NOT JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL

The rock group Pink Floyd was wrong back in 1979. They wrote Just Another Brick in the Wall to protest what they believed was a poor educational system in England that treated the students as “just another brick in the wall.” In other words, the students were really nobodies whom the system didn’t much care about. If they received an education, well and good. If not, well they “don’t need no education” anyway.

No one is just another brick in the wall. Not only are we one as a people the world over, no matter where we find ourselves and no matter what configuration we are in we are not just another brick in the wall. Whether we are with only one other person or as a member of a family or grouping, no matter how small or how large, we are not just another brick in the wall.

Perhaps the students Pink Floyd was protesting for believed they were nobodies in the eyes of the educational powers to be and even if they were actually treated as such, nevertheless, they were somebodies and were important. Every one of us is. There are no exceptions. The problem is that as individuals we don’t seem to understand this truth both when it comes to how we are treated or how we treat others.

Let me explain by drawing a mental picture: a wall, a wall made of bricks. It does not matter how small or how large that wall is: two bricks (you and me), ten bricks (my family), 150 bricks (my church community), 30,000 bricks (my community), 300+ million bricks (my country, 600+ billion bricks (my world). Each brick is vital to the strength of that wall. Pull one brick out and the whole wall is weaker.

The point, of course, is that no one of us is a nobody no matter where we are, who we are, the amount of education we have, the income we earn, where we live, the color of our skin – the list is endless. Nothing about us lessens who we are and the importance of who we are wherever we are, wherever we find ourselves at the moment, in whatever wall we happen to be at the time.

Sometimes that truth is so easy for us to forget when we are treated as if we are unimportant or when we treat others as if they are unimportant, as if they or we are just another brick in the wall. Somewhere along the line we have lost sight of the truth that no one is unimportant. No one. And no one is better than anyone else. Just as each brick is vital to the strength of the wall, so each one of us is vital to the strength of whatever wall/community to which we belong.

At this time in the life of our county I think that is a message that we not only need to hear but to begin to live out. Unfortunately, what I am hearing are too many voices shouting to others that they are just another brick in the wall. No one is just another brick in the wall, no one. When will we learn? Will we ever learn?

LONG TIME PASSING

There is one thing, actually more than one, that I miss about my college and theology years and that is the voices of the folk singers who would not allow us to disregard or ignore the many injustices that were taking place in our country. Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan (who won a Nobel Prize for literature because of his poetic truth-telling), Peter, Paul and Mary – the list is long – spoke to my generation.

I did not march or protest as I was secure behind seminary walls and was almost immune to what was happening in the world beyond those walls. And even if I was not personally affected by the racism they sang against, the war they knew was really unjustified, and the divisions among us, I knew what they meant. In hindsight I regret my non-involvement other than simply praying that their voices would be heard.

A long time has passed and some of them have passed into the next life. But we need them today. We need voices who will speak out against the injustices we see all around us, the bigotry and racism that is still very much present. There are those who say we are a Christian country and that they are Christians all the while preaching hatred and division. We are not and they are not.

Peter, Paul and Mary sang this in River of Jordan. “There is only one river. There is only one sea. And it flows through you, and it flows through me. There is only one people. We are one and the same. We are all one spirit. We are all one name. We are the father, mother, daughter and son. From the dawn of creation, we are one. We are one.”

The problem, of course, and the issue at hand is that we don’t act as one. That does not mean that we agree on all issues or even the way to resolve issues like health care and taxes and all those political issues that divide us. What it does mean is that we recognize, when we deal with these issues that do need to be resolved that we take into account that we are indeed one people and that what hurts one of us hurts all of us.

We live in the greatest country on earth. It does not need to be made great again. It is already great. But it needs to be and become better. So do each and every one of us. That is what Dylan and Seeger and their kin tried to get across in their music. That was Jesus’ constant message. It still is and always will be.

