Do
Unto Others – Geeks of Faith Lent Devotion
We are heading into the second
week of Lent, our time to travel to the cross with Jesus and prepare our hearts
for Easter.
Today I am going to start by
sharing a bit of a weird dream I had last night. We were preparing for some large family
gathering and were preparing two chickens for the meal. The problem was that they were still
alive. They had been plucked, buttered
and seasoned, and I was asked to wrap them in some kind of dough. The whole time they were trying to
escape. I kept asking why they were
still alive and was told that they wouldn’t survive the cooking. I protested, but this is just cruel, you are
hurting them. The response I got was,
“So, they are just chickens.”
It was just a stupid dream,
but I couldn’t shake it. I mean, why
would I dream that? Shouldn’t I forget
it like I usually do once awake. Then,
it dawned on me I have had several people on-line say something similar to me
when I gently mentioned, “don’t you think that post is a bit hurtful?” I would get the response of “So, they are
Republicans, or Democrats; Liberals or conservatives; a fan of a rival sports
team, Marvel or DC, Trekies or Star Wars fans…” In other words they imply that
it is OK to be hurtful to those whom you consider rivals or who have different
opinions and viewpoints.
I have been a victim of this
even from friends. When I was asked what
I thought of “Thor Ragnarök” I was giving what I thought was an honest
review. I liked the stuff between Thor
and Loki, but it had too much immature humor and stupid jokes for my
taste. They disrupted what otherwise
would have been a very good story.
Before I could even finish my thought my “friend” literally huffed at me
and said, “What did I expect? Your just
a DC girl?” He completely dismissed me
because he knew I loved Wonder Woman and Supergirl. Never even bothered to consider that I love
Captain America and the Toby Maguire Spiderman and I am looking forward to
seeing Captain Marvel way more than Shazam.
(Yeah, I know it has been out a week, but I had a retreat and Presbytery
last weekend. So no spoilers! I plan to see it soon.) I have even Cosplayed Black Widow many times!
To get back on point, because
HE didn’t like DC as much as Marvel it was OK to be mean to me because I liked
DC better. Because I didn’t agree with
him on one movie he thought it was OK to dismiss my opinion and be
hurtful. I am not even going to get into
the hateful things people have said about me because they “assumed” I supported the other party, without even
bothering to check if they were right.
That is a disservice that I
believe that social media has created.
It is OK to say what ever you like because you can’t see them. People
say horrible hateful things that they would never say to your face. It is even easier if they didn’t originate
it. They see something hatful that
someone else created and share it.
“Well, I’m not the one who said it.
I just thought it was funny, or true, or whatever.” It is still just as hateful and hurtful.
In this season of Lent I would
love it if people gave up spreading hate and discord over the internet! At our retreat last weekend our speaker
Karoline Lewis reminded us that Jesus came for the world, not just the Jews or
the disciples. The first person he
actually told he was “I am”, the personal name of God, was the Samaritan woman
at the well. He treated an enemy of the
Jews with love, respect, and compassion.
We are to love our neighbors and even love our enemies.
Jesus also proclaimed what we
call the “Golden Rule.” Matthew 7:12
says, “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is
the law and the prophets.” If you wouldn’t want someone to say something about
you, then don’t say it about others. If
you would be hurt if someone sent a meme or cartoon and implied it was you,
then don’t share one about others.
If we give up anything this
Lent, Let’s give up being hateful and hurtful to others. Remember God loved them so much that Jesus
died for them, too. Jesus loves the
people on both sides of every argument EVEN if you are convinced that they are
wrong. Let’s spread a little love and
respect and tolerance instead of judgement and hate.
