Those of you who are old enough may remember a song from the 60’s by the Youngbloods called “Get Together”. The lyrics talk about how love makes us stronger and fear weakens us. Even though it was written years ago, I feel that it is especially appropriate for the current times as society wrestles with how to undo all the years of written and unwritten laws of discrimination. The chorus is:
C’mon people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now.
This past week on PBS news, one of the guests commented on how there is not a white race and a black race. There is only the human race. That is a paradigm shift that society needs to consider as a new way of looking at our fellow humans. While we have differences in appearance, culture, dress, music, religion, food, etc., across the planet, we have many more similarities and wants. According to a song by Mandisa, on contemporary Christian music stations, “We all bleed the same”. In an updated version of “Jesus loves the little Children”, the verse states “Red, Brown, Yellow, Black or White, We’re all precious in God’s sight, Jesus loves all of the children of the world”.
We are all part of the beautiful, complex web of humanity that God has created on this Earth, and we all need to take care of each other because if you ignore or remove one part of an ecosystem, the whole system suffers. So as we continue our discussions in adult Sunday school and beyond, we need to get past our fear of “the other” and find a way to make society more equitable for everyone. That is the great challenge of the Matthew 25 initiative.
Let me close with another song, this one from my high school youth group days. It is “Let’s show Love”, written by David Yantis. The chorus is:
Come on people, Let’s show love
All across the land
Come on people, Let’s show love
Give each other a hand.
