Monday 28 July 2008

This piece by Merton is quite applicable to the games we play in politics today.

But someone will say: "If we once recognize that we are all equally wrong, all political action will instantly be paralyzed. We can only act when we assume that we are in the right." On the contrary, I believe the basis for valid political action can only be the recognition that the true solution to our problems is not accessible to any one isolated party of nation but that all must arrive at it by working together.

Working together!?!? Good grief, there is too much fear about the other to ever contemplate such an adventure. How do we move into this kind of working relationship? I think it involves the willingness to be vulnerable and to insist that the other be just as vulnerable. Most folks would dismiss this way because we would ask ourselves, "How can we trust them?!?" And yet, that question must really be directed back into our own lives. Will we enter into a political situation open to an honest sharing - even if we cannot be assured that our side will have its way or that the other side will also be vulnerable? Merton ends this piece well. We only are able to find the new and creative possibilities within any kind of political system when we move forward and work together. In that process, we are given the opportunity to discover all of our fears and all of the ways we see alike and see differently. At least at that point we are engaged with each other and relationships are being built even though we are not "best friends."

Connection: Take advantage of those times when we will find ourselves working with the ones we would rather avoid or the ones we have called our enemies. I think this is a difficult thing to do and yet as we call ourselves followers of Jesus...it is the way of his Reign.

Reconciling Lord, it is by your gracious power that we begin to sit down and share our lives with others who we do not see as our kind or people who agree with how we would like to world to move. Be our encouragement to enter into the journey of your peace making. Amen.