I Want to Thank You for Your Kindness
It has been more than a few days since my last post. To be someone that is supposed to be away I have been very busy.
As noted I helped conduct the funeral for Mr. Aaron Peterson. Being gone does not preclude me from having to do funerals.
It was not a somber affair. As I told his son, Bobby, Mr. Aaron lived his funeral. All we did on Saturday was to remember him.
Charles Johnson, the pastor that preceded me at Temple, spoke. Also Mr. Aaron's grandson, Brian.
My message focused in on a phrase Mr. Aaron used. No matter who you were, no matter how small a service you rendered to him, he would always say, "I want to thank you for your kindness."
That phrase made me think of where that came from in his life. My conclusion was that Mr. Aaron took seriously what it said in Genesis 1. There we are told:
So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Mr. Aaron believed in the reality of the image of God found in all people. No matter who they were, when he said, "I want to thank you for your kindness," he was saying, "I see you. I recognize you. You are important. You are worthy of my acknowledgement."
I challenged those there to take that example and make their own. We need to be people that look upon others as being God's creation and loved by God. Our world would be a much better place if we did.
Which brings me to what my work while gone has led me. I have been doing much reading and study on the issue of polarization in our country.
What I am being led to do is write about how Jesus in his parables speaks to us in our polarization and in our division into warring tribes.
This is especially true for those of us who declare ourselves as Christians. It seems to be that we are guilty of getting things out of order.
We are everything but Christian first. Our ease of offense is such that we allow our identity, specifically politically, to trump (no pun intended) our primary identity as followers of Christ.
Jesus speaks to us across our divide and feel that is something I be dealing with in my writing.
As noted I helped conduct the funeral for Mr. Aaron Peterson. Being gone does not preclude me from having to do funerals.
It was not a somber affair. As I told his son, Bobby, Mr. Aaron lived his funeral. All we did on Saturday was to remember him.
Charles Johnson, the pastor that preceded me at Temple, spoke. Also Mr. Aaron's grandson, Brian.
My message focused in on a phrase Mr. Aaron used. No matter who you were, no matter how small a service you rendered to him, he would always say, "I want to thank you for your kindness."
That phrase made me think of where that came from in his life. My conclusion was that Mr. Aaron took seriously what it said in Genesis 1. There we are told:
So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Mr. Aaron believed in the reality of the image of God found in all people. No matter who they were, when he said, "I want to thank you for your kindness," he was saying, "I see you. I recognize you. You are important. You are worthy of my acknowledgement."
I challenged those there to take that example and make their own. We need to be people that look upon others as being God's creation and loved by God. Our world would be a much better place if we did.
Which brings me to what my work while gone has led me. I have been doing much reading and study on the issue of polarization in our country.
What I am being led to do is write about how Jesus in his parables speaks to us in our polarization and in our division into warring tribes.
This is especially true for those of us who declare ourselves as Christians. It seems to be that we are guilty of getting things out of order.
We are everything but Christian first. Our ease of offense is such that we allow our identity, specifically politically, to trump (no pun intended) our primary identity as followers of Christ.
Jesus speaks to us across our divide and feel that is something I be dealing with in my writing.
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