How I long for Peace | Life After Doom
Friends,
I went to Harvest Fest in Underhill Vermont on Saturday. The day was glorious and the booths were packed. Great art, great food, great music, and clearly a community pulling together. The world is doomed and we are out there being friendly, and enjoying beauty.
At first the contrast was overbearing. But then I wondered, maybe it isn't contrast. Maybe this is how we save our nation, one lovely, welcoming neighborhood festival at a time.
-Liz
Be Church in the face of doom
When I was growing up my parents encouraged us to learn about the holocaust. We read children's books when we were young, and more difficult ones as we got older. Histories, narratives, movies. Stories of war, but mostly about the holocaust.
From the start I was haunted by "what if" questions. What would I have done, what would I do, if faced with the same circumstance. Would I be part of the french resistance, would I join the Hitler youth, would I be among the great mass just trying to go unnoticed? The characters in the stories mostly faced a clear choice--stand up for what is right, or not. The main characters mostly did what is right.
Today I understand better how unclear the options are in the moment. I am doing lots of things with little risk. I call my representatives, who mostly agree with me. I show up for stand outs and protests, when I'm not busy with other things. I study the issues, I write, I talk to people who agree with me. So far, I'm not facing significant danger, and I'm not making a significant difference. It's not so much that I'm afraid to do more, rather I haven't the slightest idea what more to do.
I feel in my bones Habakkuk's pleading to God: "how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you 'Violence!' and you will not save" (1:2)?
A sixteen year old was picked up by ICE in a distant Massachusetts town. They were willing to let him go, all he had to do was turn in his parents. A five year old was held in her front yard, the agents waiting for the parents to be come out and be arrested.
A rural veteran trauma program has ended because employees are now required to work in person and not online. People I know have lost their federal government jobs. Eighteen hundred immigrants that had been detained in Florida are "missing". People are getting arrested for the "crime" of showing up for their immigration hearings.
"Why do you, [God,] make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise" (1:3).
Gun violence continues to take out school children at a steady pace, with little news coverage, but one popular speaker killed at a university fills my news feeds. Research on cancer and vaccinations is caught in a political vise. Trans people are losing access to needed medications. We have no idea if NOAA can keep up with storm reporting.
Some lower courts are standing up for the law, but due process seems gone for good. The Supreme court apparently thinks having a King is good for the nation. "So the law becomes slack, and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous; therefore judgment comes forth perverted" (1:4).
At the same time I need to choose a medicare plan. I'm trying to take time to visit my parents more often as they age. Two good friends have moved further away. And I need to finish a quilt for my nephew. My life is mostly dinner and dishes and laundry. Work, a bit of TV. In the face of devastation the majority of human life is still the basics, sprinkled with a lovely walk in the fall colors, mom winning a card game, a visit with an old friend, some beautiful music.
Habakkuk's final line in Sunday's lectionary is simple: "the righteous live by their faithfulness" (2:3c). The vision we are to write large (2:2) is not clear--certainly we should work on that--but the call is always to faithfulness.
Whether or not our actions can save our Democracy, faithfulness calls us to action. In Frozen II Anna declares that the problem is impossible, so all she can do is the next right thing. For us as Christians, our faithfulness determines that next right step.
Sometimes that next step is to make my bed. Sometimes it is to protest, write a letter, make a call. To show up. Always I must attend to my personal care and faith formation, so that when the next step is to take significant risk, I am prepared.
God has a vision of a world where the faithful welcome the stranger, liberate the oppressed, care for the sick, and visit those in prison. I long for a leader to tell us what to do to save this nation, but each day I must save myself by the work of righteousness. Whether or not it changes everything I must care for the individuals in front of me, and work to change the community around me.
As community we join together to protect our neighbors. And to celebrate the beauty that still remains around us.
What is must frustrating to you? What is your church doing or not doing? Reply to this email to let me know what's happening.
"How I Long for Peace" is Peggy Seeger's song, redone here by Chrys Matthews and others.
Life After Doom by Brian McLaren was written before the last election. It is a tale of how to live and keep hope when there does not appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel. (Note that bookshop.com now has it's own e-reader program that doesn't use Kindle.)
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