Perspectives with Rev. Clarence Witten

It may sound kind of dumb, but sometimes when I hear two sides to an argument I think that both sides are right. 

One person makes his/her case, and I think, “Hey, that sounds good to me.” Then the other gives his/her counter argument and I figure, “Wow. That’s true too.” 

Yet d’uh. They can’t both be right, can they, if they’re making opposite arguments? Or can they?

Where I experience this the most is in two of the political magazines I subscribe to. One is very left wing, the other writes from the perspective of the far right. Boy do they differ. 

The funniest thing is that they often cover the same topics at the same time. 

So I get my right wing paper and read a defense of the west’s involvement in a war in some far off place because of the good things that will come out of it.

Then a week or two later, I’ll get the left-leaning perspective of how the west has no business being in this war and should leave immediately. 

One magazine will blast a given government policy, the other will bless it.

At the present, both magazines are writing about the Occupy Wall Street protests that are taking place around the world. And of course they both have different takes on the issue. 

One whole-heartedly supports the protests and thinks it’s great that people are taking on corporate greed and the unfair distribution of wealth on our planet. The other magazine is of course not willing to do that. It will blame someone else or something else for poverty and the economic woes we’re facing.

So what do I learn from this?

First, if I am willing to look for it and be open to it, there is truth in both magazines. But I have learned something else. In so many of the issues that these magazines address, like who is to blame for the economic mess the world is in today, they all seem to want to blame ‘someone else.’ The right blames the government and their taxes while the left blames the corporations and financial institutions.

In this blame game I remember a famous quote by Solzhenitsyn the Russian dissident. He wrote that while he was rotting away in a Soviet prison “ it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts.” 

It’s easy to blame the ‘other side’ for what’s wrong, but it’s not that simple. There’s evil in us all, including greed, and we all contribute to the brokenness of this world.

Really, I learn this lesson best from one of the Bible’s most colorful characters, John the Baptist. When different groups of people came to him to be baptized, regular folk, soldiers, and tax collectors, he pointed out that there was evil or sin in each of their hearts. How they live it out may be different for them all, but none were exempt. 

In fact, he also goes on in the chapter (Luke 3) to point out the king himself is not immune from sin. Sin or evil simply are universal. But the coolest thing we learn from John the Baptist is what to do with this sin. Turn to Jesus he tells them all. Repent of your sin, and this Jesus will cleanse you and forgive you of it. 

Great truths still for today. We may see evil in everyone else, and want to blame this group or that for what’s wrong with this planet, but one of the wisest things we can do is face up to the fact of our own contribution to the world’s problems, our own greed maybe, or wastefulness, or indifference. The fact that there is wrong with us (this thing the Bible calls sin) and to go to Christ for the solution.

When we receive Christ as our personal Saviour, as the one who died for our sin, we discover that not only does Christ forgive our sin and evil, but he also gives us power to overcome it.

And if we’re willing he will give us a spirit of love, compassion, and justice to empower us to go into our broken world to bring healing and help.

This world does have problems, but instead of just blaming others for them, in Christ, let’s become part of the solutions.

[…]

South Dundas continues to grapple with the ongoing landfill issue looking for a long-term solution. Already, one landfill site has been closed, while the second has only a few years left at best. While council […]

Spring

Spring is a great time of year! I have been watching the crocus begin to bloom and the lilac bush is already starting to sprout buds. ! A time of renewal!

Many people are re-evaluating and looking at changes in their personal lives, their communities, their work, and their faith communities.  

They are essentially asking the question:  Does something need to grow and develop or does something need to actually die and allow new life to spring forth?

Simple changes, such as learning or developing a skill or implementing new ideas don’t require that anything needs to die. We simply build on the understanding, information and expertise that we already have.

Transformation on the other hand requires that something dies so that new life can be created. If we want to transform our communities, faith communities or organizations then we need to learn to become experts of allowing things to die and we need to learn to become midwives to the new life that is coming into being.

Transformation happens when a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies. The “grain” needs to die so that it will ultimately survive and then a thriving and sustaining plant life is created.

What dies in a grain of wheat when it falls into the ground is its temporal form so that its life-giving essence can be released into a new temporal form. When helping things to die, we need to pay attention to what actually needs to die and what needs to be allowed to blossom forth with new life.

We find metaphors for the Christian life in plants springing from the ground, being drawn outward toward the light, and bearing fruit according to their nature. 

Jesus uses the dead seed coming to life and bearing fruit as a metaphor for his own crucifixion and being raised up on our behalf. Think of the weird conversations he had with a variety of people. These conversations were not about change ~ they were about transforming defeat to a new way of being!

May God bless you in transforming your life this spring! 

Rev. Norine Gullons

South Dundas Evangelical

Lutheran Parish

Morrisburg/Williamsburg

[…]