Civility
My Dear People,
In the last week or so, did you find yourself wondering, at any point, why it would be left to a comedian to call the nation to civility?
A Richmond Times Dispatch op-ed this week asked that question.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Jon Stewart's and of Stephen Colbert's (and, in the name of full disclosure, I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity). And, after all, there is long precedent here: the age-old role of court jester as truth teller comes to mind (see Shakespeare).
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And yet, a fellow Richmond pastor asked me, this week, why the Church isn't doing anything for the cause of civility; why the Church isn't showing leadership on this, on civility.
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This spring, Jim Wallace, of Sojourners, brought together a diverse group of over a hundred Christian pastors to sign a "Covenant for Civility."
I signed it yesterday (on election day, fittingly enough).
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"How good and pleasant it is when the people of God live together in unity" (Psalm 33:1).
Those words sit atop the Covenant for Civility. And embedded in the covenant itself are these words from Ephesians,
Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
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As Christians, we don't want to mirror the divisiveness out there in the world. We want to model something different, something better, something higher: a unity in God that trumps any disagreement we might have, any difference of opinion. (A Sojourners bumper sticker reads: "God is not a Republican. Or a Democrat.")
As Jesus said, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
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If we have love for one another.
May it be so; may it be so; may it be so.
