Of Giants

Good Morning!  You know, I’ll just come out and say it this morning, I love All Saints Sunday.  I’ll even say it again, I LOVE All Saints Sunday.  It is a celebration of incredible meaning and significance! But people tell me, “Keven, aren’t you Lutheran?  Aren’t the saints more of a Roman Catholic thing?”  In response to the abuses of his time, our own Martin Luther did say that the living needed far more tending than the dead, but even Luther believed the departed saints were to be seen as a gift. 

                “We honor departed saints,' he says,"…so that we might be encouraged and grounded in the Doctrine of Faith.  It is the same Doctrine which the saints also taught and by which they lived.  Thank God for His favor in giving them to us.”

                All saints day is an amazing day, it is the one day a year that we acknowledge we belong to a very special community, one that transcends life and death.  The one day where we speak openly of the powerful spiritual bond that exists within us, through us, and between us.  So enormous, so penetrating, so incredible is this bond that neither death nor our own human sin can break it.  But All Saints Day is more than this, too.  All Saints day is also about another gospel, the gospel of the Holy Spirit.  It is a day we can look back and see the amazing things God has done throughout human history.  With All Saints Day, we recognize that God is not some far away clockmaker, the unmoved mover who merely set everything in motion.  With All Saints Day, we see that God is present and active amongst his children, the most moved mover, who works constantly through and beyond time to bring redemption to His world.

                Of whom then shall we speak?  This list spans millennia, authored by the third person of the Trinity Himself, whose work in human hearts produced heroes that outnumber the stars in the sky.   Shall we speak of giants?  Shall we speak of men like Augustine of Hippo who with naught but pen and paper shaped the Western World? 

“Our heart is restless, (O God), until it finds rest in you” he writes, and to those in this age of Science who will listen he says “that miracles are not contrary to nature but only contrary to what we know about nature.” And that “Faith is to believe in things you do not see, and the reward of faith is to see what you believe.”

Perhaps instead we should speak of the Eastern Fathers, like St. John the golden-tongued, and a more tireless advocate for the poor you will not find.  “No matter how just your words may be, you ruin them when you speak in anger” St John says, and “if you cannot find Christ in the beggar at your door, you will not find him in your church.”

Perhaps we should speak of American giants, giants like Roger Williams who proclaimed that godly religion cannot be forced religion, that belief only occurs when a person freely chooses it.  Or giants like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King, Jr.  Giants like Dorothy Day, Francis Willard, Billies Sunday and Graham.

Or should we talk of Lutheran Giants?  Should we talk of Martin Luther, who defied not only the Pope but his Church for the sake of Christ and the good news?  Should we talk of Phillip Spener and August Francke, Pietists who in a world that would talk endlessly about angels and head of pins pointed us all back to the spiritual needs of the people.  Should we speak of unsung heroes like Phillip Melancthon, the great systematizer of Lutheran Theology, or perhaps we should speak of Lutheran war-heroes like King Gustavus of Sweden, whose actions brought about the end of the thirty years war and ensured Protestantism’s survival to the present day.

But perhaps, this will not be so useful to you.  Perhaps, try as you might, you feel a disconnect between these people and you.  You may say to me, “Yes, Keven, I know that Christians everywhere and everywhen share a bond beyond understanding.  I know that despite what the world tells us about the church, as broken as we are, we’ve done things that moved and shaped the world for the better.  Because of people like these we have advances in medicine that cure the sick, because of people like these we can produce food on a scale unimagineable to the ancient world.  Because of people like these, cruel punishments have been outlawed, slavery for the first time in the history of the human race is called what it ought - kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment, and though it may be small the voiceless are being given a voice in ways that were not there before.  I know that these men and women stood against the tide and in the end it was the tide that fled.  But, Keven, I am nothing like them.  What do I have in common with greats like these?

