Woo Pig!

AM Psalm 106:1-18 • PM Psalm 106:19-48
Lev. 23:1-22 • 2 Thess. 2:1-17 • Matt. 7:1-12

I’ve been working on my judging tendencies. Like just about everyone, I get sucked in to the polarities that are dividing our country. I’m trying to love my neighbor as my self, but it’s hard. I get triggered.

So I’m reading a lot about how different people think and feel: https://hiddentribes.us and Jonathan Haidt’s work, including “The Righteous Mind.”

People really do think and feel very differently from one another. Many of the variations that create division are the result of how humans have evolved. Some of us need to be cautious. And some need to be drawn to novelty. Humanity needs both, but those two world views will clash.

Jesus offers common sense about pearls and swine. It’s only natural that pigs will trample pearls. But we need and love pigs. Especially in Fayetteville.

Ask, search, knock. Learn what is good from the perspective of people who are different from you. We mostly talk about what we are against, and communicate in attacking terms. I find I’m often blind to what is precious to people who are different from me. I’m the pig who can’t see their pearl. So I’m trying to ask, seek and knock. “What do you value? What are you for?” We’re so often right in what we affirm and so often wrong in what we deny.

I’m trying to give up judging. To love my neighbor as myself. To seek to understand the values of others. And to express my potentially divisive opinions in terms of what I value, not what I'm against.

Written by Lowell Grisham

Lowell has been serving as guest priest for Christ Memorial Episcopal Church on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Retirement has its perks.