Dear Friends,
My most recent e-mail from a friend of mine included these
rambling thoughts:
Thanks Tom….feelings are worth getting out and let everyone have a
good shot at them …and from it all, it is a learning experience and
wisdom…and often a few laughs about how absurd it all sounds…..Like shirts and
skins…all part of the game…...as long as all know we are recognized
and loved by each other …where would I be without your positive influence
on my life?................. I thought a spicier discussion about Jesus
and God and the Buddha would help get it all out to make some sense of what we are
experiencing as humans…and maybe even spice up your sermons.”
I e-mailed him back a big ? for like some of his
previous e-mails, his responses didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
These words came yesterday from a friend I have gotten to know the
last couple of years. He is a Viet Nam vet who overcame PTSS, and now is
working with other veterans, helping them deal with their physical and
moral wounds and trying to assist them in assimilating back into
society. He has a strong aversion to the politics of the last four years, and
he makes no bones about his dislike of our former president. His criticism of
religion has often been scathing, and there is probably not much we have in
common politically, socially, or spiritually, except that we grew up in the
same town and lived down the street from one another.
Hank (not his real name) and I have been corresponding regularly
for several months now, and while sometimes his comments are frequently
irreverent to say the least, I appreciate his openness and honesty, and yes,
even his absurdity at times which often makes me laugh.
Hank is right. His comments are probably far too spicy for my
congregation, and if shared would probably get me fired. But despite our
differences on most matters, there is a quality about him that I appreciate,
and it is his honesty. He is open and honest about his views and in spite of
our differences, I feel his longing to relate with people like me who don’t
share his same points of view.
And what caught my attention from his previous e-mail were his
words, “Like shirts and skins…all part of the game…as long as all know we
are recognized and loved by each other.”
Yes, I thought to myself. It doesn’t matter whether we are shirts
or skins, black or white or yellow, or brown, Republicans or Democrats, young
or old, rich or poor, spiritual or secular, from this side or the other side of
the tracks so long as we are recognized and loved by one another.
Hank is my neighbor, not in proximity or political persuasion. We
are very different; he a Viet Nam vet and I am anti Viet Nam activist,
and yet we like each other, laugh together, and we have learned to be honest
and open with one another.
No, he is not my neighbor from the world’s perspective, but from a
spiritual perspective he lives just around the corner. Jesus says “He is my
neighbor and He calls me to love him, regardless of his politics, faith or lack
of it, or a hundred and one other differences that might divide us.
Jesus taught us well when He gave us two commandments to live out.
He told us that we are “to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is
to love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these”
(Mark 12:30-31).
Would that we, and all our political and spiritual adversaries
learned and lived out that lesson. If we did, it wouldn’t matter whether we
were shirts or skins, for in the end we would still be friends who loved and
respected one another in spite of our differences.
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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