Healing Rays of Righteousness

The title reminds me of the story from a previous generation, that tells of a young man who stopped at a farmhouse asking for work.  The farmer asked of his occupation, which was carpentry.  At first the farmer said he had no work.  Then, pointing across the road to the neighboring farm, he said, “That is where my brother lives and we have become bitter enemies.  He even took a bulldozer and cut a stream from the reservoir through the pasture between us.  I’ll hire you to take that lumber by the barn and build an eight-foot-high solid fence between us, so that I don’t need to be looking at him.”

The farmer went into town for a few days, and the young man went to work.  When the farmer returned home, instead of a fence, he saw a beautiful bridge across the stream, complete with handrails.  At first, he was angry, but then he saw his brother walking down the hill to the bridge with outstretched arms.  As he came nearer, his younger brother called out, “You are a special brother, and to think that you would build a bridge so that we can more easily get together!”

A short time later, as the carpenter began to walk away and toward the roadway, the farmer asked, “Hey, where are you going?”  The man answered, “I’m going on my way to build other bridges!”

Bridges are inviting as they open a pathway to the other side.  This is true in both nature and in relationships.  Bridges invite us to cross over toward strengthening relationships with others.  Whereas, barriers obstruct, wall shut, and close down any possible building or restoration of relationships with others.  Bridges lead to new vistas, adventures, and unlimited possibilities.  Whereas, barriers confine and protect a comfortable environment of non-disturbing, non-threatening sameness, and offering extremely limited possibilities. 

For these reasons, I cry out to my church, community, and nation, and to all who call themselves Christian; let us go into our personal worlds, committed to building bridges of loving forgiveness and healing, and restoring relationships with all people, even those we see as enemies.  Let us build bridges of respectful listening as we walk together toward seeking common ground and guidance in making a better world for all of us.

Some of the most profound teaching in the whole Bible is found in the 3^rd and 4^th  chapters of John’s first letter.  In verses 8 and 16, John tells us that “God is love.”  Those three little words get to the theological and practical understanding of God’s character of self-giving, caring love. 

In verse 9 and 10, John says we know this to be God’s character because “He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  

In other words, by sending Jesus “as an atoning sacrifice” God built a beautiful and sturdy bridge for us to cross over the deadly chasm of sin and into a relationship with Himself.

In verse 11, John makes it noticeably clear that God’s amazing love toward us makes a logical, common-sense demand upon us. “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  And verse 21, “And he has given us this command:  Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”  There is no wiggle room here!

If we have experienced God’s atoning love through Christ, and if we continue to experience God’s love through the indwelling presence of the God’s Spirit, then naturally we will be human fountains of God’s love flowing through us and bathing a hurting and bleeding world.

I hear John saying in verse 20, that it is impossible to be a recipient of divine love and, at the same time, be motivated by hatred for others.  Love and hatred are like oil and water, for they do not mix.  If God’s love fills our life, there can be no room for hatred or bitterness.  “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar.  For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”

I encourage you to hear and heed this age-less admonition from Mother Teresa;  “Spread love everywhere you go; first of all, in your own home.  Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next-door neighbor.  … Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.  Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.”

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 9, 2022

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley