This is how we were created. To have dominion over everything. To me, just a half an hour ago, it came to me in stark relief. On my way into church, getting ready to make the long, swooping curve on 484, I saw movement in my left peripheral vision. A deer, ready to gallop across the road, hesitating when it sensed my rapid approach, then sprinting to the other side. Two m.p.h. faster, with a smidgen less alertness, and that outcome would have been tragic. I felt the twinge of guilty dominion over that beautiful creature that God calls us not to subdue, but to care for.

These are times to be critically reflective. How do we inhabit this image and likeness that God has created? How did we get to this horrible malaise which constitutes a civil war in our country? That very distinction can sound so perplexing until we realize there is more than one definition for “civil”.   “Civil” in this case meaning internal. And the struggles, which are with ourselves. We are so hung up on individual importance, possessions, achievements and, more to the point, our sacred, stubborn opinions. I am right, therefore by disagreeing, you are wrong. We deify ourselves against God. We all know this, which is why it astonishes and grieves me so to see such bitterness and rancor among us. Should I shrug my shoulders, write it off by saying that the devil is in charge of how we are situated right now? That it will pass? After what – more shootings in synagogues? More pipe bombs delivered?

This is a blog, the purpose of which is to uplift. I apologize for failing thus far.  In 1932, the year of my father’s birth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this in addressing a peace conference: “there can only be a community of peace when it does not rest on lies and injustice. There is a community of peace for Christians only because one will forgive the other for his sins. The forgiveness of sins remains the sole ground of all peace, even where the order of external peace remains preserved in truth and justice.” He spoke that one year before the ascent of Hitler and the Nazi party. The word “justice” has become so misused, to prop up certain ideologies and hatreds. We have to ask, “whose justice?” Christ crucified shatters the arrogance of cultural and yes national pride. Even as I “come down from the mountaintop” of another uplifting, affirming Reformation Sunday, I know that we hold that priceless, amazing grace that is so integral to our Lutheran Protestant faith, even as I know that I continue in sin. With my fellow royal priests, I know that our faith is justified by the One who loved us so unconditionally that He suffered death on a cross. With my fellow royal priests – all my Christian brothers and sisters – I know that God’s unconditional love will overcome bitterness and hatred. May you all feel refreshed by that priceless, amazing grace. Sweet, the sound is.

Pastor Art