So far as it depends on you

“If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”  (Romans 12:18, NRSV)

These straightforward words from Paul to the Romans have been rattling around in my head ever since I read them during worship on Sunday.  In a world where the headlines scream about middle school bullying, high school gangs and armed violence in an endless list of countries throughout the world, including western first-world cities like London, I don’t think that just putting one step in front of the other and staying clear of trouble is adequate.  Living peaceably begins with each one of us living differently. 

So far as it depends on you.

Or me.  Defy the temptation to look out for ourselves first, disprove the cynics who promote ruthless competition and refuse to apply a Darwinian idea of survival of the fittest to our human relationships.  Learn to create communities with accountability and rapport. Learn to trust one another.  Leave preconceptions and labels at the door and discover who “those people” are.  Pretty quickly we’ll discover they are not “those people” at all.

Martin Luther’s words from the Small Catechism help answer, “How?”  Luther encourages us to “come to the defense” of our neighbors, and “interpret everything they do in the best possible light.”  (Eighth Commandment in the Small Catechism, Book of Concord)  How many times do I approach a new situation or relationship with a critical (e.g., negative, not discerning) eye? Am I really listening? How would that interaction change if I change my role, my posture, my stance? How would our dialog change if I remembered that the person I disagree with is just as passionate, educated, thinking as my peers or allies?

So far as it depends on you. 

A beloved and now-retired colleague taught his students about being a ripplemaker.  Our actions connect us to one another; we impact the people around us and we do have responsibility for whether that will be a positive or negative impact.  Thinking about him, I also recalled the quote “no man is an island” which I could not have attributed with any accuracy but I looked it up and learned that it originated in a poem by John Donne, (1572-1631):

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Living peaceably requires some intentionality and the recognition that you and I are living in this world together and we are connected, even when culture promotes individualism and even anonymity.  Living peaceably depends on you. And me.