My Country Tears for Thee: A Dream for Building Bridges Not Walls

Since Jesus “has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,” in his incarnate person, we must make every effort as God’s people to be a reconciling and bridge-building community.
Given that we are already one, we must live as one. Rather than be hostile and indifferent, we must continue to tear down psychological and social barriers of hate “where all people desire to know,” as Aristotle envisioned, and where we seek to understand the daily lives of those on society’s margins and make their truths perceptible.

The business community in my city created a logo “Keep Austin Weird.” What is weird or out of step in our day is not the isolation, hostility, and indifference that rages in our society, but a community of people that desires to know, seeks to tear down walls of division, and labors to build bridges of relational and social healing involving understanding and respect.

Bridging Austin does not emphasize building walls, but building bridges, as our church name signifies. We find security in the sacred Scriptures, which ground us and lead us to celebrate diversity. We seek to cultivate curiosity wherein people of diverse ethnic, cultural, and spiritual backgrounds approach questions in community in search of resolution. As a result, we foster spiritual conversations and dialogue rather than resign ourselves to canned presentations. I firmly believe this posture and approach is much needed in our day if we are to live out Jesus’s dream and King’s dream of a truly beloved community.

My church and your church have no reason to live in fear at this time of cultural and social upheaval. Here I call to mind how Jesus broke through the wall to his disciples sequestered in a room feeling hopeless following his execution on a Roman cross. The resurrected Jesus determined to walk through a walled enclosure to be in the presence of his deeply distressed loved ones. They were in fear for their safety, had just lost their leader, and their lives were now directionless. It is against this backdrop that Jesus entered through a wall and said, “Peace be with you!” (Jn 20:19; NIV) The encounter was transformational. The early church became a catalytic, missional movement of bridge-builders.

If we truly take to heart Jesus’s peace and how he extinguishes fear and anxiety, we can walk through walls of cultural and social division today. That said, when was the last time you and I walked through the metaphorical wall that separates black and white people to say “peace?” What we need today are people willing to follow Jesus and assume the role of a builder—not a builder of walls, but a builder of dreams that reconciles people and fosters widespread equity. We must seek to make Jesus’s vision, MLK’s dream, and “The American Dream,” come true for everyone. May we turn the cries of distressed and marginalized people in this country from lament and misery to lasting joy.