Sunday Readings: Numbers 11.25-29; James 5.1-6; Mark 9.38-48
“Whoever is not against us is for us.”
(Mark 9.40)
Jesus claims broad middle ground in this saying. Often activists, liberal or conservative, reverse Jesus’ saying and eliminate middle ground. In mobilizing advocates for change in public policies, they insist whoever is not for us is against us. Middle ground is valuable space to preserve. There we can explore what we have in common with others, what they have experienced, why they think the ways they do. Middle ground is where people share their stories. What is the experience of a stay-at-home suburban mom, a refugee from violence in Syria, an undocumented immigrant working a minimum-wage job at a hotel, or an African American nurse who has experienced people shunning his or her touch?
Middle ground is where real people meet and liberate each other from the demons of prejudice and unexamined certainty. Middle ground is where someone else’s lived experience can broaden and transform our own.
What experience of middle ground becoming common ground have you had?
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