Miami is a city of bridges. My favorite bridge is the one that takes you from the edge of Brickell to Key Biscayne. The vast beauty of the blue sky and bay never cease to surprise me as I ride my bike of the tall bridge. Other bridges in Miami are not as beautiful for me…mainly because they are under construction or they lift up and leave me waiting for fifteen minutes and make me late to appointments. When bridges are down due to construction or up due to boats it causes a problem. The same is true of the invisible bridges in our world. The bridges that connect people and places.
A few years ago Bishop Ken Carter used the bridge as an image for the church. We are a space that helps people that might not ordinarily connect come together in a common goal or mission.
FUMC Miami is one of these spaces.
In light of the past two weeks and the tragedies our country has faced, we as the church are called to be a bridge. Some might say the tragedies of last week are a policy problem, others might say a presidential problem and still others might say a prescription and mental health problem. Most likely it is a combination of the three. We are all called to work in the ways we can.
One way we can work is at the micro-level as a church to connect people across racial lines, health lines, and class lines. Just yesterday one of our office neighbors at WeWork knocked on my door and asked to speak with me. He shared with me that he and his wife own a dental care company and his wife is a dentist. He said they were looking to do some volunteer work and heard we do work with the homeless and was wondering if he can work with us. I was overjoyed at the further help some of our homeless will receive but I was also filled with joy knowing that our church continues to serve as a bridge for people to cross into another world and experience Christ in that world.
This week I wonder how each of us might be a bridge and not a roadblock. How might we extend the peace of Christ by helping others see a different perspective or even taking them to a new place? How might we as Christians not rush to judgment but rather rush to a relationship with those around us and through a relationship learn and teach one another? This is the way that God taught us to work for peace and change. We see this in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ- who is our bridge to God. God did not simply send ideals and demands from heaven and then judge and punish those who did not get in line. Rather in Jesus Christ, God came to be with us, to be in relationship with us!
This week, let us be like Jesus and be a bridge!
See you Sunday!
Pastor Audrey