The Knit Wit

 "Teach me to walk in your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth ..." Psalm 86

It has been a tough week or two, hasn’t it? I don’t do political blather in this space, so don’t worry. I’m not going there. After all, I know what happened to Jesus when he got all political in his line of work.

We are, of course, political creatures. Sometimes the word “politics” gets bad press, but it really boils down to how we go about the business of getting along with one another with minimal bloodshed. Couples engage in politics when they try to decide between going to the ocean to enjoy some sun and surf, or go into the mountains to make their way along hiking trails, past mosquitoes, and on to waterfall overlooks on their vacations. 

Politics has to do with basic fairness, and making sure everybody’s voice is heard and every reasonable option discerned – and deciding what counts as a “reasonable” option (easier said than done). 

When Jesus told his disciples they were to love God with all their heart, he was making a political statement. He was reminding them there is more to life than accumulating riches or consuming goodies. To love God means coming to grips with the fact that there is something or someone bigger than us. Yes, it could be the Jewish/Christian/Muslim Creator God, or it could be the Universe’s Life Force, or simply a name for all energy and matter arranged in their peculiar manners, spinning around in all directions forever and ever. 

Whatever we call “God” is a reminder that I am not the boss of you, nor you of me – and Jesus suggests that’s both lovely and worth loving. Politics (not to be confused with partisanship) is how we respond to the idea there’s something bigger and more important than any one of us, while acknowledging a truth of equal weight, that each one of us is of infinite value and worth.

That’s why Jesus added that other wonderful text from the Hebrew Scriptures reminding us to love our neighbor as ourselves. He tells a really uncomfortable story we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan, which is less about the Samaritan doing something nice, and more about needing others and being needed. “Who proved to be neighbor,” he asks? “The one I’d rather be dead than have them touch me,” says the lawyer (glumly). 

Ouch! Politics makes for strange bed-fellows. But that’s the point. There’s only one bed, and we all have a place in it. Have you ever been on a trip – a vacation – and had four siblings squeezed into the back seat shoulder to shoulder (before mandatory seat-belt laws)? 

Talk about politics! My parents never settled arguments or fights. We could fight all we wanted as long as we followed two simple rules: No Bloodshed, and No Noise. If there was either of those, there would be both of those when the car came to a stop. So we learned to get along, make space, and not be irritable little twits so we could achieve a modicum of peace for the long haul (and believe me, Seattle to Chicago in the back of a 1965 Plymouth Fury III was a L-O-N-G haul).

What does the psalmist pray for during trying times? 

“Knit my heart to you (O Lord) … for you have delivered me from the depths.” I don’t mind asking God to knit my heart to the Divine, but what if that means knitting my heart to you, and you to me, and us to family, friend, neighbor, and even the “undocumented” who live in our land?

I could be wrong, but I don’t think God can knit our hearts to his without running skeins of yarn through people who may not look like us, think like us, or act like us. I don’t know much about knitting, but I know it requires someone with more skills and patience than me to pull it off – and the psalmist believes God is up to the task! 

If we will let God have her way with us, we may actually end up being a beautiful piece of non-partisan work in this, our valley. Knit on, O Lord, for this knit-wit comes unraveled far too easily!

Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of newly released: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available exclusively through Amazon in Print and e-book)