Worship: Acts of virtue

By GEORGE MASON

A summer of discontent

Our community depends on acts of virtue

Hello, it’s me, again.

Apologies to Adele and my grade-school grammar teacher (pop artists aren’t much on predicate nominatives). After saying goodbye a few months ago to my regular monthly column, I am back in a quarterly rotation with some admired colleagues.

What have I missed? The opportunity to write about the spiritual significance of unfettered access to guns after Uvalde; Southern Baptists facing up to a legacy of institutional coverups of sexual abuse; Jan. 6 Congressional hearings; the Russian invasion of Ukraine; stock market swooning and inflation ballooning; COVID-19 hanging around like an old boyfriend: Nothing much, huh?

Let’s take a summer break.

Bad news has a way of dominating our dispositions. We get cranky with ourselves and one another when it seems the world is cracking apart. But the goodness of God shines through like a shaft of light through a dark cloud. We see it in the small acts of kindness of good people.

Like the young couple who found a wallet while strolling through the Water Gardens in Fort Worth a few months ago. Yours truly had absentmindedly left it on one of the concrete steps under a tree. The sinking feeling of reaching for my wallet at a restaurant and finding an empty pocket led to my rushing back to the spot and finding it gone. After canceling credit cards and applying for a replacement drivers license and insurance cards, I settled in to days of beating up on myself for my stupidity.

Then out of the blue, a call came to the church that someone had found my wallet. They had sleuthed the Internet and figured out who I was. I drove to Fort Worth and recovered the wallet with more cash in it than I knew I had. After paying a hefty reward that was received with embarrassed gratitude, my faith in humanity was restored along with my valuables.

In this summer of our discontent, I am reminded that goodness can still be found among us. I don’t know whether the young couple was informed by a faith tradition or was simply acting out of shared sense of humanity. But either way, this is what keeps hope alive when we think all is lost in our striving for self-interest. Neighbors I didn’t know cared for someone they didn’t know as if it had happened to them.

Our community and our country depend on acts of virtue. People looking out for one another as if everything depends upon our actions. When we despair for the state of the world and worry that we can’t count on anyone but ourselves, a simple gesture of kindness changes everything.

What if we could imagine the consequences of every vote and every political decision on people we don’t know before we act? How would it change our city, our state and our country if we followed the example of a young couple like them?

The ties that bind us would never be broken.

GEORGE MASON was the pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church, president of Faith Commons and host of the “Good God” podcast. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.

WORSHIP

BAPTIST

PARK CITIES BAPTIST CHURCH / 3933 Northwest Pky / pcbc.org Bible Study 9:15 / Worship Services 10:45 Traditional, Contemporary, Spanish Speaking / 214.860.1500

WILSHIRE BAPTIST CHURCH / 4316 Abrams / 214.452.3100 Open to all / Worship at 11 a.m. Sunday School at 10 a.m. / wilshirebc.org

DISCIP LES OF CHRIST

EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185 Sunday School 9:30 am / Worship 8:30 am - Chapel 10:50 am - Sanctuary / Rev. Deborah Morgan-Stokes / edcc.org

LUTHERAN

CENTRAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ELCA / 1000 Easton Road A Welcoming & Affirmation Church / Rev. Robert O. Smith, PhD, Bridge Pastor Sunday School 9:00 am / Worship 10:30 am/ centrallutheran.org

FIRST UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH (ELCA) / 6202 E Mockingbird Lane Sunday Worship Service 10:30 am / Call for class schedule. 214.821.5929 / www.dallaslutheran.org

METHODIST

LAKEWOOD UMC / 2443 Abrams Rd. / 214.823.9623 Sunday Morning Worship 10:30 am / mylakewoodchurch.org Messy Church for Children and Families Sunday 5:00 pm

MUNGER PLACE CHURCH / Come & See Sunday: Morning Worship: 9:30 & 11:00 am Evening Worship 5:00 pm 5200 Bryan Street / mungerplace.org

NON-DENOMINATIONAL

LAKEWOOD FELLOWSHIP / Sundays 10:00 am / White Rock YMCA / 7112 Gaston Ave LakewoodFellowship.org / Lakewood@LakewoodFellowship.org

PRESBYTERIAN

ST. MARK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH/ 9999 FERGUSON RD. saintmarkchurch.org / Sunday School 9:15am / Worship I0:30am/ 214.321.6437/ Rev. Rick Brooks

NORTHRIDGE PRESBYTERIAN / 6920 Bob-O-Link Dr. 214-827-5521 northridgepc.org / Sunday Worship: Summer schedule begins May 29 at 10:00 am. A community of people dedicated to doing life together.

PARK CITIES PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH/ 4124 Oak Lawn Ave Sunday Worship 9:00 & 11:00 A.M. To all this church opens wide her doors - pcpc.org

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