Let us tear down the walls.

I have been told recently that  the Pop, announced that the only Christians are the Catholics? Do you know, in the Catholic church you are not to take communion if you are a sinner, yes you heard me right? I don't mean to single out the Catholic church,  the Ethiopian orthodox church does the same thing and I am sure the others do to.  My understanding was, that Christ came and died for us because we are sinners, not because we are saints. I don't know who gives us the right to decide  who is in and who is out.

I do not know if you have heard of a story( For the life of me, I could not remember the Russian Author who wrote it) about the Inquisition. The head of the church was too busy prosecuting and killing people who are not Christians and who refuse to be converted. The pains of those people were so bad, Jesus himself came down to earth to talk to the person in charge and ask audience with him. The person ordered his troops to put Jesus in prison, knowing who he was. When his work for the day was over, he asked the guards to bring  Jesus to him. Jesus asked him" why are you inflicting pain on my children?" His answer was" Sitting up high in your throne, you do not understand what is going here. If we do not do this no one will believe in You, let alone follow You." Then Jesus kissed him and told him" My love for them is great, it is unconditional, so please leave them alone" I would say that is a real father speaking, valuing the safety and well-being  of His kids over everything else.


One of my favorite author, Robert Frost, starts his well-known poem with " Something there is that does not love a wall."  The poem invites us to think the realities of walls, how we participate in maintaining them, and why many of us will never say, " Tear down this wall." Two lines repeated again and again, in this poems: " Good fences make good neighbors" and " Something there is that does not love wall" In the book the neighbor hear this from his father and keep repeating it, like a Christians saying, " It is written in the Bible" or " The church says..." " the pope or the bishop or the priest or the patriarch, etc."

" sometimes there is that does not love a wall, that wants it down"  Shows change, hope, and possibilities for the future. The change in the lines comes from a place of reflection and revelation, and most importantly a willingness to change. Listen:

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that does not love a wall,
That wants it down...
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, " Good fences make good neighbors."

I feel, we lived in a world where there is a wall, and, we are called to mend it, even though we would like it down. We do know people, including ourselves, who will not go beyond what our fathers said -  we are stuck because of what our mother said. We  are imprisoned by our  thoughts, our beliefs, and experiences. We suffer from arrested religious development.

But I find that " Something there is ," call us to a deeper experience of God, life and ourselves. God  is calling us to change, to think differently, to be different - Is God calling us beyond the wall that we keep mending? Is God and life trying to tear down some wall we keep mending?

I hate to believe this, but I think our  religious wall have to be broken down over and over again, so we can live the Christian life.  I think, the birth, death and resurrection of Christ is that God tearing down the walls of death, life,  salvation and especially about who is in and who is out. God is saying that your sacred is not my sacred - your walls are not my walls. For God, we are all the same regardless of race, sex,  religion or background. He does not think in terms of walls. I remember a story( of course there is always a story) One man killed his wife and then killed himself. When the police get there, they found a four-year-old girl hiding in the closet. Until they figure out how to contact her relatives, they put her with "Christian" family. The next day was Sunday and this couple took her with them to the Church. They walked her to the Sunday school and explained to the teacher that she came from a family who were not believers, so she does not know about the Lord, the teacher should take it easy. The teacher was kind and did not ask her any questions throughout the session. But at one point, she picked up the picture of Jesus and ask everyone if they knew who He is. She was surprised to see the girl raise her hand. Unsure of what she is going to hear, she let the girl talk. The little girl said, that is the man who held me and hide me in the closet when my dad killed my mom and killed himself. Who is the Christian? Who has a right to say, who is in and who is out?

We should stop pretending that we know everything about God. We keep building walls, and,  trying to explain the walls that we construct in the name of God are delusional, poisonous and unnecessary. God is calling us to transform lives, not build walls,  judge or exclude others. Now, the question is how do we remain open, radically welcoming and believing, when the temptation is to separate, punish, build walls and not talk to those who are different?

There is no place in true Christianity for small-mindedness or for navel-gazing. Jesus did not make any false distinctions and did not create any walls. What separates the true Christian, from the so-called Christian is, the willingness to be taught by the spirit and to trust the unattainable secrets of the Holy Spirit. Walls still exist, wars still rage on, poverty is on the rise, loneliness, fear, insecurity, and tragedies still form part of our human experience. As if that is not enough, we, the so-called Christians add more pain and suffering to the wounds of those people around us in the name of God. Maybe, this is what God was talking about when He said,  do not call the name of God in vain.We still live in the world of "us" against "them." However, God wants us to break down the wall and let the world see the true Christ, not the one we are seeing through our distorted lens. Let us ask God, to take the scales and  the blinders from our eyes and souls, so we can see Him and see His children( all of the humanity) clearly. Because the Holy Spirit still wants all the walls down.

Well, what else can I do except wonder, contemplate, and pray about the direction of Christianity?