Who is Your Mother? Who is your Brother?

     White against black, black against white.  Islam against Christian and Christian against Islam. Father against son, daughter against Mother -in-law.  Democrat against Republican and on and on it goes. Once more, red state against blue state......the have's vs. the have-not's.
     It is called division, or apartnness from one another.  Can it be mended? Without a change of heart?  I don't think so, not in this lifetime and with a disparate thinking.  Charlie Hebdo? Did they bring terror on themselves because of their views? Or did they exercise their right to free speech in a country civilized enough like ours to tolerate different views?  Fomentation of anger and prejudices are boiling to the surface, not just in major issues, but in civil as well.  Civil issues of marriage and  sex and anti-discrimination laws  that are deeply personal are being weighed by the Supreme Court shortly and will determine where this nation is headed.     Equality is  at the very heart of all of these issues. We all want the same protections afforded by a government that is elected by it's people.  Problem is, there are too many issues to solve in a Democratic society with limited time and money for everyone to be satisfied to contentment.  Human history is filled with inequities and government's inabilities to meet them all.  Though our society is better than most of the three-quarters of the world facing repressions ( billions in China, thousands in Russia, another million or so in Korea and millions of persecuted Christians, Muslims and so forth, and Cuba our closest island neighbor, repressed for 50 years.)
     Christ said that we would always have the poor among us. So do we ignore them? No, we feed them.  Do we ignore the protests of people in this country, freely speaking their minds and jail them? No we listen and decide for ourselves if they are crackpots or serious. Do we ignore the basic rights of people who engender differences in sex? No we should not.  However there is a more excellent way.
     The Apostle Paul was mixed in every possible  kind of people there were in his day, no different than ours maybe even much more complicated  in some way in their societies. Temple prostitutes and idol worship and sacrifices of meat offerings to their God's daily.  Daily debates in the Aereoapagus or (Mars Hill to the Romans) a place where Philosophers and debaters stood daily thinking about issues of the day.
      Paul preached change. Of heart. Or Christ's ways not his own, nor the peoples. And still there was revolt from the Jews mostly because they were about to become less relevant.  The law could not do what Christ could do in men's hearts.
   
      The fruits of the Spirit : love, joy, peace, forebearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and last but not least.....self control.  These things when they are in abundance in a person's life makes change not just for the person but also for those around that sphere of influence in that person's life.  It will manifest itself and multiply itself to those who would seek change and it continues today.  It is not religion it is an encounter.......................

     I think we are on the verge or beginning edge of an explosive change. We see more and more violence up close and personal more than we would like to.  We feel threatened by idealogies we cannot fight but by military strength.  They are  violent and we hope it does not come any nearer to us and our way of life.   Do we need strength?  Yes.  Do we need hope? Yes.  What will we  put our hope in?   Again, Christ offers hope and a superior Kingdom though we wait for it patiently.  We suffer knowing what the human heart contains, murder, strife, thievery, doubt and the flip side is goodness.....................altogether.