patton Dodd, Jana Riess and David Van Biema)