Differences

‘You know me and also know where I am from.’   (John 7)

The crowd does not know what to make of Jesus.  Some suggest he is the Messiah.  But they know his background, and so they think they know what to expect from him and what not to expect.  And when he no longer fits those parameters, that’s when things get dicey.

If it were up to us, everyone would share our opinions, uphold our values, imitate our manners, and vote as we do.  What a wonderful world that would be!

We live, however, in a land of free will and endless variety.  And that, regrettably at times, includes the way other people think and act and perceive reality and believe.

We can, therefore proceed in any number of ways, many of which historically have quite predictable outcomes.  We can kill everyone who thinks differently than us – obviously that hasn’t worked.  Or we can suppress all other perspectives – that hasn’t worked either.  Or, we can learn to dialogue across the differences.

As we abstain from eating meat today, imagine a world of mutual respect, free from a spirit of condemnation.  And let us then also abstain from such behavior in our own relationships, so that through all our Lenten prayers and practices, we might unite ourselves more closely with all our brothers and sisters throughout the world, and together draw ever closer to our goal of spending eternity in the Father’s Kingdom of true and lasting peace.