Ladies and Gentlemen they have a word for that sentiment, it’s the same stuff they make at Oscar Mayer.  It’s called Baloney.  These men and women are no different from you in any way, save in only one thing.   Let us look closely at our gospel lesson if you wish to know what it is, what is we are missing is there, imbued throughout the text itself.  Our gospel lesson has been called Luke’s version of the sermon on the mount.  Let’s read it again and see if you can catch it.

“Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.  Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. "Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. "Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”

"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.  Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.  Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Did you catch it?  Do you see what you’re missing?  Do you see the one thing that gave every single saint their power? 

It’s hope.

Hope!  Hope in a God that is both good and powerful, hope that whatever things look like now, no matter how bad they are, hope that the Light of God can and will drive back that darkness, that circumstances can and will change.  The poor, the hungry, the despised, Jesus says, these are the blessed of this life, because look what God will do for and through them.   Do you struggle financially to even keep food on the table, that is great news!  For it means you are compassionate and not greedy, it means that you share with others whatever you are given.  Most blessed are you!  For it is to you that kingdom of God belongs.  Are you hungry now?  Do your needs outweigh your ability to meet them?  Blessed are you, for God sees you and will not keep you that way.  Are you despised?  Do people hate you because of your skin, your family, your faith?  Blessed are you!  For you have joined the halls of heroes, for that is what the forces of evil did to anyone that God ever sent.

But you who are wealthy, do you earn far more than you need?  Do you enjoy luxuries while your brothers and sisters starve?  Do you feast, tending to your own needs while others go without?  I warn you that you have received your compensation, Jesus says, and it is far less than what they will get.  Yes for those who fill their stomachs now, enjoy it while you may, for the Lord sees that you do this at the expense of others.  Do not seek after wealth or fame, because in doing so you join with every villain that has ever been doomed to destruction.  But there is hope for you too, because unlike the poor, the hungry, and the despised you have a choice.  You don’t have to be this way, you can choose to be generous and compassionate, and know that God will see you.

And so Jesus tells us to love our enemies, to do good to those who despise us, not because those actions are without cost, but because the power and hope of God far outweigh them.  The chance to win a brother back to God is worth far more than a shirt, stolen goods, or a second strike on the cheek.  Love fills the world with good people, it creates the environment we all long to live in.  But we don’t do it, because in the end we have no hope.  We hoard, we despise, we lash out in hate because we don’t believe there is any hope for something better.

Tell me, ladies and gentlemen, do you think Martin Luther posted his 95 theses because he thought they’d have no effect?  Do you think Dietrich Bonhoeffer started an underground seminary in Nazi Germany because he thought it would be pointless?  Did Julian of Norwhich proclaim the Motherhood of God because she thought no one would believe her?  Did Athanasius of Alexandria, a short black man from Africa, pound his pulpit, persuading people of the rightness of the Trinity from exile, because he thought all there was left to do was give up?

NO!  Ladies and gentlemen, if you feel at all disconnected from this community, if you look upon these greats in the Christian faith and see no way you can be like these giants it is only because you have not hope enough to look in the mirror and see your own stature.  I speak of giants today in the Christian church because within this community there exists nothing else.  If you do not feel like a giant, it is only because the cares of this world have you hunched.  You are a child of God, and your worth and ability far exceed your circumstances.  As C.S. Lewis so poignantly put, there are no mere mortals, so quit believing that you are one.

You were made to do incredible things!  You are part of a community that has shaken the very foundations of the world .  As broken as we are, by the grace of God we are the monsters lurking under the devil’s bed.  So one-sided has God made this battle that hating us, starving us, robbing us and beating us does not work.  The only tactic left for the forces of evil is to convince us, tempt us out of our belief that this world can be better and that we can make it that way.  Do not give into them!  This community is ours by birthright!  Do not let anyone or anything convince you otherwise.  Your participation in this eternal gathering of heroes makes you a giant, so stand tall and let the world quake at your every step.

Amen.

A Matter of Heart...

