Logs and Specks…

On Thursday I went for a drive up into the Rocky Mountain National Park to take pictures of the sunset. Just before entering the park, I stopped to watch a pack of Coyotes make their way across the road to the meadow. Shortly after moving into our condo last August, we heard the pack that lives across the road in the Conservation Area yipping and yapping in the dark. Previous to living in Colorado, I hadn’t had much experience with Coyotes. The only experience that I can remember is of that poor fellow named Wile E. Coyote who never seemed to get it quite right in his constant effort to capture the Road Runner.

Poor fellow emptied his pockets in episode after episode buying the latest and greatest ACME products in his effort to corner the Road Runner! At the end of each chase, ol’ Wile E. would be left in the dust while the Road Runner dashed off into the sunset sticking out his tongue and saying his signature “Beep Beep”.

So back to the picture at the top of the blog and the real Coyote. This poor coyote has been plagued by the comparison to the completely made up cartoon character.  Yet if you explore the Native American lore surrounding the Coyote, you often see it portrayed as a something completely different.  “In some Native American coyote myths, Coyote is a revered culture hero who creates, teaches, and helps humans; in others, he is a sort of antihero who demonstrates the dangers of negative behaviors like greed, recklessness, and arrogance; in still others, he is a comic trickster character, whose lack of wisdom gets him into trouble while his cleverness gets him back out. In some Native coyote stories, he is even some sort of combination of all three at once.” (http://www.native-languages.org/legends-coyote.htm)

So who is this fellow at the top of the blog? You have to wade through a lot of folklore and cartoons to get to the source. You also have to spend time observing this creature in its natural habitat. Even though I only watched the pack for a couple of minutes, I did learn a lot about them as they made their way across the road and as the fellow at the top watched out for trouble as the rest of the pack crossed the road.

In an odd sort of way, I think this plays into the opening verses of the Gospel reading from Luke for the Second Sunday after Pentecost.  The entire passage (Luke 6:39-49) is absolutely loaded with images and food for thought. However, I am focusing on verses 41-42. “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not see the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”

I had to undo a lot of my preconceived notions of what a coyote was in order to see the beauty of this creature made by God. As I removed the logs of my own biases and prejudices, I was able to see the coyote as it truly is. A creature with a family and one who cared for the safety of that family. Even in the native mythology surrounding the coyote, it still had characteristics that were noted and honored. It had not become the caricature of Saturday morning cartoons that I would remember.

Today I see so many examples of people with logs in their eyes hollering and screaming about others. The sad caricature of Wile E. Coyote has been replaced by monsters of our own making. You don’t understand something? Make it into a bogey man. Is someone different from you? Create a stereotype to hate. Base that stereotype upon race, religion, ethnic background, sexual orientation… you name it. Once the “enemy” is dehumanized, it is easy to spout hateful rhetoric and make wild threats like we are gonna nuke them until they glow or build a wall or send them back to their “own country” or lock down bathrooms! What is sad is the fact that in an effort to spread hatred and fear, so many forget to look at the blasted logs in their own eyes. While they spew venom and vitriol, they don’t see the monsters they have become. And yes, when I get my dander up and start getting angry and throwing around angry words, I become the very thing that I abhor and I forget the log in my own eye. Do you see what a vicious cycle this becomes?

So what do we do? Can I stop the hatred and fearmongering that is going on in this nation? Can I stop the vitriol and venom? In a word, No… In a word, Yes! As Jesus said, kindly remove the log from your own eye, Michael and then you can be about my work. I don’t see that work so much as pointing out splinters in other people’s eyes as I do see it as spreading His Word of Grace, Peace, Love, Mercy, and Justice for ALL. That is the message of Isaiah 55:10-13.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

If we truly share the Word of the Lord… Justice, Grace, Peace, Love, Mercy… it will transform the brier patch into a lovely garden. It will go out in joy and be led back in peace. Can you imagine if we heard more messages like that in this world instead of what we have spewed out of the 24-hour news channels and social media? It will remove the logs from our eyes and we will be built upon the foundation of the Law which is “Love God and Love Neighbor”… Love EVERY Neighbor! Jesus didn’t put any qualifications on the love he shared. He simply said love your neighbor as yourself. That love, of course, is to be based upon the love of God for us.

Dear reader, will you join with me in removing the log from my eyes? Will you join with me in being a part of the transformative love of God in Christ for others? It is our calling… it is our vocation… we love because God first loved us.