Inextricably interwoven

There are certain words and phrases I use often — just ask the faithful folks in the congregation I serve and they will tell you. One of those words — awesome — was high on my list long before it was popular, mainly because it is the perfect word to describe the God I worship and in whose image each one of us has been created. “Inextricably interwoven” is also high on my list, not just because I really like the way these words sound together but because they describe what I believe needs to be at the heart of our understanding of our relationship to one another and our place in the midst of God’s creation.

To be inextricably interwoven is to be connected in such a way that the items in question are inseparable, incapable of becoming untangled or parted. This kind of closeness/connectedness causes some to feel uncomfortable. Others refuse to acknowledge that this is, in fact, how we were created by an awesome God who calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to bear one another’s burdens, to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. A God who calls us to remember that we are our sister’s and brother’s keepers — not in a possessive or oppressive way but as equals, recognizing that when one part of the body suffers, we all suffer. “I am a rock, I am an island,” lyrics from a Simon and Garfunkel song popular during my teen years, proclaims an ideology that simply does not jibe with the teachings of Scripture.

Because we are not all carbon copies of one another, this interwoven-ness can be messy and challenging. Some people are sociable, outgoing and love nothing more than to be with people every chance they get. Others prefer to work alone, craving solitude or the company of a select few. Regardless of our preferences and inclinations, however, we cannot relinquish our responsibility as people of faith to live, as much as it is possible, in harmony with one another. We are called to live with a constant awareness that everyone and everything on God’s good earth is connected, that, as Maya Angelou correctly observed, “We are more alike, my friend, than we are unalike.” The decisions we make with regard to how we treat one another — not just some others but all others — and how we steward the earth God has entrusted to our care, matter more than we can imagine!

What has come to mind often in recent days, as I have listened to the heart-wrenching news of yet more terrorist attacks — both abroad and on our own soil — are the