The world has changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the
earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none
now live who remember it.
Who has not been stirred by the inaugural ceremonies of the new Pope
Frances? 200,000 people were standing, watching, hoping to get a
glimpse. Worldwide, more than a billion Catholics (billion!)
celebrate centuries of sacred decorum. Protestant, Muslim, and Jewish
worlds are both enthralled and inspired by a faith tradition with
peculiarities quite different their own – Mary was born without
original sin, a celibate clergy, an expanded version of the holy book
and a leader empowered to speak, at times, as the voice of God. That
Protestants have become comfortable with these things is quite a
transformation. “The world has changed. I feel it…” don’t
you?
Not so long ago, Protestant leaders and churches (including
Baptists) dissed Catholics. Mainline Evangelicals labeled the Pope
“anti-Christ!” and Rome “Babylon!” This shifting of tides was mutual and has much to do with something
called R-E-S-P-E-C-T. John Paul II was the first Pope ever to enter
a mosque and pause in prayer. He said that Christians and Muslims
share the same God. He apologized for the shameful Crusades, that
period when Christians massacred Muslim Arabs in the name of Christ,
something Muslims have never forgotten. He apologized to Jews, women,
Galileo, and victims of child sex abuse. He prayed at the “wailing
wall” in Jerusalem… an expression of affection for Jews. He dialogue constantly with Protestants, which is partially why we've stopped protesting.
Pope Frances seems to walk in this Way. His model demonstrates that
respect is not limited to those who agree with us; it’s especially
needed for those who don’t. Who was it that said, “Love your
enemies…” We never win by talking down to anyone; we win by
sitting down with them. Another has written, “Let’s get out of
their faces and into their shoes.” See Baptists Hopeful with New
Pope.
When one genuinely respects the other (even an enemy), or, better,
when someone who is my enemy genuinely feels valued and respected,
then something beautiful takes place, weapons drop, friendships
begin, love has the chance to win and life to change.
In the new world that’s upon us, the flat world of countless
migrations and refugees, the world of cable-vision, Internet, air
travel… the world where neighbors, co-workers and our children’s
schoolmates are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, New Age and secular
humanist, along with multitudes who are daily becoming “none of the
above”…
In this new kind of diversified world, we would do well to learn to
show respect rather than contempt. “We reap what we sow.” “Those
who live by the sword (gun) will die by the sword.” We must find
the courage to beat our spears into plow shears, and engage in
earnest, heart-felt, respectful dialogue with those who disagree with
us. Somebody remind me what we’re afraid of?
What does this have to do with our kids… parents, grandparents, and
teachers too? For one thing, we need to get comfortable with this
global village reality, this new multi-cultured world, because our
children need mature leaders whose hair is not always on fire about
some issue. They need a calming presence…patient leadership and
authentic friendship.
The world has changed, and it’s not coming back. Not now, not EVER.
I’m not saying all changes are good, but there IS much GOOD that
God is doing. “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” If we fail to
partner with God in this great work HERE and NOW, and if we only see
the bad, if we cower in fear and hide from reality, then what’s
left to offer our children? What good are we? The salt has lost its
savor. Do you see what I’m saying? It’s not easy but it is
necessary.
Worldview shapes thinking and behavior. Imagine a harmonized world
where… where “the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will
lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling
together…. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the
young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither
harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full
of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah
11:6-9 NIV)
Imagine with St. Paul the re-creation of all creation: “The
creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be
revealed. ….the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage
to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of
God.” (Romans 8:19-22 NIV)
Envision people of every race, kindred and persuasion transformed so
that every thought, breath, and action comes into harmony with the
desires of Jesus the Christ… so that, for example, The Sermon on
the Mount actually becomes a way of life… or, love and peace
prevail regardless of circumstance… or where one’s hands, feet,
mouth, ears, eyes and very soul become instruments of touching the
poor, the brokenhearted, the captives and prisoners trapped in
darkness… or, being an instrument in shaping a world where “justice
roll(s) on like a river and righteousness like a never-ending
stream.” (Amos 5:24)
Imagine being part of a revolution that seeks to transform whole
neighborhoods, cities, regions and continents. Consider God’s kind
of Life… empowering, motivating, liberating – no longer
intimidated by darkness, or fiery rhetoric, or even change itself. As
firefighters invade hell-fired buildings to save, the revolutionaries
of Christ invade hellish lives of those entrapped in humanity’s
sins like poverty, crime, addiction, disease, prejudice and
injustice.
Emerging from the ashes of the passing modern age, this now and
future way of church attracts children, adolescents, and young
adults… those with little or no spiritual background… who hunger
to eat spiritual bread… thirst to live a story woven from threads
of “what was, what is, and what is to come.”
Imagine a new kind of world, a world where “they and them” become
“we and us.” WE are the hungry; WE are the broken, the rejected,
and discarded. WE are the marginalized “spiritual-zeroes” for
whom Jesus died and lives, AND for whom the Kingdom is at hand! WE
are welcomed into this new, emerging Way of Life… out of what was,
into what is, and onto what is to come.
We love the symbol: a warm, people’s Pope Frances working the crowd
like a Sunday morning preacher. Welcoming all, judging none, engaged
in real-life problems and rolling up his sleeves to help. It’s a
symbol of hope for the world, hope for our kids, hope that indeed,
heaven’s real place is on earth and heaven gets here through frail
and faulty souls – you, I, we, and us. WE, the Pope and our
children are here and NOW living Creation’s story, God’s story,
our story – a story which was, is, and sure to come.
Yes, the world has changed. We feel it in the water. We feel it in
the earth. We smell it in the air.
– Thanks be to God –
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