WORSHIP

Pastor's Message

            I’d like you to try something, if you are game. Before you read any farther, find a sheet of paper and a writing utensil. Now at the bottom of the page draw a small stick figure. Above that stick figure, draw a small thought bubble. Now imagine this thought bubble is all that you know about the world around you. The edge of the bubble is the boundary of your knowledge beyond which lies things you don’t know or understand. Now draw a larger thought bubble to envelope the first. Your knowledge has expanded, and you have learned more about the world in which you live. But perhaps you notice something else. Your knowledge has grown but so has the surface area of the bubble that touches the unknown. The more you come to know, the more aware you become of the vastness of what you do not know.

            This is a humbling exercise is meant to combat what is often called the “Dunning-Kruger Effect” named for psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger who noted a cognitive bias in overestimating our own ability or knowledge in fields we know little or nothing about. In an era of social media where speed and immediacy are prized above all else, this Effect runs rampant as we are encouraged to give hot takes, to shoot from the hip in a way that is often dangerously light on facts and steeped purely in vibes and colored by our prejudice and bias.

            This spills out predictably in how we view people, in which every undocumented immigrant in this country is a “dangerous drug dealing illegal” or that every single person who voted for our current administration meant to sign on to immigration enforcement that operates in legally dubious and deeply unsettling ways. This Effect looks like operating under the erroneous assumption that anyone left of center politically is the second coming of Lenin or Mao or that everyone right of center wishes to resurrect the Third Reich. We are quite happy to swiftly draw conclusions about a person or people we don’t know, we don’t understand and are often primed to deeply dislike or even hate.

            Today more than ever, we as followers of Jesus would do well to remember that the image of God in which we are made looks different in everyone. Understanding that image in its fullness takes time, nuance, curiosity and deep listening. It means acting and engaging in good faith, not in snap judgements, contempt or malice. This isn’t some touchy-feely exercise, it is absolutely critical in the weeks and months ahead. It is hard work and not natural as we are far more prone to raise our voices and our fists than to lower them. As the singer Jason Gray put it “Fear is easy, Love is hard.”

            If you will indulge me, I invite you to hang up your picture somewhere you will see it, your fridge, a door, a bathroom or bedroom mirror. Use it as a reminder to be mindful, to be humble, to remember that for all your worth and value, for all your knowledge, skill, and expertise, you simply don’t know what you don’t know.

As Ever in Christ,

Pastor CJ