This Week from Mitch
Dear St. Martin's,
This Sunday at Church we will read about Jesus' baptism and renew our baptismal vows. This year's reading, from Luke, will tell the story of Jesus with winnowing fork in hand, clearing the threshing floor. To one side, he sweeps the wheat; to the other, the chaff. The wheat is kept; the chaff is burned.
It is absolutely clear to me that we live in a time of divided politics. This division is continually fueled by diametrically opposed news services and social media algorithms that keep people in worldview bubbles, continually screening out material that might cause one to log off. The like, love, care, and anger buttons were put onto Facebook for the same reason casinos removed clocks ... to keep you there longer. These factors, and so much more, have caused the cavern between political parties to appear to be as deep as it is wide. With information and misinformation being streamed to us in a 24/7 news cycle, one-minute TikTok blurbs, clickbait headlines, and nefarious tweets designed to get likes and retweets, it's no wonder that so many are, especially this Jan. 6th, feeling the strain of broken relationships, friendships lost, families divided.
What's interesting to me as both a political science student and a theologian is that we as individuals seem to gravitate toward separating ourselves from each other. The algorithms of division work because our human nature easily allows us to fall into our places, taking our spot in line behind whatever banner we might follow. Cognitive dissonance does the rest. My side is right; the other is wrong. Pharisees and Sadducees, Jew and Gentile, and so on, and so on. Sadly, it appears that Jesus' words fell on deaf ears. At no point in scripture does Jesus tell us to separate ourselves. Instead, he calls us to be agents of unity, love, and peace. Jesus never hands us the winnowing fork. It's His. It belongs to Christ the King, not us, the servants of God.
I pray this week that we might be instruments of God's peace and that we might in our baptismal vows seek to renew a spirit of right relationship with God and neighbor. May the Holy Spirit descend onto us as it did onto Jesus, bringing us its fruits: Wisdom, Love, Fortitude, Courage, Self Control, Justice, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Humility, Kindness, Goodness, and Gentleness.
In Christ,
Mitch+
