If you read yesterday’s “Pastoral Thought” then you heard me speak about the Henderson Leadership Event that Pittsburgh Theological Seminary hosts each year that I participated in. Yesterday I enjoyed listening to Parker J. Palmer speak and reflect on a number of important issues related to church today. Overall Parker’s words have been very helpful to my spiritual development and growth as a Christian and a leader. I find that he offers words tot he church that we often do not spend enough time considering.
Often in our spiritual walks we rush so quickly toward answers and solutions to the problems we face, but Parker reminds me that sometimes it is enough to just sit with the problem or struggle.
But before Parker took to the “Zoom stage” on Tuesday we heard from Valerie Kaut. . .
Monday Afternoon the director of the Continuing Education program at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary introduced Valerie to those in attendance. She is an activist, writer, and author. Valerie, according to her biography that she shared as we began, also stated that she has been a public defender and an advocate for the voiceless. As she began her talk, Valerie offered us the following thought that has been rooted in my heart. She wanted us to see that an opponent is not someone fear but instead an opponent can be someone who is wounded. (This is not a direct quotation from her, but instead, it is my words that summarize her point.)
An opponent is not someone to fear, but someone who is wounded.
The power of those words still speaks to my heart. . . For the next hour and a half Valerie invited us to look for the people in our lives who God has placed there—intentionally. Look for those who are before us, or around us, those who can come alone-side of us in that wounded-place and offer support to our souls? She referred to them this way: Who do we have in our lives who can serve as a “Spiritual midwife”—someone to help us through the pain which seems too great, or too traumatic, or too unreconcilable?
When we consider how we might re-engage our local community as the quarantine-season is sending, I find that the ability move away from a posture of fear, and toward one that acknowledges wounds, can be quite helpful and necessary. Let me explain with an example:
I know someone who works at a restaurant in their local hometown. This pandemic has been hard on one of their co-workers—a person we will call “Sally.” Sally has been frustrated and angered because she has to wear a mask at work. She has readily offered her political view on the masks to anyone who will listen. This has caused a lot of people to roll their eyes and avoid Sally. But that only makes matters worse for her. . .
For three months now Sally has refused to wear a mask at work. She refuses to be vaccinated. She believes that both are unnecessary and only signs that the government is attempting to control her life and she says that covid-19 is not a real thing.
Now, whether you agree with her or not, consider how might your interactions with Sally differ if you saw her not as opponent to help realize the error in her ways. But what if you saw Sally as someone who is deeply wounded and needs care? How might that change in perspective change how you speak and listen to Sally?
An opponent is not someone to fear, but someone who is wounded. . . I wonder if this idea might help us as we serve and work outside of the church today?
Blessings
Rev. Derek
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