Many listened back then and did something about it to help bring us together. The question today is “Is anyone listening?” Even more, where are the voices today that will bring us to our senses? I have been listening but I have not heard any such voices coming from our political leaders. I have not heard it loud enough from our religious leaders. They especially need to speak up, from every denomination and race and creed and speak as one. I am waiting. I am listening.

INSPECTION TIME

One cannot drive a car in Pennsylvania unless it is first inspected. Thank God. As financially painful as it sometimes may be, thank God.  I want to know that my car is safe to drive. And the other drivers want to know that I am driving a safe car, not so much because they might be concerned about my safety but because you are concerned about their safety. They don't want me crashing into them because of faulty brakes, for instance. Whether I like it or not, getting my car inspected is the most important thing I'll do for my car this year.

These yearly automobile inspections are also a reminder that a yearly, at least a yearly, inspection is necessary as far as our personal lives are concerned. Sometimes, like yearly automobile inspections, yearly personal inspections can sometimes be quite painful. Yet we simply do need to take the time, at least once a year, to inspect our lives as Christians. The problem is that we probably do not take that time. It is not on our agenda. And there is not a patch on our arm with a number, like the number 8 on my windshield – that reminds us to take some times out (like in July) to go over the systems. Oh, we know it is a good idea, but we have better things to do -- all much less painful.

Those personal inspections are intended to plumb the depths of our psyches, to dig deeply into our inner being to see if we are really living out our faith or if we are just playing at it. We can look good on the outside but the inside of us is a mess. Giving ourselves a quick-glance once-over won't work. We may want to slap a sticker on our forehead and say "okay for another year;" but if we do, disaster may be just around the corner.

It's like that car inspection. Time-wise, money-wise, pain-wise I want the man to give my car the once-over very quickly. I certainly do not want him to find anything wrong with my car, even if I feel he probably will. But deep down I also want to be sure that my car is safe to drive around for another year. I certainly don't want to worry about my car breaking down somewhere between here and somewhere on a snowy winter's night. Thus, as painful as it might be, I need, not just the State, I need to insist on a complete inspection for my car.

And for myself: the spiritual breakdown can take place anytime, anywhere and, usually, as with a car, when it is most inconvenient. Cars never break down right in front of the service station, never run out of gas next to the pump. Our faith never gets into a crisis situation when all is going well. Our faith gets shaky when everything else also seems to be falling apart. To prevent that breakdown, we need a yearly inspection, like it or not.

These summer days are good for that inspecting. We can usually find the time, make the time, to be by ourself to take a good, close look at our life of faith: really give it a good, close inspection; see what parts need tightening, what areas need repairing, what has to be replaced. Chances are we don't need a complete overhaul. But chances are also that a tune-up is necessary. Take time for that inspection. Give ourselves a good tuning-up physically, mentally, spiritually. It will probably the most important thing we do for ourselves all summer, maybe all year.

WHAT REALLY COUNTS

Contrary to an old, old commercial it’s not what’s up front that counts. Being up front, visible, seen, isn’t always, if ever, what is most important. As with a really beautiful woman: beauty lies not in what’s up front – face and figure—but what’s inside. What’s up front may be enticing. But often what’s up front conceals rather than reveals.

It is very tempting, of course, for us to put on false fronts so that we seem other than we are. We want to because we somehow seem to feel that that is what is expected of us or that that is what is necessary to get ahead, to succeed. And it may work for a while. But sooner or later the charade has to cease. When it does, the real person will eventually emerge, perhaps much to our immediate dismay but certainly to our everlasting relief.

We are who we are. We cannot hide it forever or for long. The real person comes to the fore sooner or later, and the sooner the better. And that real person is the one deep inside us: the one with all those good qualities, and some bad faults as well. For no one of us is perfect. We are all equal as people. And that is what really counts, not what is up front.

But that is only for starters. For we cannot begin to become what we have the potential to become until we realize that, even with our failings and shortcomings, we are fantastic people: God’s children. Behind that false front, underneath that mask is a child of God.

