God is Compassionate! That is the inspiring big idea that Pastor Mark will be sharing this Sunday at 10:30am online and in person. Our world needs this simple, powerful idea. The story he will be telling this week is from Jonah. I’m so excited because I love that story. When I hear Pastor Mark tell the stories, I’m a six-year-old kid again remembering the Bible stories my dad, or my grandpa used to tell in church. I’m filled with wonder as I listen, my faith is stirred, and my dreams are tickled as I delight in Pastor Mark’s presentation of the good news.
Last week, I received a newspaper article from a member of our church who now lives in Skagit County. It spoke to all the divisions in our world and country today. And then it told the familiar story of Rabbi Levine who was the leading Rabbi of Mercer Island’s reformed Jewish Congregation. In the 1960s Rabbi Lavine started a national television program aimed at having open discussions about divisive topics. His partner was Father William Tracy. There was huge division and conflict between Jews and Catholics. They invited other religious leaders to discuss these hot topics in front of the television audience. Over the years Rabbi Lavine and Catholic Father Tracy became the best of friends. As did other religious leaders in our area. They literally impacted the whole world, and we survived the tumultuous 1960s. Later Rabbi Levine was killed in a car accident by a car going the wrong way on Interstate 90.
I often watched the program and was greatly inspired by it. Later when Jackie and I moved here to start Washington Cathedral we were greatly impacted by this good news approach to resolving the conflict in the world. Our congregation was under 100 when I dared to share one of my dreams that someday we would build a sanctuary with a beautiful waterfall view. Nature inspires peace and I wanted that natural aid to touch people’s lives. I announced my dream, and everybody laughed. Even my closest friends and family laughed thinking I was joking. I was so discouraged by the cold response to my dream. After the service when I greeted people at the back an older lady came up to me and shook my hand saying, I believe in your dream, and I dropped a large check in the offering to start the funding of your waterfall. I was blown away and became quite emotional. I asked why she would do that didn’t she hear everyone laughing at me. She spoke, still holding my hand saying, you remind me of a clergy member of the Jewish community, and he was a bridge for a lot of people in our area. I asked who she was talking about. She said his name was Rabbi Raphael Levine and she asked me if I had heard of him. I said yes, he was a national religious leader, he was like the Norman Vincent Peale for Judaism and then I asked if she knew him. When I said that she began to cry. I waited for her to speak again and she said with a beautiful smile and a sparkling tear running down her cheek, Yes, I knew him, I was his wife.
Pastor Mark is on the right track when he says God is a compassionate God. Our world desperately needs to hear that message today. So don’t miss this Sunday’s message that will touch your heart and bring enemies together as friends.
Your friend for the rest of my life,
Pastor Tim White