We all stand together
Lessons in unity from a military base
By Glenn Hink
The white trucks and buses stopped on the road. The platoon of Marines stopped their jogging. The man on the lawn mower stopped mowing. The people coming out of the Commissary stopped in the parking lot, and set down their bags of groceries.
I got up from my patio chair and set my coffee down. We all stood together. It was 8AM. The National Anthem was being broadcast via loud speakers across the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.
It is something that happens every morning at 8AM when the American flag is raised there. And it is something that happens every evening at dust when the flag is lowered. Everything outside stops. And for a moment amidst all that you were doing, you are reminded of where you are, who you are and what you’re about.
My wife and I spent a week visiting her sister, a doctor in the Naval Hospital at Guantanamo Bay. We lived on the base, met some dedicated and gifted people “serving our country,” and ate at the galley. We were busy. And at 8AM and dusk we stood as the National Anthem was played.
We all lead busy lives. We are busy going, doing and meeting. We have projects to finish, plans to make, people to see. Work, kids, grandkids, hobbies, yardwork; it all fills our days. Sometimes it’s easy to lose our way, and forget where we are, who we are and what we are about.
And we live in angry, fearful time. The divisiveness of the political campaigns did not end with the elections. Shrill voices fill the airwaves and newsprint. There is shrinking space for respecting different views. There is little listening, and more talking (or shouting). There are conflicting hopes for the future. And sometimes we forget who we are as followers of Jesus.
Standing together does not make Christians all the same. Rather we are as different as everyone who stands for the National Anthem at Guantanamo Bay. We have different views, gifts and stories. Perhaps we find ourselves more Republican or Democratic, more conservative or progressive, more contemporary church or high steeple church, more infant baptism or adult baptism. But as followers of Jesus who confess that “Jesus is Lord” we all stand together, and live into a gracious spaciousness that is a gift from God.
And so rather than reflecting the culture all round us, Christians might stand out by standing together.
We could be a community that practices “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
We could be a community that lives for “loving God and neighbor” (Luke 10:25-28), and practices forgiveness when we fail (Matthew 18:21-22).
And we could a community that humbly trusts God at work in the world doing more than we could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
Standing, working, kneeling together; it would be “light in the world” (Matthew 5:14-16). It would be the church; the body of Christ.
Rev. Dr. Glenn Hink is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Sharon.