I know: we’ve heard all that before. Pious words, encouraging words, but words nevertheless. And words simply do not do it sometimes. We can all preach a good sermon. Living it is another matter. We can all profess a great faith. Living out that faith is much more difficult. We can all believe that the internal is much more important that the external; but sometimes we are not so sure.

We are constantly bombarded by hucksters selling us their brand of success, their formula for success, be it through personal enrichment courses, wearing the right clothes, or even turning to Jesus and having him as our personal Lord and Savior. The solutions to success all seem easy, simple and the thing to do. They are not.

The only way we are a success is by being the person God created us to be; not by listening to Madison Avenue – or to anyone else who would like to make us into their own image and likeness. We can’t be like someone else. We can only be ourselves.

We can’t even be like Jesus. We can learn from him but we cannot be like him. That may sound heretical if not pure hogwash. But I don’t think it is. You see, trying to be like someone else prevents us from being and becoming the person God created us as. For what our faith teaches us, what Jesus taught us – and still does through the Scriptures – is that we are to be who we are and not who or what someone else is or wants us to be. . And that’s what really counts.

THE FIRST TIME IS THE CHARM

When I was growing up my siblings and I all had chores to do around the house. We had to do them before we could do anything else, like go out to play or even do our homework. They were never very difficult and, as we grew older and there were more of us to share the chores, each of us had less to do. Yes, they were a pain in the neck for me especially when my buddies were at the front door telling me to hurry up so that we could get the ballgame started.

My first chore, being the oldest, before I moved on to washing the dishes, was sweeping the kitchen floor after supper. It was no big deal. Our kitchen, even if it was an eat-in, was not very big. There was not much of a floor to sweep. But I still remember when my Mom made me sweep the floor six times before she was satisfied that it met her requirements. Six times!

When I finished with sweeping for the fifth time and complained, she said very kindly and calmly, “Billy, if you would do it right the first time, you wouldn’t have to do it again.” Enough said. I also would like to say “Lesson learned;” but, reflecting back on that time in my life, I cannot. And, in all honesty, reflecting on life now, it is still a lesson I sometimes forget to follow.

Do it right the first time and you won’t have to do it again. Common sense. It’s certainly not rocket science. It is a lesson that once learned should be put into practice from then on. Yet, we human beings, seem to have a very difficult time not putting the lessons we have learned into constant practice. Why else is it that history always seems to repeat itself? We keep sweeping the floor over and over again and never seem to get it done right. Why?

That would be the question, would it not? It is a personal question and a societal one as well. The first time we learn a lesson should be the charm. It so should enamor us that we remember it always and follow it always as well. But it doesn’t and we don’t and we pay the price over and over again, personally and as a world.

We are supposed to learn from our mistakes. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we do not. I would like to say that after that six-time floor-sweeping incident, I always did it right the first time. But I can’t day that. My Mom, The Inspector, still found times when I was in too much of a hurry to get the job done that it needed to be done again. The guys had to wait for me a little longer, much to my chagrin and their displeasure.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? When we fail to follow up on the lessons we have learned, we displease ourselves and we displease others. We make our life more difficult and we make the lives of others, especially and usually the ones closest to us and the ones we do not want to displease, more difficult. When will ever learn or will we ever learn?

IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH SEX

There are those who maintain that the first sin had something to do with sex, given the fact that the writer says that they, Adam and Eve, were born naked and not ashamed and once they were caught in their sins, they became embarrassed and had to clothe themselves, especially their sexual organs. Such an assertion makes some sense, if we think putting on clothes somehow shields us from the embarrassment of admitting to our sins and discretions.

Yet, as the story goes, Adam’s and Eve’s sin had nothing at all to do with sex; nothing. If you don’t believe me, read the story again. Besides, and more importantly (and it should go without saying) by its very nature sex is good because without it none of us would be here today to reflect on that biblical story and its implications and meaning.

