Things are opening up! More people are getting out and about! There are more signs that people are feeling (and actually are) safer. And…And violence and hatred are up. What? What’s that about and what does our great and living spiritual tradition have to say about it?
I’ve been thinking about a particularly shrewd observer of human behavior who also happens to be one of the most well-known comics of the previous millennium: Groucho Marx. One story goes like this—Groucho’s daughter had been invited to the Beverly Hills Country Club for a birthday party and so her name appeared on a formal guest list. The Country Club called Mr. Marx and asked whether he was aware of the invitation. Yes. The Country Club then told him that his daughter would be welcome to party, of course, but was he aware that she could not go into the pool with the other children? Why? Because she’s Jewish. To which Groucho replied—well, her mother is Gentile, can she go in halfway?
Among the things that I love about Groucho’s response is how it sheds light on the sheer randomness and silliness of racism and prejudice (let alone all the hatreds and misunderstandings). I think what Groucho was driving at, and I know what our spiritual tradition is driving at, is that there is nothing silly—and everything right—about simply and profoundly recognizing one’s own humanity and the humanity of others.
As I write we are coming up on Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is such a deep, wonderful life-giving mystery not only about God, but also about humanity. If God God’s self is diverse and God creates us in God’s image and God God’s self “delights” in the whole human race in all its diversity, then why can’t we?
As our nation begins to get out and about more, let’s do like who we are made and called to be, and help get the word out and about: we, all of us, are created in God’s image; we, all of us, are God’s children.
Thank you for being you!
Continued Blessings (!),
Rev. Dr. Fred Weidmann, Senior Minister