As much as I would like to spend the next few minutes reflecting with you on your spiritual practices, and how you are practicing them as a means to grow closer to God, I cannot. For there is only one thing on my mind today—the events at the US Capital yesterday.
Regardless of which side of the aisle that you sit on politically, and regardless of how you feel about our current, or future, administration, the events of yesterday should have shaken you a bit. Images of people scaling the walls outside of the US Capital, or throwing items through windows, or damaging property in those cambers, are shocking to witness. While we were angry, or concerned, this summer when men and women took to the streets to protest the racial unjust practices that they witnessed firsthand, those actions did not rise to the level of yesterday for many of us.
My Democrat friends said things like, “See we told you that this would happen.” While my Republican friends echoed those words saying, “See we told you that this would happen.” I read posts on social media that happily claimed that a second Civil War is happening. That post reminded us that we don’t want to be on the wrong side of history. "But what side is right?” I wondered. I also read cynical posts and news articles that cast blame “out there” to “those people,” but that is only a divisive choice to me.
How then should we respond?
It appears to me that we have a few choices:
1- Apathy. This is a popular option for many people. When we practice apathy we do nothing. We say nothing. We choose not to dwell on the issue or instance because it is the problems of Washington, or someone else, and therefore it is not our problem. An apathetic response would sound something like: “Well when was the last time that Washington listened to me? They don’t care about me. So why should I care about what happens there or to them?” There are many issues with this response that I am sure that you can think of. . .
2- Placation. The short fix. This response takes the form of “pray a lot” because that is what we are supposed to do-but don’t dwell on it too long. Often when we practice this response, we don’t care too much about the issue that we are placating. It is just what we know, as the church, that we should do. In this case we pray for a day and then move one. In that moment, we bow our heads and say, “Come Lord Jesus” but little more than that because we don’t know what to say, so we say nothing. . . or very little. The church is called by Jesus to pray for the leaders and government that we live with it—and so we do. For a day or two, and but again we move on.
3- Be Vocal. This can be a bit of a dangerous choice to make. When we are vocal about an issue we actively speak out for, or against, the issue or instance. The son of my former Boy Scot scoutmaster, who works for the government as a pollster, is doing this right now. He is directly speaking out about what is witnessing first-hand. Those responses often tend to divide. I have seen quite a bit of this on Facebook as well. Current and former ministers that I worked with have come out with short bursts of posts bemoaning what’s happening. But I wonder how long that will keep up? How long can one lob "verbal grenades" at someone before that too becomes tiresome?
4- Stay Engaged or Stay Aware. This is the option that I think the church is called to practice. We remember what has happened and we live accordingly. The response here is not a short-term feeling or action, but a long-term, deliberate, present, committed choice to abide. We when we remember, we continue to do so for a long time—and not so we can condemn anyone or anything thing. By staying aware, we can continually commit ourselves to the practices of our faith. We pray, not just once, but regularly for our country, for our leaders, for places and pockets where injustice lives. We remain engaged in living out our Christian life not just when times are challenging, but we stay engaged, we practice presence, we are aware of the suffering in our world and actively we pray, we serve, we consider, we evangelize so that God’s word is faithfully proclaimed.
For instance, when word came out that a gathering in Charlottesville might turn violent, a group of local minsters acted. They put aside any political allegiances that they might claim and gathered. They walked outside of the host church, with their black robes ones, and stood there. They said nothing. They did not publicly pray out loud (although I know that they did pray silently in their hearts). They held no signs and did not respond in any way—besides standing on the corner between the groups. One of the participants said, “Our purpose was only to remind the gathering people that God is also gathering with them.” That long-term presence and response still speaks long after the violence has ceased.
As the church we are called to be present, to be with, to be aware of, the needs of our world. The temptation that we face is to leave behind the images and words that we witnessed yesterday. But instead, I wonder what would happen, if we, as the church, continued to show up in the world? What would our witness look like, what would our ministry become, if we remained “with” in times like this?
Blessings
Rev. Derek
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