A Response
John 4:1-42
Most of us recoiled in horror as our President apparently lumped an entire continent and a tiny Caribbean nation into a proverbial trash bin from whom no one good could come.
Some of you who read my scribblings may recall that the gist of my New Year resolutions was to simply respond to things troublesome by acting differently. If I am upset by racism, then act in an opposite way toward people different from me.
I so doing, we are following Jesus. It is not a stretch to say that 1st Century Israelis regarded their Samaritan neighbors with the same contempt we heard last week. A good Israeli would cross the street if a Samaritan approached to get away from potential defilement. Most would never speak to a Samaritan. Yet, here, in John, we see Jesus take an intentionally opposite tack. He converses freely with a woman (the disciples raise their eyebrows), and a Samaritan woman, at that (the disciples really wonder at Jesus' judgment). He does not see any human designation. He sees a child of God. He acts accordingly.
And we can hear him quietly directing us, Go and do likewise.
If we want to counter the evil of rejecting people just based in where they're from or what color they are, act differently. One small step at a time can change an entire journey.
In 1968, Charles Schulz did something so profoundly basic that many people missed it (and some still question its efficacy). He drew a little African American boy (Franklin) conversing with Charlie Brown on a beach over a lost beach ball. Note the year--1968. In my Southern hometown, children of different colors were just beginning to be sent to the same schools. Martin Luther King was assassinated for daring to bring people together of different races. For the next three decades, Franklin became part of the cast, playing baseball, worrying through school with Peppermint Patty, and joining the others in their quirky childhood that reveals us all.
What we miss is that Mr Schulz in this simple act opened the door to something else. Kids are kids. Every child is a wonder. Just by drawing one of color, he made this declaration. He added to that with the inclusion of a little kid batting .650 named Jose Peterson, a Swedish-Mexican child, in a great series on Charlie Brown trying to better his hapless ball team. Kids are kids.
If we want to reveal our certitude that every human being alive is a beloved child of God, act accordingly. It is what Jesus did at a well. It is what we can do.
And it can alter the world.
Most of us recoiled in horror as our President apparently lumped an entire continent and a tiny Caribbean nation into a proverbial trash bin from whom no one good could come.
Some of you who read my scribblings may recall that the gist of my New Year resolutions was to simply respond to things troublesome by acting differently. If I am upset by racism, then act in an opposite way toward people different from me.
I so doing, we are following Jesus. It is not a stretch to say that 1st Century Israelis regarded their Samaritan neighbors with the same contempt we heard last week. A good Israeli would cross the street if a Samaritan approached to get away from potential defilement. Most would never speak to a Samaritan. Yet, here, in John, we see Jesus take an intentionally opposite tack. He converses freely with a woman (the disciples raise their eyebrows), and a Samaritan woman, at that (the disciples really wonder at Jesus' judgment). He does not see any human designation. He sees a child of God. He acts accordingly.
And we can hear him quietly directing us, Go and do likewise.
If we want to counter the evil of rejecting people just based in where they're from or what color they are, act differently. One small step at a time can change an entire journey.
In 1968, Charles Schulz did something so profoundly basic that many people missed it (and some still question its efficacy). He drew a little African American boy (Franklin) conversing with Charlie Brown on a beach over a lost beach ball. Note the year--1968. In my Southern hometown, children of different colors were just beginning to be sent to the same schools. Martin Luther King was assassinated for daring to bring people together of different races. For the next three decades, Franklin became part of the cast, playing baseball, worrying through school with Peppermint Patty, and joining the others in their quirky childhood that reveals us all.
What we miss is that Mr Schulz in this simple act opened the door to something else. Kids are kids. Every child is a wonder. Just by drawing one of color, he made this declaration. He added to that with the inclusion of a little kid batting .650 named Jose Peterson, a Swedish-Mexican child, in a great series on Charlie Brown trying to better his hapless ball team. Kids are kids.
If we want to reveal our certitude that every human being alive is a beloved child of God, act accordingly. It is what Jesus did at a well. It is what we can do.
And it can alter the world.
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