Dividing Lines

Have you ever intentionally drawn a line between yourself and others? Do you see lines drawn between people in your daily life? People tend to draw lines between themselves, and these lines can be hard to break down. One of the reasons God sent Jesus into the world was to knock down the walls that keep us from seeing our common humanity.

Scholar Gail Ramshaw writes, “Like it or not, when we draw lines between ourselves and other people, Jesus is always on the other side of that line.” That is a hard truth to accept. We are good at naming our enemies and then feeding on our dislike of them. We are good at creating culture around being with people we agree with and keeping out people we disagree with. We are good at creating silos of like-minded people. Good at creating echo chambers to bolster our way of thinking. Sometimes the walls are based on ethnic heritage, race, gender or sexual identity. The walls that divide us are tall and thick. They are not easily transcended, and yet, transcending them is just what Jesus calls us to consider.

This week in worship, we will hear about Jesus befriending a Samaritan woman in public near a well. She is someone “across the line” from Jesus. He is not supposed to engage her in conversation. He breaks that line as if it didn’t exist and brings about a life-changing experience for the woman. So much so, that she begins to preach and share the good news of her God who breaks down walls.

Healthy boundaries are important but we must never draw lines that keep us from our common humanity. Our world is too divided, and the temptation to grow that divide is strong. Jesus speaks to us this week and encourages us to push ourselves to engage our “others” in conversation. Jesus encourages us to follow his lead and listen to those we struggle to understand and those we vigorously disagree with.

May Jesus break down the walls among us and bridge all our divisions.

Pastor Joel

Join us for Worship Service
Sundays at 10:30 am