When siblings are sharing a room, they would often create an imaginary line down the middle of the room and declare, \u201cThis is my side and that is your side.\u201d Having lived in Quaker Pennsylvania, there were very few walls defining where one\u2019s back yard began or ended but in California, there are countless gated communities. I have been to the US\/Mexican Tijuana border visiting with American Baptist missionaries, the Western Wall in Jerusalem on a religious pilgrimage, the graffiti wall separating Israel from Bethlehem visiting the Church of the Nativity, the Berlin Wall for a Martin Luther Reformation tour and saw how formidable all these walls are and were. And if there were ever a people who know how to build a wall it would be us Chinese\u2014the Great Wall of China. Astronauts can see this from outer space!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robert Frost once disparagingly said, \u201cGood fences make good neighbours.\u201d My neighbors in the back of our house just put up a new redwood fence since the old one was dilapidated. Nothing special about that except that he installed the nice finished side facing us! They are good neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent days, there\u2019s been a lot of rhetoric about putting up walls. Many believe that walls define necessary boundaries to know our responsibilities. It\u2019s like siblings who might say, \u201cI\u2019ll clean up my side of the room and you need to clean up yours.\u201d There are laws to protect people regardless of how they happen to be on one side or the other side of the wall. Some cities within their boundaries have voted to become \u201csanctuary cities\u201d that offer some refuge for undocumented people. Since our most reverent spaces in our churches are called \u201csanctuary,\u201d I ponder what a Christian witness might be especially in times such as these. In public places in some cities, there is a \u201cWall of Empathy\u201d where people write hopeful words on Post-Its to encourage those who are despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus said he came to break down the walls that separate us from God, the walls that separate us from one another, the walls that separate us from being whole again. In Ephesians 2:14, \u201cFor (Christ) is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Advent, let us tear down the walls that keep us from the Nativity. May the walls that we have make us good neighbors\u2014just a simple preacher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When siblings are sharing a room, they would often create an imaginary line down the middle of the room and declare, \u201cThis is my side and that is your side.\u201d