          What is this?  Is this Church?  Why isn’t everybody in pews?  Where’s the organ, the chancil, and the altar?  What about the sanctuary and all those other hard to remember terms they don’t teach in seminary?  And what about those funny guys in the long dresses?  How can this be worship?  How can this be Church?

                Well, sometimes things are not always what they seem, and just because it isn’t what we are used to, doesn’t mean it isn’t just as true.  But mistaking something for its trappings, getting fooled by the outside and not looking within is something we as humans will always struggle with.  We don’t like change, we don’t like it when differences crop up into our lives.  Between bills, work, family, and all the drama that gets put into that mix we like things to stay the same, we like things the way we are used to, the way we can handle them.  Humanity’s been like that since Adam and the fall, and it was no different for people living in Jesus’ time as it is today.

                Most people don’t really appreciate how different Jesus’ ministry was, how so very radical  compared to what was going on at the time.  I want you to imagine yourselves as Israelites living in Palestine, as 1^st century Jews living within walking distance of the Holy City. The temple and the synagogue are the biggest contact points of your faith, the places where you fully embraced your identity as Jews.  The synagogue was where you learned about your ancestral religion: Your learned what to eat, what to wear, and what to do.  The temple, however, was where you most publicly proclaimed your identity and where you performed the most important rites as an Israelite.  Here the Day of Atonement was performed, here the sacrifices and the various offerings were made to absolve all Israel of her sins.  Here was where you were supposed to meet God.

                But not all of your fellow Jews are happy with things the way they are, indeed the strife with your countrymen is almost equal to the strife you feel with your Roman conquerors.  In the first century there are four major divisions of the Jewish faith that you must contend with, all quite different from one another.  There were the Sadducees, the ruling class of Israel.  Surprisingly secular believers, they do not believe in angels or spirits nor do they really believe in an afterlife.  They pick and choose from their Bible, taking the verses they like and conveniently excluding what they don’t.  Only the first five books of Moses were Scripture to them, you see.  Cutting out ¾ of your book means cutting ¾ of your responsibility and where life would be at odds with the Prophets, the Prophets could simply be discarded.  Still, while deeply flawed by power and compromised by convenience, it must be noted that these are the only Jews among your people who are not racist, that do not believe Gentiles are bad simply because they are gentiles and by extension they do not believe Jews are good only because they are Jewish.

In addition to the Sadducees, however, there are the Pharisees and they are not so far from our evangelical movement.  They are a Scripture driven movement, a missionary movement, and a grass roots association interested in keeping the Scriptures central in the daily lives of their fellow Israelites.  No one person leads it, no organization heads it, rather it is rallied by its charismatic preachers who often decried their government and were quick to advocate war against foreign powers.  Their adherence to the whole of Scripture often makes them legalistic, obeying the bare words on the page but caring little for the spirit in which those words were given, but at the same time you will be hard pressed to find a Jew more openly living their faith or more interested in relieving the suffering of their people than this group.  

After the Pharisees are the Essenes, Puritans and End Time Believers.  They believe most of the country has fallen into horrible sin, so they do not mix with the common Israelite, seeing them as too tainted, too unclean for Holy Living.  They have removed themselves from society and live in the desert far away from the false government and the false religion that have taken on God’s name.  When God comes to judge their nation, it is their intention to be “Left Behind”, looking forward to the destruction of the temple and the coming of a great teacher.

There are also the Zealots, a group of Jews who feel that the only response to an unclean and gentile ridden government is its violent overthrow.  They were inspired by the Maccabees, the Jewish generals who threw off gentile oppression and foreign entanglements by the sword.  These are your constitution party members, the liberty lovers and the militiamen seeking to return their society to its perceived origins.  They are believers in their weapons and are fervent in their opposition to their government, but they are also the Jews most willing to give their lives in defense of their friends.

