StemCell Therapy

A mutually hurting stalemate. That seems to be a good description of where we are as a country and its tearing at our souls. This doesnt just apply to our political divisions, which seem insurmountable, but also to the racial divide in our country.

Nearly 30 years ago, riots broke out in Los Angeles over the acquittal of police officers who had been accused of savagely beating Rodney King. At the height of the riots, an anguished King appeared on television asking the haunting question, Can we all get along? That question is written on his gravestone.

Apparently, the answer seems to be, No, we cant get along. Or can we?

The Rev. Gary Mason, a Methodist minister from Northern Ireland, has spent his life working on how to answer the question, Can we all get along? The divisions in that country were as deep or deeper than anything were currently experiencing in America. And yet, Mason was one of those who became involved in the peace process in Northern Ireland that has led to reconciliation. He was recognized by Queen Elizabeth for his work in the peace process.

At the Last Supper, Jesus prayed that we all may be one. But becoming one doesnt mean its easy nor does it mean we all end up thinking alike. Like those in Northern Ireland, we dont know how to put down our weapons. Here our weapons are words and actions that demonize others, making them seem less than children of God, made in the image of God.

Such violence has led to what Mason calls the mutually hurting stalemate. Those of us who follow Jesus call him the Prince of Peace, but we dont always live into being peacemakers ourselves. We dont know how to disagree well without being disagreeable. We dont know how to have the hard conversations with those who differ from ourselves.

We have just begun the season of Lent and, in my tradition, it began this past week with Ash Wednesday a service of repentance and reconciliation with God and others.

In part of the service called The Litany of Penitence, we ask God to accept our repentance for the wrongs we have done; for our blindness to human need and suffering for all false judgments and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us.

True repentance is not just acknowledging all the ways we have fallen short but living into a new way of being, a new way of life.

Gary Masons life work is teaching how to live into a new way of being and doing the hard, hard work of reconciliation. Its not wrapping ourselves in a cocoon of naivety that peacemaking is easy. Its not. But, sweet Lord, is it ever necessary, now more than ever.

Mason will be in Augusta for a series of events on Reconciliation: Healing the Hurt. These will be held at Church of the Holy Comforter, 473 Furys Ferry Road, Martinez. The first is a Community Forum on Saturday, March 7 from 6-8 p.m. Then he will be teaching and preaching Sunday, March 8, beginning at 9:15 a.m. in the Rectors Forum and worship at 10:30 a.m. All events are free and open to the public.

After his work in Northern Ireland, Mason started Rethinking Conflict, an institute devoted to social justice, conflict transformation, peace building and addressing religious fundamentalism. He is an adjunct professor at Candler School of Theology and the Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention in Maynooth University, Ireland.

Can we all get along? How will you answer that question?

The Rev. Cynthia Taylor is the pastor of the Church of the Holy Comforter in Martinez.

Visit link:
Cynthia Taylor: Speaker will address the question Can we all get along? - The Augusta Chronicle

This entry was posted on March 1, 2020 at 9:42 am and is filed under Blindness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |