As a progressive Christian, I believe there are many names for God and many ways to a loving God; this article reflects one of those ways. Take from here what works for you. Celebrate life with joy and peace!
I have a pastor friend, Rev. Durrell Watkins, who said everything he ever needed to know he learned from The Golden Girls. He said, “The Golden Girls offered a sort of corrective for religion gone bad.” Once a year, in the church liturgical calendar, is Ecumenical Sunday. Now how do The Golden Girls fit in here?
First, they formed an ecumenical community. Rose was Lutheran, Blanche was Baptist and Dorothy and her mother Sophia were Catholic. Sophia practiced a form of Catholicism that included rural Sicilian folklore. Many of their friends were Jewish. They didn’t have to all believe the same things as long as they believed in themselves and in one another.
Second, they realized that humanity is diverse and there is something good in all people. And there are all kinds of people in the world of The Golden Girls: Each of the women has a healthy attitude about her sexuality and celebrates her physical experience of life by sharing intimacy with a partner, or in Blanche’s case, a long series of many partners (just an observation, not a judgment!).
Rose has a sister who has lost her sight.
Dorothy has a son who marries an older woman.
Dorothy also has a dear friend who is a lesbian and Blanche has a brother who’s gay.
And Blanche’s widowed father winds up marrying a much younger woman.
Sometimes these differences cause them to need to examine their attitudes and beliefs, but in the end, their love for each other and their dear ones is always what matters most and differences are finally embraced and often celebrated.
Third, they demonstrate the power of generosity. While Blanche owns property, none of the women make enough money on her own to live alone. Sophia lives on a pension and the other three women work part time, until Rose later becomes a television producer. But their limited incomes don’t mean they have to have a limited experience of life. They live together, sharing the burden of the mortgage and utilities and food, and by sharing they find they have plenty and actually live quite a comfortable lifestyle. Sharing empowers them to prosper, and connects them intimately with one another so that they are never alone in moments of need.
Despite their differences, when they behave selfishly and hurt one another, they are reminded that their love for one another is more important than the petty issues that try to divide them from time to time, so they always reconcile, reaffirm their love and commitment to one another, and return to a life of shared joy as a result. They always get back to treating one another with the love and respect with which they would like to be treated themselves – and then there’s always cheesecake! Thank God for cheesecake!
Jesus acknowledges that in communities, people will sometimes act out and cause unnecessary trouble. He challenges the community to deal directly with the person who’s being “cantankerous” and if repeated attempts at direct dealing fail, then the community should stop giving energy to the antagonist all together.
After Jesus talks about direct dealing and fair play, he says that what we bind, will be bound in heaven, and what we loose, will be loosed in heaven. That is, what we hold on to in consciousness sticks with us, and what we release from our habitual thinking and attitudes can no longer drag us down.
Binding and loosing is about forgiving one another. Either by dealing directly with one another and working out our problems, or if that doesn’t work, then moving on and releasing the person who won’t embrace fair play; but one way or another we have to release our animosities, our grudges, our complaining and our bitterness because until we release them, loose them, they remain bound in our souls and they keep us bound and unable to thrive.
Release the hurt feelings. Release the grudges. Release the temptation to gossip. Release the habit of complaining. Release it; let it go. Loose it and move back into the light of healing. It’s a process, and we all have to work on it; God knows I do; but it’s worth the effort.
Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And the truth is we will never love our neighbor until we truly love ourselves.
