BRIDGING CULTURES AND PEOPLE

presentation by David Schaal  

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When I was a child, I remember being on a vacation with my parents one summer in which we were going to visit a historic site-an old fort as I recall. As we approached the fort, we came to a place in the road in which it was necessary to drive across a wooden bridge that was supported by suspended cables. As my father drove across the bridge, the wood creaked and the bridge swayed and I remember experiencing both fear and excitement at the same time. While I remember feeling relief at having crossed the bridge safely, I also remember the excitement of knowing that we would be going over it again on the trip home. As an adult, I look back on that bridge and it takes on a new, symbolic meaning. Given its location between the main road and the fort, the bridge was a link between the present and the past; between the familiar and the unfamiliar; between persons I knew and persons I was about to meet for the first time.

I remember the bridge creaking and swaying, but it did what it was supposed to do. It brought diverse people together and introduced them to meaningful story and meaningful experience.

In both the church and the world around us, there is a profound need for bridges.

For example, imagine that you are sitting in a congregation-perhaps your congregation-on a Sunday morning. You hear the sound of someone entering the sanctuary, and a quick glance over your shoulder reveals that it is Jimmy-a 15 year old who comes to church with his mother. His mother makes him take off his headphones while in church, and out of respect he stands quietly as the rest of the congregation sings from the hymnal. When the service is over, the headphones go back on and Jimmy makes his way out the door. Someone needs to build a bridge. Three rows behind Jimmy are two women who sit quietly and think. One thinks about her discomfort with how rapid change seems to happen in the congregation. She longs for the way things used to be. Next to her, the other woman sits quietly and thinks about how long it takes for change to happen in the congregation. She’s frustrated and wishes it could happen quicker. Someone needs to build a bridge. As the prelude music continues, a man and his little daughter walk by the church and can barely hear the music as it drifts out toward the street. For a moment, he wonders about church, about God, and about his life. He wonders what it would be like to belong somewhere…anywhere. Someone needs to build a bridge.

Today, we are suggesting that High Priests are called to help build these bridges.

Not only is bridging needed between persons, but between cultures and subcultures as well in a world which consists of both profound connection and painful separation. On one hand, we can sit at our computers or telephones, and within seconds be in touch with persons or institutions half way around the world. On the other hand, suspicion, prejudice, fear, and the misuse of power keep many people isolated from one another and robs the body of the unique gifts which each culture brings to the table.

Today, we are saying that one calling of the High Priest is to stand in the midst of the world and the church, seeking to create bridges between cultures. We do so in order for the God-given gifts of each culture to find their place in the celebrating, healing work of Christ’s kingdom. We do so in order for persons in each culture to know the joy and grace of being loved as a child of God.

To engage in such bridge-building, High Priests are being challenged to invest in honest personal introspection so that we may be sensitive to our own background and culture and consequently become more aware of some of our own blind spots.

High Priests are being challenged to become more aware of the persons, cultures and subcultures within our own congregations and communities who are in need of bridges being built in their direction.

High Priests are being asked to relinquish whatever needs we may have to be “in control” in order to free ourselves to be servant ministers who build relationships between cultures and people.

To persons who are lonely, broken, and pushed to the margins of life, access to the roadways of healing and reconciliation is hard to come by. The Quorum of High Priests is being called to go out and build bridges so that more persons can find their way to the Lord’s table.