Rev. Paul Graves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOur spiritual journeys can reflect a similar range of possibilities.\u00a0Some persons seem to be over-the-top free spirits, exploring their own spirits without consciously dragging their past along with them. Other persons are content in their routines or maybe fearful of stepping beyond.<\/p>\n
One result is how we speak and think in extremes:\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s my way or the highway!\u201d My parents never gave me that ultimatum, but I know many people who often heard it yelled at them.<\/p>\n
The next time I hear someone say that, I plan to firmly say, \u201cYou know, I\u2019ve discovered there is a whole lot of unexplored territory between your way and the highway. Care to join me in exploring it?\u201d I\u2019ll either get shut down, or an interesting conversation might start.<\/p>\n
We live in extreme times politically, religiously, socially, economically. It seems no one blabbing out one position or another is willing to consider the territory between those extremes.<\/p>\n
A current example is the horrendous situation of immigrant children being separated from their parents at the southern U.S. border. I simply cannot understand how any person thinks it\u2019s right or moral to separate those children from parents \u2014 especially people who claim to be Christian.<\/p>\n
Some people don\u2019t see it my way. Yet we are called to welcome strangers and protect children, even as we try to obey \u201claws of the land\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sometimes \u201claws of the land\u201d are wrong completely, or parts of them are wrong. That \u201cland\u201d may be our country, our denominations, our community, even our families.\u00a0 We can\u2019t break even unjust laws\u2026can we?<\/p>\n
Ask Jesus that question, and he might remind you of what happened when he confronted the Pharisees about laws that restricted people from living life with hope. He came not to abolish, but fulfill, the Jewish laws. He knew unconditional love is the unexplored territory between those laws and the deeper meaning of those laws.<\/p>\n
In Matthew 5, Jesus finds the deeper, more loving meaning in six different long-standing Jewish laws. All of these laws deeply impact relationship behaviors \u2014 fearful thinking toward others, adultery, divorce, vows to tell the truth, revenge, and love of neighbor and enemy.<\/p>\n
Each law is introduced with Jesus\u2019 challenge, \u201cYou have heard it said of old\u2026but I say to you\u2026” He frustrated the religious leaders with a deeper, more expansive truth than they had settled for, and then invited them into unexplored territory.<\/p>\n
It appears by their later plot to kill him, that Jesus was unsuccessful in getting them into that territory. But he kept inviting them anyway. If we say we are followers of this man, his challenge is to us also!<\/p>\n
When we settle for \u201cmy way,\u201d or are confronted with another who stands firmly for \u201cmy way,\u201d Jesus continues to call us into the unexplored territory we call our spirit, our soul, to seek deeper meaning and courage.<\/p>\n
But that inner journey then calls us to step into whatever outer part of the world we inhabit, to work for and even invite others to join us in that unexplored territory.<\/p>\n
\nThe Rev. Paul Graves serves as the chair for the\u00a0<\/i>Council<\/u><\/i><\/span><\/span>\u00a0on Older Adult Ministries<\/a><\/strong> for the Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Considering the contemporary argument that severe immigration enforcement is the “law of the land,” Rev. Paul Graves looks to how Jesus engaged his contemporaries and their rigid application of Jewish laws. “[Jesus] knew unconditional love is the unexplored territory between those laws and the deeper meaning of those laws.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":18174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[502,142],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nurturing-elders","8":"category-older-adult-ministries"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/my-way.jpg?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-4J7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18177,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18173\/revisions\/18177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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