Building bridges

We celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr., a bridge builder between races of mammoth capacity. We marveled at the historic inauguration of our first interracial president, who calls for bridge-building between liberals and conservatives, between nations, beyond partisanship, ideological dogmatism and theological bias. Lynchburg continues to build bridges, reducing racial divides. Bridges need to be built between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in Iraq; between Israel and Palestine, Jews and Arabs, Pakistan and India, the U.S. and Iran, to mention only a few.

Think with me about visible and invisible bridges. It is one experience to drive or walk over the Rivermont Bridge, looking down below, and another, all-together different one to hike or bike under the bridge, looking up while moving along the Blackwater Creek bike trail. The U.S. is defined, in part, by the Golden Gate Bridge in California and the George Washington Memorial Bridge in New York City, and by the bridges built in international relationships.

Bridges assist us to our destinations, take us away from places or to them, enable us to avoid great difficulties and are symbols of collective efforts to address common needs. Bridges must be built with care, precision and materials capable of coping with stresses from use and time. Creative minds have built suspended bridges across great caverns, fraught with great dangers. We celebrate special humans who have built bridges between competing nations.

Bridges built with great cost in human lives pushed back boundaries; precipitated redrawing of maps; enabled railroads to close gaps and crisscross mammoth expanses facilitating the distribution of goods and services.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel instantly became the arterial thread connecting Virginia with Maryland, facilitating traffic along the East Coast. During WWII, ancient bridges were destroyed to cut of the movement of enemy troops and supplies.

Whether a wooden bridge over a small stream or a monument over the James, bridges are captivating, demanding our attention, recognition and affirmation.

In contrast, bridges of utmost significance defy photography: affection between parents and children; commitments between life partners; unwavering love; authenticity and integrity.

We hunger for bridges of trust between nations, and for integrity that cements relationships with truth and credibility. Peacemakers build bridges between those who taste the bitter bile of alienation.

Active listeners construct bridges of communication between individual and groups, who previously lacked the capacity to hear each other. Creative minds build new and better bridges that enable competing tribes to become a global family, not competing forces out to destroy each other.

Do we take bridges for granted? Are we bridge-builders? Do we value that which connects us and brings us together? Is there bridge-building in which we need to engage but have ignored? Are there some bridges in our lives that are badly in need of extensive repair? Are there some calamities in store for us if we do not work on the flaws and cracks in the infrastructures of our lives?

Whether a single-log footbridge or a hanging bridge demanding courage to cross, bridges are important. Bridges fill in the gaps bringing people together.

The League of Nations built bridges between nations following WWI. The U.N. builds bridges between a great diversity of nations, tribes and cultures. Faith communities build bridges between seekers, with God and the spaceship Earth on which they travel. Crosscultural experiences build unity. Bridges represent pragmatism creativity, risk-taking, commitment and sacrifice.

By a collective wisdom greater than our own, we are summoned to be bridge-builders on foundations as reliable as bedrock while avoiding shifting sand; to build bridges that span the great divide between the rich and the poor. Christ and those who follow Christ’s teachings are called to this worthy vocation.