{"id":677,"date":"2021-04-28T08:19:17","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T12:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=677"},"modified":"2021-04-28T08:19:17","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T12:19:17","slug":"the-odd-couple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/28\/the-odd-couple\/","title":{"rendered":"The Odd Couple"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Few people have come to know the inner workings of Capitol Hill as intimately as the late journalist and bestselling author Cokie Roberts.

Both her parents served the state of Louisiana as Congressional representatives \u2013 her mother succeeding her father after his untimely death.\u00a0

Roberts spent more than 40 years as a political reporter, senior news analyst for National Public Radio, and national commentator for ABC News.\u00a0

Shortly before she lost her battle with cancer in 2019, she observed that Congress had been transformed during her journalistic career.\u00a0 Four decades earlier, it was common knowledge that approximately 10-15% of our national elected leaders were zealously liberal, while another 10-15% were staunchly conservative.\u00a0

Governance happened in the middle.\u00a0 The majority of senators and representatives might hem and haw for a while, but ultimately they would reach across the aisle, establish partnerships, and agree to compromises.\u00a0 And the nation would move forward.

Cokie, at the end of her career, noted wistfully that that arrangement seemed like a lost world.\u00a0 The Center is gone.\u00a0 In order to get elected, you have to be certifiably Left or Right.\u00a0 In order to stay in office, your job is to lob grenades in the direction of the Other Side.\u00a0 And you must never give an inch to \u201cthose people\u201d, even if they occasionally come up with good ideas.\u00a0 \u00a0

Every issue \u2013 whether the economy, immigration, gun control, the validity of science, or even the rules of debate \u2013 is a battleground.\u00a0

When every hill becomes a hill worth dying on, leaders no longer have the capacity to move forward.\u00a0

It\u2019s not just Capitol Hill.\u00a0 Families shudder to think about the next holiday, since the last one dissolved into an ideological battle at the dinner table.\u00a0 Town hall meetings become shouting matches pitting someone\u2019s right to speak vs. someone else\u2019s right not to hear what they think is drivel.\u00a0 A few years ago, the pastor of a conservative congregation in North Carolina paused during worship to read aloud the names of a dozen church members who had recently voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.\u00a0 He suggested they find another church.\u00a0

Who in their right mind would think that the Radical Left and the Reactionary Right could ever go through life together?

That would be Jesus<\/em>.\u00a0

Within his original cadre of twelve followers were a pair of disciples representing dramatically different perspectives.\u00a0

Jesus personally recruited Matthew the tax collector.\u00a0

As we noted a few weeks ago, tax gatherers were despised collaborators with Judea\u2019s Roman overlords.\u00a0 They were sellouts.\u00a0 Tax collectors not only levied the crushing burden of 40-60% of household income demanded by Rome, but fleeced their neighbors above-and-beyond in order to become rich.\u00a0 Since the rabbis taught they had thrown away all hope of a happy life in the next world, why not live it up in this one?

Jesus also recruited Simon the Zealot.

The Zealots wouldn\u2019t come into full flower as a terrorist organization until 30 years after Jesus\u2019 resurrection.\u00a0 But we have every reason to believe that Simon bore that name because he was sympathetic to the Zealots\u2019 commitment to overthrow Roman domination \u2013 no matter what sacrifice might be required.\u00a0 Murder was not out of the question.\u00a0 The sicarii<\/em>, a Zealot splinter group, might walk into a crowded marketplace and stealthily approach a human target (a tax collector, perhaps), bringing him down with a flurry of stabs from concealed daggers.

Jesus apparently thought it was a great idea to invite a Zealot and a tax collector into the same band of brothers.\u00a0 They were the original Odd Couple.

Their pictures appear above in the etching based on a detail of Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s famous Last Supper<\/em>.\u00a0 That\u2019s Matthew on the left, Thaddeus in the middle, and Simon on the right.\u00a0

In Jesus\u2019 new community \u2013 his vision for a new kind of world \u2013 Left and Right belong in the same space at the same time.\u00a0 \u201cHey Matthew and Simon, why don\u2019t you guys room together on our next mission trip?\u201d\u00a0

It seems incredible even to imagine this.

But maybe it\u2019s as easy as riding a bike.

Do you remember your first pangs of fear when the training wheels came off?\u00a0 How could you possibly not tumble to the right or the left?\u00a0 But you learned to pedal your bike and go forward.\u00a0

Our call as families, congregations, and communities is to keep pedaling.\u00a0 There are so many things that liberals and conservatives, Left and Right, can do together.\u00a0

We can sit down together and talk to God.\u00a0 We can stand up together holding opposite ends of a piece of drywall.\u00a0 We can serve together cleaning up a neighbor\u2019s yard or handing out fresh vegetables at a local pantry.\u00a0 We can save lives together at a medical clinic.\u00a0 We can elicit smiles together by visiting a retirement home.\u00a0 We can make music together in a choir.

Suddenly, and strangely, we discover we have much in common.\u00a0

We breathe the same air, eat the same food, and cherish the same hopes for our children and grandchildren.\u00a0 We\u2019re loved by the same Father, rescued by the same Savior, and empowered by the same Spirit.

It just may be that Simon and Matthew discovered their differences on the left and right were far less important than pursuing the One who was leading them forward.

So put down your grenades.\u00a0 Walk towards the center.

You may not even believe it yourself at this moment, but you just might end up making a new friend.
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Few people have come to know the inner workings of Capitol Hill as intimately as the late journalist and bestselling author Cokie Roberts. Both her parents served the state of Louisiana as Congressional representatives \u2013 her mother succeeding her father after his untimely death.\u00a0 Roberts spent more than 40 years as a political reporter, senior news analyst for National Public… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[223,222],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-disciples","tag-left-vs-right"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}