I've been watching Chicago
Fire lately…it keeps me company when I'm
baking dozens and dozens of cookies! And I have noticed that the first
thing the first responder does is ask for the victim's name. Victim is a
person. Persons have particulars.
The genealogy text gives us
Abraham, Jacob, Judah, Perez, Zerah, Tamar, Ram, and on and on. Three
sets of fourteen. Very particular.
Christianity claims a
universal significance grounded in the particular. It is easier to love,
or at least claim to love, the un-named…the un-intimate. The call of God to love always
begins with the reach of affection towards those who are immediately about us…those touchable. Where else can one be schooled in
charity? My first loves fuel my second loves which fuel my third and on
and on. Claiming to love all peoples while remaining aloof to the
difficulty of loving that, which is smelly, and angry, and mean, just next-door…well...is silly and shallow and most certainly not
Christian love. The scandal of particularity that is the
incarnation may very well be scandalous, but scandalously necessary.
O Lord
Bless my particular calling
in my particular time and place
among my particular neighbors and friends
This day and every day
Amen
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