But finally, there are the people like you and me.  People who are somewhere in the middle, perhaps seeing one side or another but in all honesty just trying to eek out an existence that both gives credence to your people and shows faithfulness to your God.  You know the Temple isn’t perfect, you know the flaws of your leaders, and you know the dangers of losing your way of life, but it’s also all you’ve got to work with.  And so you work, you live, and you wait.  You endure the times and raise a family, doing your best with what you have…that is until someone comes along and shows you a better way.

And that someone comes…a man, a lowly carpenter’s son, rumored to be of illegitimate birth.  He is a rabbi, but he is not like the other rabbis.  He has no education, no formal training.  He didn’t apprentice himself to another teacher like the others did, he simply took up the mantle one day and, shockingly, people listened.  But people did more than listen, they followed.  They followed by the thousands.  And when this rabbi took disciples, he didn’t take the cream of the religious crop.  He didn’t go to the Scriptoriums, the religious schools for their best students, he took everybody.  He took fishermen, tax collectors, Zealots!  He even taught women!  And what did this man teach?  He taught that the root of all evil was neither Sadducee nor gentile, but the love of money and power and any Jew was quite susceptible.  He taught that gentiles were not an enemy of the religion or the state and they were indeed capable of great faith.  He taught the Temple was about to be judged and replaced with nothing, that the new holy community could be comprised with just two people without any buildings or sacrifices for sins.  He taught that there are no unclean foods and that working on the Sabbath is not necessarily against the law if those works are for good.  He taught that the Scriptures are Holy and Good, but they need filling to be complete.  But more than any of that, in a land of schisms and disagreements, in a land more and more given to violence this rabbi taught that Peace was the answer, that love for neighbor was the solution, that simple faith in God even unto death was the way.

                Now, all of you may be wondering, what in the name of the Holy of Holies does this have to with our gospel text?  Well, I’ll tell you.  As a Jew or even a Gentile in the first century the question arises, indeed begs to be asked how then is this Jesus still a Jew?  How can this sect of Christians still consider themselves part of Judaism when they will eat any food, have no use for temple or sacrifice, are willing to include gentiles into the people of God, and understand their Hebrew Scriptures as now secondary to the message of the gospel?  Yes, this Jesus might be important, indeed he might be the most important man who ever lived, but how can Christianity be thought of as having Jewish roots?

                And the answer is that appearances can be deceiving.  What looks one way can in fact be another and THAT is a theme that Luke deeply addresses in his gospel.  Luke begins his tale as a Gentile would.  Important people, people of divine importance, are often heralded before-hand.  So important is this Jesus, however, that even Jesus’ herald John is heralded beforehand.  Yes, this all occurred as a gentile would think fit, but these heralds are not gentile, they are Jewish.  Jesus and John are born to Jewish parents.  John’s father is a Jewish priest and Jesus’ parents have him circumcised and presented at the Temple according to Jewish law.  The inherent Jewishness of the Jesus story is hammered home time and time again and the relevance of the Jewish scriptures and their filled-full-ment in Jesus is not some outlying afterthought or a tangential footnote, but is central to the fulfillment of God’s promises to his people.  Indeed, where the story seems least Jewish, it in fact shows quite the opposite.  Joseph and Mary are recorded in Luke as obeying the Roman census.  Most jews rebelled at every census, but Joseph and Mary did not.  Their scriptures told them to obey the gentile king, to pray for them and indeed intercede for them while under their rule.  The Prophets proclaimed this, and Mordecai in Ruth lived this, even to the point of seeking royal permission to defend themselves against Haman and their enemies.  Joseph and Mary were not less Jewish for obeying Caesar; they were in fact more Jewish than all the rest of their countrymen.  And so it is for this part of the story, Jesus having just proclaimed the faith of a centurion now goes into Nain and raises a widow’s son, just like Elijah the Jewish Prophet did so many centuries before.  But unlike Elijah, who raised a gentile widow’s son, Jesus goes to the Jews and returns a Jewish widow’s only son back to her.  God has indeed returned to bless his people.  They were not left out.