Rather, I think, the very first sin was the one from which all other sins flow. The serpent in the story, sky and crafty creature that he was, understood human nature better than the humans themselves did. The serpent did not need to tempt these humans to do something so much as it had to just scratch the surface of that which spurs humans to eat too much, drink too much, misuse our sexuality and desire more than we need. That first sin was the sin of greed.

Think about it: these two people were living in Paradise. They had all their hearts could desire. They were never sick, never in pain, had all the food they ever needed or wanted. They had everything but it wasn’t enough. They were not satisfied. They thought or were induced to believe there was something missing that needed to be sated. They wanted more than enough.

Then when they were caught in the act, they put on clothes to hide themselves, not because they were embarrassed by their nakedness but because they were embarrassed because of the fools they had just made of themselves. Their greed had gotten the better of them and led them down a primrose path that was now and forever would be covered with thorns, thorns aptly called “greed”.

As with Adam and Eve in the story, so with each and every one of us: all greed has to do is scratch the surface and all hell can break loose. We know the stories, and they are legion, stories about people whose lives have been ruined and who, in the process, ruined the lives of countless others all because greed took over and sanity got submerged under a ton of lies.

Greed is so powerful because it is so insidious. It masquerades as somehow good. It convinces us that we need what we now desire, that we deserve what we now want. It convinces us that what we are doing is good and is good for us and is good for others and will do no one any harm. But, in truth, greed is the Father and Mother of all lies. It is only after learning the hard way, after we are suffering the consequences of our greed and seeing the harm that it has done to others, especially those whom we love, that we rue the day we gave in to it --- and we want to hide but cannot, especially not from ourselves.

NO NEED TO WALK ON WATER

We read in Matthew's Gospel that Jesus walked on water. No one, not even the world's greatest magicians and illusionists, has been able to duplicate that. To be able to walk on water one has to be divine.

That's one way to look at. Those who believe that Jesus is divine, that Jesus is God's Son, believe that Jesus' walking on water is proof positive that he is who he said he is: the Son of God. On the other hand, those who do not believe or do not wish to believe or cannot believe, Jesus' walking on water is written off as so much hokum: the product of the fertile imaginations of those who desperately wanted to believe that Jesus was someone he was not, namely, God's Son.

But both are wrong. Belief does not come from the miraculous, from the extraordinary. Belief in another, even if that other is the Son of God, belief in another comes not from the miraculous but from the mundane, the ordinary. The Apostles came to believe Jesus and to believe in him, not because of his miracles, not because he walked on water or raised Lazarus from the dead but simply because he always loved and cared about them.

It is the little things we do for the ones we love that matter. The big things are icing on the cake. We may be impressed by expensive gifts and we usually are. Walking on water, making a blind man see, giving clean skin to a leper can almost, if not in fact, overwhelm the receiver and the beholder. They almost demand belief, the big things do.

But we don't and dare not fall in love with the gift giver because we are impressed by his or her magnificent generosity. We fall in love with the gift giver because of all the little, everyday gifts of love. Not the big but the little. Not the extraordinary but the ordinary. Not the out-of-this-world, not the you'd-have-to-see-this-to-believe-it, but the mundane.

And we prefer it that way, too. The dozen roses are less important than the held hand. The glass of water is more important than box of chocolates. The size of the gift does not matter. What matters is the gift-giver, the person, the one who loves us by his or her presence rather than his or her present. Faith in another, love of another, comes and grows. It flourishes little by little, day by day. We sprinkle another, God sprinkles us, every day. The water to grow comes drop by drop and not by bucketfuls. Trying to overwhelm the other usually results in drowning the other.

In any relationship – God with us, us with God, one with another – it is never the size or the cost of the gift that matters, really. It never is. What matters in the beginning, in the end, and all along is the love behind the gift. If love is not there, or if the love is selfish rather than for the other, the gift, no matter how impressive or miraculous, will mean very

little.

Jesus did not need to walk on water for us to believe in Him. We need not walk on water to demonstrate our love for God or for another. Like Jesus all we need do is wade through the water with them.