From The Pastor January 2011

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A good way to widen out the narrow path would be for more people to walk on it.

Anonymous

The other day I was asked why we are more prone to support local mission projects then wider missions. One of the obvious answers is that with local mission we can see who receives the aid. We can take a local issue and feel as though we have made a difference. And often we do. I suggested that when we focus on local or personal causes we often lose sight of the wider implications of the same cause. Some examples: When we support a local women’s shelter we can lose sight of the dehumanizing treatment of women in many parts of the world. When we support a gift exchange for underprivileged children in our community we can numb ourselves to the child labor which produces so many of these gifts which we gave away. When we declare ourselves as a congregation to be open and affirming we can close our eyes and ears to proposed anti-homosexual laws in countries like Uganda, where, a man or woman can be put to death for being gay or for having AIDS.

World-wide missions let us see a broader picture of all God’s children and their condition in life. The path of world-wide missions today is too narrow. We need to walk this narrow path and we need to bring others with us. Mission is not either/or but should always be both/and. Some will say that the woman in Iran, the child laborer in China, and the gay man in Uganda are not our neighbors they are not us and we cannot save the world.

I am reminded of the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller, a German Lutheran who said after World War II: When they came for the Catholics, I did not speak up, because I was not a Catholic. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak up, because I was not a trade unionist. When they came for the gypsies, I did not speak up, because I was not a gypsy. When they came for the homosexuals, I did not speak up, because I was not a homosexual. When they came for the Jews, I did not speak up, because I was not a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak up.

We can add when they neglected health care in the third world, I did not speak up, because I do not live in the third world. When so many children around the world grow up illiterate, I did not speak up, because I can read. The list can go on and on.

We are all God’s children and called by Jesus of Nazareth to love each other as we wish to be loved.

C. Ronald Wilson
Interim Pastor