I’ve invited novelist and recent Countryside member, Margaret McGrath, to share a reflection from time to time on one of the twelve Phoenix Affirmations. She graciously took me up on the offer.  Here’s her reflection on Affirmation 5, which claims that “Christian love of neighbor includes engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God’s very image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, or economic class.”

When Eric asked me to write something for the Asphalt Jesus blog about Affirmation Five, I wasn’t sure I’d have anything to say. I am all about equal rights regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, socio-economic class so Affirmation Five seems like a slam-dunk to a left-wing tree-hugging liberal like me. I’ve marched on Washington. I’ve signed petitions, donated time, talents, treasure to any number of social justice causes. I can check Affirmation Five off my list…right?

During prayer and reflection, however, the phrase “engaging people authentically” kept bobbing to the surface of my mind. If I dig a little deeper into my politically correct beliefs, I’m not convinced I follow the affirmation to its most powerful conclusion. I’m not convinced I engage people authentically.

To me, engaging people authentically means seeing them as more than a member of a “protected class”. It means moving beyond such automatic categorizations as gay/straight/transgendered, white/Asian/black, male/female, Muslim/Christian/Buddhist/Jew, poor/rich – to seeing that person as an individual. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that engaging people authentically begins and ends with seeing them as no more and no less than a child of God.

This is not easy to do when someone espouses political beliefs diametrically opposed to yours or worse, cuts you off in traffic, when your spouse forgets a crucial appointment or your child demands your attention after a long, tiring day. Sometimes the people I engage least authentically are those closest to me, with whom familiarity has bred a certain frustration, if not contempt. But I believe Jesus saw the people in his world not as Roman/Israelite, Samaritan/Essene, male/female, Jew/Gentile but as kernels of God-ness encased in human bodies. I’m slowly learning to do the same.

In the Buddhist tradition people greet each other with hands in prayer position. They give a slight bow and say, “Namaste” which means, “I bow to the divinity within you that is also within me.” In other words, encounters begin by honoring the God-spark within. Now that’s some seriously authentic engagement…or at least a good foundation for it!

In an effort to more fully live Affirmation Five, I’m working on listening with my heart and soul as well as my ears, striving to hear God’s voice speaking through another person. I also try to slow down, to give more than a millisecond of attention to a cashier, a barista, someone who greets me at coffee hour on Sunday…not to mention my family. What are some ways you engage people authentically in your daily life?