[amc] A note from the pastor
- From: "garland robertson" <pastor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Austin Mennonite Church" <amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 10:04:55 -0500
Members and Friends of Austin Mennonite Church
All of us routinely are caused to reflect on the enduring dilemma which has
perplexed human existence from its beginning: how do we manage the distance
between things imagined and things experienced? Reinhold Niebuhr suggests
that this 'distance' provides us the occasion either to sin against God's
design or to be faithful to God's intentions for the creation. Certainly,
we easily recognize the urge to move our reality toward what we imagine it
can be, and we just as easily can describe in detail how that improvement
would appear to us. And hence the dilemma: how do we make it happen, how
do we bring about this 'improvement?' Human history is littered with
accounts where, for the sake of 'improvement,' persons have quickly and
comfortably rejected their professed values, or more accurately perhaps
restricted them to a chosen group, in order to make desired changes. Their
methods have discriminately assaulted others, jeopardizing, even eliminating
the capacity of those assaulted to survive. These vigilantes believe their
vision is pure, superior, divine; thus they are obligated to employ any
action that might advance their cause.
Others in history have managed the 'distance' in different ways even though
they may have had the power to force their vision into reality. Who can you
think of from your exposure as examples of persons who have embraced the
dilemma in less assertive ways? Where can we find guidance in how to manage
the 'distance' ourselves? These thoughts will compose the sermon for this
next Sunday, "Finding the courage to be humble."
May it go well with you. Sincerely,
Garland Robertson
...always hold firmly to the thought that each one of us can do something to
bring some portion of misery to an end
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