I recently

finished watching a new show on Netflix entitled, Away.  It’s the story of a mission to Mars – the first mission to send human beings to the red planet. The endeavor is sponsored chiefly by NASA, but with financial and technical support from other nations. The astronauts also hail from different nations, one each from the United States, Russia, England, China, and India. As you would expect from a television show, the science is good enough to be mostly believable, but the crux of the storytelling is in how the characters deal with challenges and setbacks. As a fan of reality-based science fiction, I enjoyed the series.  

One of the fascinating aspects of the storytelling is the call to cooperation in a hopeful way.  When the crew is questioned at a pre-launch press conference, someone asks why it’s important to spend all this money on space exploration when there are problems on this planet. One of the responses is to suggest that if we can figure out something like Mars between nations that are often at odds with one another, it sets the stage for a better future on this planet, not just another one.  

That aspect is somewhat true to life, too. International space programs have long worked together, even while their home countries are in competition with each other. Astronaut crews are often international, and certainly the International Space Station is evidence that we do know how to work well together. Finding places where common interest and common ground, dare we say neutral ground, exist, does provide inspiration for the future. Deep inside us, we know that we’re all in this together, and when every nation is only “in it” for themselves, the future grows dimmer, not brighter. We don’t need a dimmer future.

I keep thinking I cannot be any more surprised or disappointed by the breakdowns in civility and unity in our country. More than any external threat we face, our infighting is the real source of our destruction. History tells a cautionary tale about such things, but like most everything else these days, we choose not to look to fact, history, or even take a long-term view of things when acting. We simply react to each new thing, reading from a partisan playbook, and viewing whatever lies before us through the lenses of our particular goggles. The debate over the filling of a Supreme Court vacancy and last night’s “Presidential” “debate” are subject to these ongoing challenges.

I’m not going to step onto one side of the aisle or the other in these cases. For two reasons.  One, I don’t want to be part of the problem, and two, no matter what I say, people have probably labeled me one way or another, and they will either disregard what I do say, or hear something I don’t say. Such is the time we’re living in. If I thought I could be specific and be helpful, I’d share what I think, but what I think isn’t what we need right now. 

What we need is a mission to Mars. I don’t mean a physical mission to Mars, but to figure out what the project is that we can all get behind and support. The kind of matter that would allow us to come together and slowly rebuild relationships and gradually remember how much we have in common. As of right now, it almost seems like Americans aren’t all from the same country, or even speak the same language. What endeavor could we engage in that would literally cause us to remember that we’re in this together, whether we like it or not? When you’re hurtling through space and something goes wrong, it’s somewhat easy to realize you have to work together and trust the people around you if you’re going to survive. Well, we’re hurtling through this world together, and we are facing some life and death level problems as we do. When will we look at the people around us and realize we have to work together if we want to make it, or want our children and grandchildren to make it?

I don’t have the political reflection that will heal the world right now. I don’t have the answers to questions that might be raised in a debate about any number of things. What I do have is the Gospel, which history tells me is enough – often more than enough. The Gospel itself isn’t a mission to Mars either, but it is a message that draws us from wearing our self-centered, short-term goggles. If we’ll let it. Sure, for some the Gospel boils down to a selfish indicator of life or death after this one, but when we remember all that Jesus said and did, we realize that his gift to us is more than just a place in heaven – not that that isn’t a tremendous gift. The Gospel is also a call to be fully alive now and to be fully human as God envisioned us being from the start.            

The goggles through which we should be looking at everything we face right now are the lenses of love, compassion, unity, inclusion, hospitality, justice, and dignity. That’s the mission we share, at least those of us who have said we’re taking up our cross and following Jesus. We’re not building a life on another world, we’re building a new world here on this one. That’s a mission that should be able to bring us back together, if we would just take it seriously and devote ourselves to it. If we don’t begin to realize we’re in this together, and act like it, the future will get darker and darker. It’s time to bring our light into the darkness, because if we don’t, many of us might start looking for the real mission to Mars to see if we can hitch a ride.   In all seriousness, we only get this one life and this one world (for now), and God has a plan for this world. I’m pretty sure what we’re seeing right now isn’t it.

Tom+ 

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.