Hyper-partisanship is starting to wear on me. I’m tired of walking up to people that used to make my heart sing when I saw them and wondering if they are happy to see me or are they thinking, “There’s Jim with the crazy theology and ill-informed political views.”

It seems like there is always something to fuss about. This week the argument buffet offered everything from the silly (hamburgers at the Whitehouse and razor blade commercials) to the serious (government shut down and racism). It doesn’t matter what it is. We’re like Pavlov’s dog. Someone reports something and we all throw on our team jerseys and get busy trying to prove that the other team is completely wrong. Every week it’s deja vu all over again. The one thing every media outlet agrees on is that we are living in an us/them world.

Two things:
1) I find it hard, very hard, not to get caught up in it.
2) It is not even remotely close to God’s hope for us.

I became even more certain about that second one as I recently pondered some very familiar lines.

First of all, it jumped out at me one morning that The Lord’s Prayer sure says our, we, and us a lot. That’s three “ours”, five “us’”, one “we”, not to mention a petition for God’s will to be done on earth, as opposed to God’s will being done in a particular country, state, or group of people, and just to bang home the point, the first “our” is the lead-off batter. Not a single “I” or “me”.

Secondly, I was recently reading something by Cynthia Bourgeault and she pointed out that the great commandment, “love your neighbor as yourself,” doesn’t say “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Note the difference. If it was “as you love yourself” we would first seek to love ourselves, then we would seek to love our neighbor, a separate person, in the same way we love ourselves. You’ve probably heard things along those lines. But, loving as yourself means you see your neighbor as an extension of you. In other words we/our/us is one. We not only share the same planet and the same time, we are as connected as my ears are to my eyes; one body as the Apostle Paul says.

Oh, and don’t look for a loophole by asking Jesus to define neighbor. Another guy tried that and it kinda blew up on him. Turns out Samaritans, in other words those folks that you are sure are out, are in.

Again, this is not to say it isn’t hard. Our prayer also mentions trespassing; or debts or sins, depending your religious family. It also talks about forgiveness and being delivered. Irritations happen. There will be times, obviously, when we disagree; often about important things. There will be times when we are called to speak the truth, to remind one another of justice, and remind one another to listen to the better angels. There will still be times that I am completely baffled by your opinion and there will certainly be times that you think, “There’s Jim with the crazy theology and the ill-informed political view.” But I’m going try to stop wearing any team jersey other than the one that says Christ and I’m going to try to remember that even if you happen to be sporting a different one that particular day, underneath you are wearing the Christ jersey too.

Giving in to division is giving in to a lie. It is destructive. Our Father, forgive us.