Rev. Frank Graichen
Being retired for the first time in my life is an interesting experience. To wake up on just about any day of the week and know that I do not have responsibility in a church setting, which I have been doing since 1975, is nice but I miss being with people. I don’t miss all the responsibility.
What has not changed is my reading, thinking and praying of all things Biblical. I am not a professional pastor, I do not think there is such a thing. Pastors are humans, in a constant state of growth, adjustment and development. I am, however, a professionally trained theologian, as many of my colleagues in ministry are. That training has not gone away, even though I am retired.
Of interest to me these days are what we used to call the Golden Rules. We find them in Luke 10:25-28. It is the opening to the parable of the Good Samaritan. For space reasons I can’t treat that whole thing so let’s just consider the opening.
A person wanting to justify himself asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus bounces the question right back at him; the man answers. Jesus tells him he is correct, now go do it. The person quotes the Torah. Jesus, a remarkable Jew knew the answer just as well.
The issue then is how does one love God with every piece of our being; our thoughts, our prayers, our soul, our strength and our mind? Then, once that is in order, love our neighbor in the same way and love ourselves in the same way.
Mark Twain, who died in 1910, famously said, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” Perhaps he was referring to passages such as this. Here was a man, born before the Civil War and lived to the brink of WWI, lived to experience humanity in ways we cannot today. Yet, his works are still with us.
More recently, and if you read 1984 you remember the name George Orwell. Did you know also that he said, “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”? This forward thinker was a master chess player of seeing the advance of human politics. Born before the Great Depression and died shortly after WWII, he experienced humanity in a way we can no longer do. Yet, his words, his wisdom are still with us today.
One more: Frederick Douglass lived to see a huge escalation of immigrants to the USA, lived through the Civil War and experienced the Industrial revolution that radically changed America. A thinker extraordinaire, gifted author, he wrote:
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
As a Black African American whom many of his detractors stilled referred to him with the N word, Douglass persevered and battled on. And yes, his words and wisdom endure till this day.
What does it mean? It means that people, some people refuse to change. Generation after generation of mistreating people, killing people, suffering people with inadequate education, and no or little access to health care, or equal legal rights continues unabated! It does not seem to matter who calls us to a better humanity, and a more gracious treatment of our neighbors.
Now I know not everyone is Christian or Jewish, and I also know there are distinctions between each but how can a Christian or Jew disregard what is so clear from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Jesus in Luke?
"love" - Google News
June 14, 2020 at 03:00AM
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Golden Rule — 'love your neighbor' - Rome Sentinel
"love" - Google News
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