Bridge Builders

Today’s message was written by the late Rev. Dr. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

In the New Testament, Jesus comforts the disturbed but he also disturbs the comfortable. Though he heals broken hearts, he also disturbs complacent minds and exposes narrowness, hypocrisy, prejudice, selfishness, and superficiality. He turns our world upside down. He startles and confounds and shakes us out of our prisons and knocks down the walls to divide us.

It’s surprising that even after 9/11/2001 people are still building walls – walls constructed of fear and pride and anxiety and prejudice – walls that separate people – walls that shut some in and shut others out. But Jesus Christ wants us to tear down our walls: he wants us to be bridge builders! St. Francis of Assisi sums it all up for us in his magnificent prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. And it is in dying, that we are born to eternal life.

Let us pray, With contagious enthusiasm, we await your surprises of grace. Be Thou our vision as we seek to make this day a masterpiece. Wrap your arms around your world with a mother’s fierce and tender care, and hold us close for a long long time. In Jesus’ name. Amen.