Seeing the best

they swirl around us

like snowflakes in a blizzard

relentless, thick

 

enfolding us complete so that we can barely

see

where we are going

 

all those stories

all those “facts”

all those rumors

 

all those pieces of news

some real, some manufactured

 

about this group or that group

this person or that person

 

did you hear!?

according to the FBI!

the President said!

 

we are presented each day with a plethora

of information

and we must sort through it all

trying to discern truth from falsehood,

struggling with how to respond

 

sometimes it seems as if the choice is between

falsehood and truth

and it is

 

but I think it goes deeper than that

 

obviously we all see the world through our own lenses

our perceptions are all altered by

a myriad of factors

 

our ideology

our faith system

our culture, our race, our gender, our sexual orientation

our education level, our training

 

and also by things such as trauma

our life experiences

 

but I have noticed something lately

in myself, but not just in myself

 

I have noticed a tendency to believe the worst

of those who are not in my “tribe”

and sometimes even of those who are

 

this last weekend announcements came out

perhaps from the FBI (I was never quite sure where the new came from… “sources”)

that “liberal” churches were in danger from “them”

 

it may have been true

perhaps there was chatter somewhere about

“attacking those libs”

 

but I was amazed at the fervor with which those

in the more liberal churches embraced the idea that “they”

those “deplorables” were going to commit violence against them

 

I know there are churches, and church leaders, who have had to live

With the threat of violence.  Churches that embrace LGBTQI members

Churches that have had the audacity to hang up a BLM banner

I get that the danger is, actually, real

 

But still, there was something unsettling with the ease in which

we jumped to the ‘demonization’ of others

how quickly we “believed the worst”

 

I have been on the other side of that human tendency

When people have been quick to believe the worst of me

Have without hesitation given the worst possible interpretation to

my words or my behavior

 

I suspect you have been too

And I have, at times, been that person

who believed the worst

 

And now we live in this polarized world

With angry and even violent polarity

 

And it is even easier to demonize others

After all

The proof is out there!

 

The lies are out there

The violence is real

The assault on the capitol happened

 

We’ve seen “them” with their guns

and their flags

we have read their posts

 

but

 

there is something that tells me

that this is the pathway to destruction

 

I am not calling for us to be “naïve”

or maybe I am

perhaps there is a kind of holy naiveté

 

Jesus was not naïve

He saw people who who they were

But he also saw them for who and what they could become

 

He saw that creepy tax collector

but he also saw a child of God, capable of honesty and generosity

 

what if

what if we asked the Holy Spirit to give us eyes

that see the Sacred in each other

that see the potential, the possibilities

the best

in each other

 

not the worst?

 

And what if we responded to others

Accordingly

 

I know there is risk.  There are the predators

There are the narcissists, the pathological

There are those so badly damaged

 

We do need to be careful, and we do need boundaries

But what if our default was NOT to believe the worst, but the best?

 

how would our relationships change?

how would our lives change?

how would the world change?

 

It’s something worth thinking about

As we enter a week filled with division and rancor

 

It is something worth thinking about

Even as right wing evangelicals suggest

We can’t “preach the cross if we only see the good” (simplybible.com)

 

It does seem radical, and dangerous

And naïve

But still

 

It seems so Jesus

 

Matthew 5 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

 

No one ever said the way of “The Lamb” was easy