Four Words

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

    Straight off the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-13), Jesus finds his disciples in an argument with the opposition (verses 14-18) – and losing. A frantic father had brought his young son to be delivered of a demon. Instead of casting it out, which the disciples had authority to do, they got sucked into a second-grade shouting match with the scribes. Jesus was not pleased.

     Assessing the situation, and snatching up the attention of all the interested parties, Jesus then spoke four of the most clarifying, crap-cutting words in Scripture: “Bring him to me.”

     Jesus promptly cast the demon out of the boy. Apparently, he was the only one onsite willing to lock onto the issue at hand, and throw out the nonsense and noise. “Bring him to me.”

     Please indulge the dime-store historian in me as I highlight a similar moment in more recent history. Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865, was from Kentucky. Leading into the Civil War, some Kentucky families sided with the North, some with the South. Mrs. Lincoln’s relatives, by and large, went with the Confederate cause. You can begin to imagine the troubles this caused her husband. Mary’s younger sister, Emilie, was married to Ben Hardin Helm, who was a general in the Confederate Army (President Lincoln had offered him a commission with the Union, but he refused). Helm was mortally wounded at Chickamauga and sent to a hospital – the prognosis was grim. Emilie was sent an urgent message to come to her husband. He died before she arrived. In grief and great need, she appealed to her brother-in-law for refuge at the White House. Mr. Lincoln was pleased to grant the request. On the way to Washington, she was detained at Fort Monroe – unwilling to pledge allegiance to the Union, the commanding officer there was equally unwilling to let her pass through Union lines, even with the President’s permission. The officer sent a message to his commander-in-chief, explaining his logic. Lincoln replied with a telegram of four one-syllable words: “Send her to me.”

     And with that, Mrs. Helm was on her way to Washington. While there, she was as much a rebel as in Kentucky and Virginia, and a frequent thorn in her brother-in-law’s backside. The headline in one newspaper read: “A Confederate in the White House!” As a political issue, this was about as complicated as it gets. But as an image-of-God issue, few things could be simpler. Here was a widow and three fatherless children. In the Bible, James 1:27 says, Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. In the time of their greatest need, Mr. Lincoln chose to meet his sister-in-law and her children at the level of imago Dei. He and Mary provided refuge and comfort and loving companionship. Whatever else they may agree or not agree on, this much must be done. While the critics had their fun, Mr. Lincoln’s favorite name for Emilie was “Little Sister.”

     Over the past two years, how many news reports have you read or heard, claiming these to be the most contentious days in our history? They are not. They’re more urgent, being now and not then, and with 7.4 billion humans onboard and the speed at which information travels now, maybe the sheer quantity of contention is at an all-time high. But it’s the same ugly knot Jesus faced two thousand years ago, the same tangle A. Lincoln faced in the late summer of 1864. The real question is: How to begin untangling it?

     There’s an especially clever tactic in play – and yeah, probably more in our time than in times past – and observation reveals that Christians don’t typically deal well with it. It’s the idea that acceptance and agreement and approval come as a package deal – to accept people on any level, you have to agree with everything they say or do or stand for. If you don’t challenge this idea, here’s what happens: you’ll go straight for any and every disagreement that may (or may not) come up, and acceptance on any level goes out the window. Many of us don’t even have to leave our beds in the morning to find someone to disagree with. Can I get an “Amen” from the married folks? Moving on into the day, the possibilities are potentially endless – unless the concept of the package deal is seen for what it is: too many moving parts to deal with at one time. Let’s consider a better tactic.

     In last week’s letter, my aim was to make you a little self-conscious of your use of the word “that.” People aren’t that’s; people are who’s. (OK, more than a little self-conscious.) This week’s th-word is “they.” In your interactions with fellow image-bearers, be asking yourself, “What makes them ‘they’?”

     Honestly, I’m still fuzzy on the finer points of rolling this out, so maybe we can learn together. Best I can tell at this point, it would go mainly like so: I know I can accept anyone on an image-of-God level, based on at least these three passages from Scripture…

     So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).

    Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture (Psalm 100:3).

    “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us…” (Acts 17:26-27)

     From there, I think I’ll reach out and grab a truly ridiculous point of disagreement. For example, my friend Scott owns a Ford truck. But me, I drive a GMC. How’s that supposed to work? How can we be friends? Easy: first, I set aside the fact that the GMC was given to me, and I would gladly have received a Ford. Then I remember that his truck and mine have already shown up on some of the same jobsites, doing the work each is best designed to do. Where’s the disagreement? Other than a little car-guy foolishness – Found On Road Dead, Garage-Man’s Companion – we leave it alone. This part of the exercise serves only to remind me that the acceptance/agreement/approval package deal, unchallenged, will run to the ridiculous in a great big hurry.

     The next step requires the most finesse (read: Holy Spirit guidance) – so let’s see if we can help one another out, Church. Back in the realm of reality, and with imago Dei as the baseline, I want to proceed to the first legitimate point of disagreement – and there will certainly be one. This is what makes them they (at least for now). From that exact spot, I want to do a quick about-face and survey the common ground. It will be vast. Turning again, this is where I choose between honoring the image of God in “them” – or not. Once I choose the route that honors, God gets to use me – and probably them too – in good work none of us might have imagined otherwise.

     In any of our interactions, here’s what I’ll urge: to let the mind of Christ in us be asking a couple simple questions. “Lord, what truly is the issue at hand? What connection do you intend for me to make with this other, who is obviously a fellow image-bearer?”

     Abraham Lincoln was not Jesus. But at times he used his influence to do Jesus-like work – to honor the image of God in someone who was, by the world’s standard, irretrievably other. And I think it’s remarkable that he used nearly the same four words to accomplish the work for his little sister. (I’d also like to feel the chill the CO at Fort Monroe felt when he read the terse telegram from Pennsylvania Avenue.) I know the Bible reading plan is rolling on, and we’ve moved into Luke today. But Chapter 9 of Mark won’t leave me alone, so I won’t let it leave you alone either, Church. Jesus cutting through the noise and blazing a trail through the hubbub is exactly what his disciples needed to see then – and right-the-heck now. More on honoring the image, next week.

 Grace and Peace (and four good words, when the time is right),

 John