Nuance

I didn’t preach today, but I wanted to share some pondering thoughts related to the Gospel reading for today (you can see the lectionary readings here.)

Y’all know that rarely do I get “political” and I put that word in quotes because what we mostly mean when we say that is “I speak as loudly as possible about how my political tribe is always right and yours is always wrong”. If we were to take the word “political” with it’s actual meaning, it would mean we are “interested or active in the government or social affairs of our country” which we all should be. As we trudge through this election season, I get quite frustrated at the ads that tell me how terrible another candidate is rather than tell me how the candidate who paid for the ads will work to make life good for all people in this country. In our current culture, people pay millions of donated dollars to tell the world how terrible someone else is. They pay our donated dollars to tell us how afraid we should be if the other tribe wins. Think about that for a minute. And think some more.

It seems that the goal of most political ads is not to inform us but to make us afraid of how bad the other side is. But pointing out how terrible another person is does not make me good. Wanting the best for everyone, even those I disagree with, does. Pay attention to when you are pointing out the faults of the other side of any issue. Change your words to state clearly and as specifically as possible what is good about your side. Define yourself by what you are for rather than what you are against. Ask yourself why do you support the political tribe you do. And be curious about what is good in the other. Live in the nuance of life; every human situation has layers and layers of understanding and meaning. Rarely is life a clear cut checklist of right/wrong, good/bad, even if on the surface it may seem so. There is always nuance.

In the gospel story for today, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” And then Jesus explains, “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.’” (Mark 7:6-7, 8).

Jesus makes it clear it matters that our words of worship and our regular patterns of behavior must be in sync. If I spend an hour or so worshiping God on Sunday morning and then spend the rest of the day and week trashing another political tribe, belittling and mocking people groups, looking our for my own gains, refusing to take accountability for my harmful behaviors, I am not working for the good of the Kingdom of God. Wanting the best for everyone fulfills the command Jesus says is equal to the command to love God: to love our neighbor as ourselves. When we love our neighbor as ourself, we want for our neighbor what we want for ourselves. When we look for the nuance of each situation instead of saying stuck in the certainty that we are right we come to know how much there is to discover about our neighbors, and ourselves. And the greatest wisdom we can gain is knowing we can only change our own behaviors and thoughts so instead of expending our energy on what we think others get wrong, let’s work on our own growth in God’s love.

So, back to not being political: we should, absolutely, participate in the governance of our society and country. We should do so in the knowledge and wisdom of the good news that Jesus brings to every human being – that we are all equally beloved children of our Creator God. We should work together to build up the Kingdom of God on earth as in heaven. Who we choose to vote for should not be based blindly on a particular party but guided by God’s love for all and who will help all of us best love our neighbor as ourselves. This is how we honor and worship God with our lives.