Monday, June 27, 2016
502 - What's the Big Idea?
Spirituality Column No. 502
June 28, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
June 28, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
What’s the Big Idea?
By Bob Walters
Entertaining as it is to watch the “world order” rattle and
roll through social media’s heavy chop of political, cultural and intellectual upheaval,
love certainly takes a hit.
When we
differ in opinion, we are not a sentient child of God; we are an idiot.
When we
prefer familiar community-, state- and nation-sensitive governance to Global
political regimens, we are not loved for nurturing coherent values and morals;
we are a pick-your-phobic bigot.
When we are
in fact mistaken – hey, it happens –
we are not gently coaxed and coached to seek the truth more perfectly; we are
sworn at and dismissed as ignorant.
Funny thing: “sworn at and
dismissed” happens anyway when we tell the truth perfectly and are not
mistaken. “Ignorant”, as a pejorative,
has become pervasive, relative and meaningless.
So here we
are. Social media provides nearly
everybody these days with a unique-in-world-history opportunity to broadcast
angst, epithets, profanity and insults.
It is easy to launch attacks against that which we do not love and to defend
horribly the worldly things we do.
Naturally we postulate that our own erudite observations supersede
anyone else’s power of forensic retort, but then discover the impossibility of
constructing a foolproof argument, what with fools being so ingenious and all.
The larger-engine classic media –
liberal or conservative; nutty or thoughtful – is no easier to trust for truth
than an average citizen’s diet of online posts, tweets, snaps or whatever. Access any social media website or mainline
news feed and you’ll quickly find you are looking for love in all the wrong
places. Don’t think so? Post an opinion.
This harkens consideration of the message
of Jesus – the simplest, most important, most authoritative, most wide-ranging,
shocking and consequential message ever presented
to mankind: Love God, love others, in Me you are forgiven, God loves you, and
Heaven awaits those who hit “like.” For
those who don’t … God loves you anyway and will continue to pursue you because
you are formed in the image of God. But
when you die and hitting “like” is no longer an option, you’re on your
own.
And you won’t like it.
In His ministry, Jesus occasionally
leveled Facebook-caliber ad hominem shots
with observational invectives like “brood of vipers” and “faithless
generation.” But His big ideas were love,
not ignorance; humility, not humiliation.
God’s son proffered the ultimate of ultimate big ideas: God’s glory is
the entire purpose of life.
Recognizing our own stumbles –
Jesus does – we should know our ultimate way home is paved with love and
humility.
Too many of us throw bricks.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com) is glad Jesus only had to argue with the Pharisees,
not some of the folks who post regularly on Bob’s Facebook feed.