Building Bridges Instead of Fences in Our Faith Journey

Lal Varghese, Council Member, MTC Dallas, Farmers Branch

As The Messenger celebrates twenty-five years of our faith journey, let us examine ourselves and ask whether we are building bridges or making fences around us. God wanted company for Himself, so He created man and He walked with them. But man, instead of walking with God, built a fence around him and kept God away by sinning. But God, in order to save man from his sins, left His heavenly glory and became a man so that he could identify with man.  In this way, Christ became a bridge between man and God. But again man did not listen to His words and rejected Him by crucifying Christ. Man built fences around him, separated God from his life and continues to do the same. But Christ still continues His effort to be a bridge maker between man and God and promised that He will come again to gather all believers so that we may have an eternal life in heaven with God.

There were two brothers, who lived on adjoining farms for about 40 years, who fell into conflict. One morning there was a knock on the older brother’s door. He opened to find a carpenter. "I'm looking for a few days work" he said.  "I do have a job for you. Look across the creek in between my farm and my neighbor’s. That's my younger brother.  Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee, and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I'll do him one better,” said the older brother. 

“I want you to build me a large fence so I won't need to see his place or his face anymore," said the older brother. “Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you," replied the carpenter. The older brother had to go to town. The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, and nailing. When the older brother returned at sunset, the carpenter had just finished his job.

There was no fence at all. It was a bridge, stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work with handrails and all, and his younger brother was coming across, his hand outstretched. "You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I've said and done." The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge.  They met in the middle, took each other's hand and hugged each other. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox on his shoulder. "No, wait! Stay a few more days. I've a lot of other projects for you," said the older brother. "I'd love to stay on," the carpenter said, "but I have many more bridges to build."

Are we like these brothers quarreling and creating obstacles for each other? Are we building fences or bridges in our parish and family life? If we are, then we need the carpenter, the one who came down to build the bridge between heaven and earth. Do we see our neighbors as our own brothers or as enemies sitting behind the fence built around us? Jesus taught to love your neighbor as yourself. If we cannot love our neighbor, then we are building fences around us. As Marthomites, we need to examine the past twenty-five years of our existence in this country and see whether we have built the fences or bridges. Our faith journey should be able to carry others to the cross, the place from where we can look up, to our sides and see others as our brothers and sisters.

We need Christians in the making to live for others, sharing and caring. We should be bridge makers and not fence makers. Max Lucado in his book ‘God Came Near’ says: “Christianity in its purest form is nothing more than seeing Jesus. Christian service, in its purest form, is nothing more than imitating Him who we see. To see His majesty and to imitate Him, that is the sum of Christianity.” Are we imitating Christ in our faith journey? Or are we creating more and more obstacles for others to follow Christ? If our religion and our faith life are not for building bridges with people around us, we are not following Christ in the true sense.

Genesis 1:27–28 says, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”  He made a beautiful garden for them to live. Instead of creating a fence and letting them live alone, He set certain rules for them and asked them to obey those rules.  He walked with them thereby creating a bridge between Him and man. But man disobeyed God and hid from God.  God grieved since He made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

God led the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, and provided with everything they needed in their forty years of journey through desert. In Exodus 13: 21 it is written “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” Instead of letting them to live own their own He asked them to follow his commandments and to worship him. But instead of obeying God, they deviated from His commandments and disobeyed him.

The Bible is full of examples of people who have built relationships with God.  Enoch walked with God and then he was no more because God took him away. In Genesis 6:8–9 it says, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”  God never built any fences around Enoch or Noah but used them as bridges for the generations to come.

God kept Abraham and was with him to keep his faith. He made him the father of nations and asked his generations to worship Him. In Genesis 28:15, “God said to Abraham “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’”

Job was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East. God had put a hedge around him and his household and everything he had. Even though God allowed Satan to put Job’s faith to the test, Job never rejected God because he always kept a strong faith in God.

God was with Daniel when he decided not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. He never built a fence around Daniel but He kept a constant relationship with him by giving knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning.  Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. When King Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and ordered that they be tied up and thrown into the blazing furnace, God was with them.  

In 1 Samuel 3:19-21 we read, “The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.” Samuel obeyed the Lord and kept His words in his heart.  This helped him to be a bridge between the people and the Lord.

The Lord was with Joseph, he prospered, and he lived in the house of Potiphar. When Potiphar’s wife tempted Joseph into bed with her, he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. When his master put Joseph in prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

As we look at other Biblical figures like David and Joseph, they never built any fences around them but always kept their relationship with God, obeyed him and listened to him. God sent His only Son to save mankind from their sins. God used Jesus to bridge the gap between Him and mankind. God offered Himself to us so that we may become children of God. He did not build a fence around those who came to him, but asked them to love their neighbor so that they can also become children of God. The eternal became temporal to be a bridge between us and Him.

The disciples did not build a fence around them, but they went out everywhere to spread the Good News. Every Marthomite is a missionary and we are not to build our own fences around us, our parishes, our families and ourselves. We need to reach out to the community around us, to those who need us. As Christians, we need to follow Christ and show others that Christ lives within us. The cross reminds us of two things – look upward and look around us. Christ should live within us so that the love of Christ may flow from us to those around us. Those who see us should see Christ through our lives.

Max Lucado says, “Instead of looking upward at him, we look inward at ourselves and outward at each other. The result – cabin fever, quarreling families, restless leaders, fence building, staked off territory, no trespassing and beware of dog signs are hung on hearts and home.”  In our faith journey we need to look up to the cross, the place from where boundless love has flown so that others may also feel welcome in our faith journey.

As we celebrate twenty-five years of existence in this Diocese, let us rededicate ourselves as bridge makers so that people may see the love of God within us. Instead of isolating ourselves as a community in this country, let us make bridges within our own community, in our parishes, and families and with other communities so that we can spread the Good News. Let us look upward at him, instead of looking inward, fighting each other, and fence building around us. Let us invite the carpenter who came down from heaven to build bridges between us and those around us. Let us throw away the no trespassing signs, beware of dog signs hung on our hearts and home. The fire on the altar of faith must be kept burning; it must not go out by building fences around us. The Lord is holy and he has us apart from the nations to be His own as bridge makers. He broke the bars of our yoke and enabled us to walk with heads held high so that we need not hide behind fences.