                So yes, things changed.  The trappings of the past, the trap-things, the outside appearances that ensnared, yes they were discarded but the heart was no less true to its heritage.  God is not an exclusive God.  Claiming the Gentiles did not mean dismissing the Jews, and the blessings of the future in fact did not include the cursing of the past.  Both were upheld and one did not happen at the expense of the other.  So it is with us.  So often we look at the future and we see great cataclysmic change.  We look at our society and our children. We say “look how different it’s all going to be”…except it’s not.  2000 years from now we will still be silly, ridiculous humans in need of Jesus, but I will not lie to you, my friends, things will look different.  We will have a different president, we will live in a different world.  Our children will grow, they will not be exactly like us and our church will look very different in the years to come.  It’s only looks.  God is the God of the old and the new, and he gives the same heart to them both if we ask Him.  So yes, things will change, just not really.  And we can take heart in that.               

The Quality of One's Friends...

          A miraculous itinerate rabbi, a Roman soldier who loves his slave, Jews that value the gentile that built their synagogue, and a miracle completed just because of one man’s belief.  I must admit my friends, this is one of my favorite texts in Luke, superceded only by the parable of the prodigal son.  It is such a brief, odd, but incredible little story.  It is unfortunate, however, that we as a culture have lost just how odd and incredible this story really is.  We read it and see merely a soldier, a servant, and Jesus; only a tale about the ultimate power of belief.  Make no mistake, all those elements are there, but they are not the only ones.

                In seminary and law school, you learn very quickly about the incredible importance of context.  It can mean many dull hours at books too dusty and too old for reasonable humans, and it can mean a lot of discomfort as old understandings need to be tilled up and the seeds of new understandings get sown.  But this is no mere mental exercise.  For those of us called to this path it becomes very clear how important this work is because in the end you realize there are real people going to be affected by it for weal or woe.  Whether a man borrows something or is stealing something depends on the context, and whether someone kills in self defense or will be found guilty of murder depends on the knowing the exact situation in which it happened.  If context means so much, then it is clear we as faithful people are going to have to master it.

                So what is our gospel lesson in context, what did it mean to a first century Gentile living within the confines of the Roman Empire?  We’re going to find out, but instead of my usual means, instead going into the Greek, instead of talking about first century Judean history, I am rather going translate our lesson culturally, changing only the names and the setting in which the story occurs.  Listen, and see if you can’t hear the difference.

      “After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Civil War era Georgia as a black preacher.  A white plantation owner there had a female slave whom he loved dearly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he had the elders of the African- American community come to him, asking him to come and heal his slave.  When they came to Jesus, the elders appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our church for us." And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the Plantation owner sent his friends to say to the black preacher, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.  For I also am a slave set under authority with people under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my servants, 'Do this,' and they do it."

When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in all the South have I found such faith."  When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

                A little different isn’t it?  Let’s try something more modern.

“After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered modern day Palestine as a rabbi.  A Hezbollah soldier there had a gay partner whom he loved dearly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he had other Israelis ask him to come and heal his partner.  When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the soldier sent his Muslim friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my love be healed.  For I also am a servant set under authority with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my lover, 'Do this,' and he does it."

When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in all Israel have I found such faith."  When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the man’s partner in good health.

                Beginning to see how really shocking this story really is?  Are we starting to see the elements we have been missing?  Let us now go back to the original text, filling it in with what would have been unwritten but obvious to an ancient audience. 

After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum, a Jewish fishing village under gentile control.  A centurion, an enforcer of the Roman governor’s whims, had a male slave lover who was ill and close to death.  When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave.  They came to Jesus without hesitation, appealing to him earnestly, saying, "The centurion is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent his Roman friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for despite my station I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.  For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and the slave does it."

When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even among Jews have I found such faith in God." When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health - without Jesus having to say a word.”

