Australians are having trouble getting along with each other in the lead-up to the referendum.
There are personal slurs being thrown around, hate-filled speech, accusations of racism, and the feeding of mistruths and fear tactics.
It has even gotten to the extent of personal property being damaged and death threats.
Australia is said to be a most successful multicultural country, but that is not presently the case.
There is division between some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and later settlers, between some Indigenous peoples themselves, and among second peoples of this land.
The thin veneer of civilisation is being ripped open. How can we achieve greater tolerance in our society?
We seem to lack applying some basic social guidelines in how we relate to each other.
Our society has become very ‘me’-centred.
Only what ‘I’ think is important and right.
We no longer necessarily follow the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would like done unto you.’
When there is a dispute or difference of opinion in the church, and in the community also, our hoped-for outcome is that the dignity of everyone is honoured.
The Golden Rule is based on a commandment in the Old Testament of the Bible, which instructs us to love one’s neighbour as oneself.
Love invites us to place ourselves in the position of our neighbour, and allow one’s actions to flow from the question: ‘What would I desire in this situation?’
The converse is also true. In Judaism, R. Hillel wrote: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour, that is the whole Torah (the Law and commandments), while the rest is commenting on it. Go and learn.”
We are to put ourselves in the shoes of the other and be sensitive to the hurt we might be causing by our words and actions.
The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Roman Church describes what our relationships within the Church should be like.
Our relationships are to be based on loving one another, showing genuine love. As Brendan Byrne in his Sacra Pagina Commentary on Romans, writes: “No domain of Christian life stands apart from this one requirement’, for believers have received infinite love from God in Christ.
“To all, even the most difficult and unlovable believers, we owe a debt of love flowing from the love with which God loved us all as unreconciled and ‘enemies’.”
The gift of God’s Spirit transforms our relationships with God and our fellow human beings.
God’s Spirit gives us the capacity to love one another, despite our differences of opinion.
Let us live with the Spirit of God ruling in our lives so that when we have a difference of opinion we listen to one another, care for, and be sensitive to one another, and ensure that the dignity of each person is honoured. Amen.
Rev Michele Lees,
Echuca-Moama Uniting Church