A former colleague of mine found himself at a Moslem event. He was there to speak for the Christians, he
was at the end of the queue of speakers, he was told that the Prime Minister
had to leave shortly and so he had only 20 seconds. This is what he said…
In the
Lord of the Rings, Sam says to an exhausted and despairing Frodo, 'I can't
carry the ring, but I can carry you.'
Our beliefs differ and maybe we can't carry each other’s 'rings of
truth', although there are times and places when we can and will discuss those
with mutual respect. Nevertheless, we
can and must carry together each other's hopes and dreams for a city and country
where all our children can be safe and happy and play together.
“Each other” – that common phrase suddenly struck me… a curious
English idiom… Each… other…? Think about
it word by word. “Each” means people
one by one, or family by family, or tribe by tribe, religion by religion. Not leaving people out. “Each” implies all, inclusion. But “each” also means particularity – each
person in the family is different, but nevertheless there and belonging. If someone expects them all to conform, they
are out of luck. So that word “each”
embraces the tattooed and the untattooed, the wise and the simple, the good and
the bad.
“Other” simply recognises that there is stuff in the world that is
not me, that I can’t and needn’t try to control. Other people, for instance. Their histories are not the same as mine, nor
are the experiences that are still forming them. “Other” means then that I share my
space, my country – and in the Christian community it means that I am
accompanied at the Lord’s Table, where there can be no fences and no disqualifications.[1]
Our contemplative practice, day by day, is a matter of opening the
door, or perhaps a matter of holding the gate ever more open. We are not threatened by difference. As the Dalai Lama put it, if you are a
Christian be a good one – you don’t have to become a Buddhist. We are instinctively suspicious of walls and
barriers, protocols and parameters. The
Truth is not adherence to any doctrine – it is humble openness to reality and
to my brother and sister.
In silence and stillness the defensive layers are peeled off,
gently and relentlessly over time, and we become true, as Jesus was… knowing
love, offering love, bearing pain, sensing injustice, being present, being
fully human. The Prophet Micah said it
long ago: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness,
to walk humbly.[2]
[1] I
am so grateful to my old colleague, Stuart Vogel – I guess we are both pretty
old these days – for sparking these thoughts in me at this time. Last
time I saw Stuart, maybe 25 years ago, he was surviving an eye-wateringly
tedious meeting of the Presbytery of Auckland by sitting at the back, reading
Tolstoy… in Russian.
[2]
Micah 6:8
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