                Reads a lot differently now doesn’t it?  Yes there is the faith of the centurion and the power of belief, but there is so much more to it.  Each character in the story is defying the supposed order of things, recognizing the era in which they live but also loving past it.  There is the centurion, a Roman soldier, the very kind of person who in but a generation will put every Israelite in Jerusalem to the sword.  But he is not cruel to the Israelites, he does not force them to worship the emperor or the Roman gods, indeed he builds their synagogue for them.  He has such a relationship with the Israelites that he can ask the Jewish elders to go talk to this dangerous new rabbi for him.  The elders, who by all accounts know that even being seen talking to this upstart, this rabbi with no formal education who constantly challenges the religious elite, could get them into real trouble, but for this centurion they do it.  And this needs to be explored further, the risks they are taking are no less phenomenal than the reasons they are taking them.  They approach this Jewish radical, this rabbi who does miraculous works on the Sabbath and that declares all foods to be clean, a man who is upsetting every Jewish authority at a time when doing so would literally get you killed.  Not only that, they are approaching this rabbi as a favor for a man viewed as a Jewish oppressor so that man can continue a relationship many Jewish leaders would not consider legitimate.  But the elders didn’t care about any of that.  This centurion had developed such a friendship, had such a meaningful impact on their lives, they approach Jesus without a second thought.  They don’t come to Jesus saying, we have to relay a message to you.  NO!  They say “this man is worthy of having you do this for him.”  In a world that would be all too quick to brand you a traitor, they knew the price of compassion in this instance and they didn’t flinch for a moment.  Their friend’s well being and joy meant so much more to them.

But after the Jewish elders show the quality of their character the Romans in Capernaum show theirs.  Jesus, of course, would know the repercussions of entering into the house of an unclean gentile, but He doesn’t care.  He goes anyway.  But the centurion, the centurion sees Jesus coming and has his Roman friends meet a conquered Jew and tell him not to come.  “Our friend knows the stigma that will be attached to you if you come to his house,” they say.  “But this is his message, ‘My Lord,’”… Incredible!  His friends see that this man of military station is debasing himself, calling a conquered Israelite My Lord, but they don’t care.  They relay the message anyway.  “My Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof and so I did not presume that I was worthy to see you.  Do not trouble yourself on my account.  Simply say the word and I know he will be healed for I myself am a man who both is a master and has a master, just like anybody else.  Just as when I give a command my will is done, I know when you issue the order thy will be done.

Jesus is astounded, amazed by this, and the story ends by Jesus doing something equally shocking.  He turns to his fellow Israelites and says, “I wish Jews had this much faith.”

Ladies and gentlemen, if the world needs anything it needs this story.  In a day and age where Christians mix with Muslims, Hindu’s, and Neo-Pagans, where those in the fishing villages of the world must live with the whims of the Caesars of the world, this story of risk-taking love and borderless compassion shows us the world as it could be.  A world where politics and disagreements mean so much less than one another’s happiness and the miracles that can happen when we do not let other people’s discomfort and disapproval rob us of our care.  But we don’t choose that world, ladies and gentlemen.  Instead we only love those like us, love when there is no cost to us.  One of my heroes, a German Lutheran Pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer, coined a term for this: He called it cheap grace.  Ladies and gentlemen, I look upon an America more fractured than I have ever seen it, I look upon a world more ready to burn than I have ever seen it.  This is the answer, my friends.  If you don’t like somebody –befriend them.  If you are concerned about a social movement -  host their rallies.  If you despise an entire religion – build their synagogue for them.  Scream at the top of that mountain that no matter how different we are, how much we disagree or how much you don’t like me there will NEVER be a time when I don’t have your best interests and your happiness in my heart, that under no circumstance will I EVER be your enemy.  That is how we change the world, ladies and gentlemen, and that is how we make the miracles fly. 

Because if we only love those who love us, how is that to our credit?