"Christian Commuting 101"

For the last thirty-three years I have enjoyed an easy commute to the church building. For the first fifteen of those years, I walked out my door and though a thick forest of towering poplar and oak trees that opened up at the church parking lot. From there I was afforded a vista of pastel sunrises. The colors seemed to accentuate the beauty of the many farms that stretched toward the horizon and framed by the elevated hills of Gap. For the last eighteen years I enjoyed a seven mile commute from the lovely historic Borough of Strasburg along a lightly traveled Route 741. I passed by seasonally changing fields and beautifully maintained farms. The end of my drive took me on winding forest-lined roads that carried me up the hills that lead to our church. It was a relaxing drive that refreshed my mind as I enjoyed the magnificent handiwork of God. Occasionally I would contrast my commute with a former drive to college that took me on Philadelphia’s Schuylkill Expressway, often sarcastically referred to by daily commuters as “the world’s largest parking lot.” Actually the contrast was no contest – plowed fields vs. congested, polluted ribbons of concrete. I actually at times would say out loud in my car, “Lord, thanks for the great drive today.” Occasionally, in the middle of a winter snow storm, that praise was absent.

For the last number of weeks my commute has changed. Now as I get into my car and prepare for my 16.5 mile commute, I can almost hear an imaginary announcer bark, “Gentlemen start your engines.” Winding past a mile of suburban housing, opens to the entrance ramp of the Route 30 bypass. The rush hour traffic creates enough noise that I instinctively turn the radio up a notch. As I try to merge into the traffic filled with rumbling 18-wheelers, flying rocket motorcycles, and whizzing cars, trucks, and SUVs, I look for a gesture of kindness to let me enter the flood of traffic. Oh there are gestures, but I assure you they are not ones of kindness!

Having achieved a safe merger I flow with the traffic and breathe a sigh of relief. Then I begin to take on the character of the traffic of which I have become a part. Passing entrance ramps filled with people in cars facing the same dilemma I had experienced just moments earlier does not elicit mercy, just a little more pressure on the gas peddle. How quickly I had forgotten that moments earlier I had wanted kindness. Now I had become just as stingy with mercy and grace as those drivers I had complained about earlier. Perhaps the only difference between me and the drivers I had been criticizing is that I did not make the physical gestures they made! However, neither did I display the gesture of kindness I thought earlier should be a reasonable driver’s attitude.

How easy it is to graciously receive something and then become stingy in sharing it with others. Take forgiveness for an example. Jesus expects the forgiven to be forgivers. He tells a parable in Matthew 18:21-35 about a man who is forgiven by a king a huge debt he could not pay. The forgiven man promptly forgets the forgiveness he had received and displays an unforgiving spirit toward a person who owed him a much smaller debt. The master who had forgiven the man with the massive debt hears about the man’s ungracious conduct and asks the man, “Should you not also have compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?” Jesus says in essence, “I expect the forgiven to be forgivers.”

On the cross of Calvary when Jesus shed his blood and died for my sins, he made it possible for me to be forgiven of all my sins – certainly a debt I could not pay. As a result I can have eternal fellowship with the God of the universe. Why then should I not follow his example of forgiveness in dealing with another sinner – of which we all are (Romans 3:23)? My offense against God was certainly greater than any offense that any person has done to me. Will I who have received mercy and grace refuse to dispense it to another? The Apostle Paul, who describes himself was “the chief of sinners” received mercy from God. What does he admonish the forgiven to do? He writes, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

How many human relationships would be repaired if Christians would forgive as they have been forgiven? How many family feuds would cease? How many marriages healed? How many children and parents would embrace one another? How many church conflicts would end? How many friends would again connect with one another? How transformed would our communities be if we treated others in a way we want to be treated?

I need to drive home now. May I “do unto others as I would have them do unto me” (Matthew 7:21). Sure, I’ll let them merge! Maybe this commuting thing will be getting better!