Faces on Faith: Amazing grace
A couple of years ago I had cataract surgery, which involved removing the damaged and blurry lens and implanting new lenses in the eye. The before and after contrast was amazing. When I took my morning walk a few days after the procedure, I thought all my neighbors had painted their houses!
Consider with me what our world and nation would look like if we had spiritual eye surgery to see others, especially those who do not look like us, through clear, not cloudy vision. Has our vision been distorted by bias, discrimination, and prejudice? Do we look at others through eyes of hostility or eyes of love?
Just a few weeks ago we observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Some of us remember the turbulent decade of the 1960s, when President John F. Kennedy, his brother Bobby and Dr. King were all assassinated. Dr. King’s message of unity and equality was often met with violence against him and his followers.
Now fast forward to today. Much of what I remember about the 1960s seems to still be playing out: we are still looking at our differences with prejudicial eyes. Case in point was the recent incident in Texas where a man came to a synagogue on the Sabbath. The rabbi invited the stranger in, then shockingly he and four others were held at gunpoint by this stranger. The man was filled with hate and prejudice and held people he didn’t know hostage for many hours. Thank God, in the end, the hostages escaped and the gunman was killed by police.
Then something happened. A Christian church not far from the synagogue reached out to the rabbi. I don’t know who made the first contact, but it is obvious that a movement grew and soon the church became the venue for a service of healing and reconciliation. What was amazing here was that in the midst of hate and prejudice others responded with grace and love.
The point here is that when we are filled with grace we see people who might be different than us with loving eyes. In his letter to Christians at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul says, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14). When filled with God’s grace, walls crumble and hostility is replaced with love. The result is truly amazing!
The Rev. Larry L. Marshall is the pastor at the Captiva Chapel by the Sea.