Dear Friends,
I write you from this moment of anxiety and grasping. This is hardly a new feeling, for those of us living right now, and for God’s people more broadly. And, indeed, as people of faith, we find our origins in division. Just look at this week’s reading from Joshua - we are people of a jealous God, Joshua tells the tribes, and you cannot serve other gods and this one. We cannot be divided and remain in covenant. This is true, but it also ignores a more complicated kind of faithfulness, one that I think of often.
In Acts, Paul lauds the Athenians for their religiosity, having seen amongst their many shrines, one marked “To An Unknown God.” For Paul, this was of course a shrine to the yet undeclared Christian God, and whose Good News he is there to proclaim. This is his mission, and he gently explains that God will overlook their prior ignorance, but that now that they know, they should repent and praise this God. And I think this is part of the challenge of this moment: acknowledging how our divisions prevent our covenant as a community, as well as how we can stay open to those who are still walking the path toward “knowing better” or knowing the truth.
Setting aside the sort of theoretical nonsense of my graduate school days, which would demand I talk about truths, right now, I want to offer a simple one: We are all children of God. This was, in fact, at the heart of one of last week’s readings, but, oh, is it hard to remember when we are at our most divided. After all, there are those who consider others - including people like myself - to be excluded from the kingdom. If they do not see me as part of the kingdom, why should I extend the same. Well, it’s all in that statement.
We are ALL children of God.
Or, as we used to put it when I lived in the South, “Y’all Means ALL”
If you’re amongst those who feel scared and threatened and like you don’t matter or like your children or loved ones don’t matter to the people around you, what can you do? This is where our call gets hard, let me tell you. It is hard to turn the other cheek to our own rejection or the rejection of those we love. But our own integrity depends on it. And it helps me to remember that this is all part of the great mystery of God’s creation - and if you follow Wiggles & Wonder on Facebook or Twitter you may have caught this song that’s making my heart sing right now, a cover of “All Things Bright and Beautiful” by Rain for Roots and Sandra McCracken:
If you’re struggling to see the humanity in those who cannot see yours, I see you. And I offer you this. Start with seeing the beauty of everything else God has made - flowers and birds, rivers and trees, and our own ability to praise it all.
Other offerings for this moment:
Trinity Wall Street recommended this mindfulness meditation and compassion practice on our shared humanity from mindful.org.
I’m preparing for a combination of Thanksgiving and Advent offerings for my community, centered first on gratitude practices - in other words, prayers of thanksgiving. But I also recognize that is not our only prayer. If you don’t know Anne Lamott’s book, “Help, Thanks, Wow,” it’s a useful one on the only prayers you really need, and one that’s easily translated for any age.
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: if we ask God to move a mountain, we need to be prepared to wake up next to a shovel. That means that, if we want to see beauty in the world around us, we should be prepared to create that beauty. There are endless ways to do this, and just how we add beauty and joy to the world is at the heart of the Caldecott Award winning storybook, “Miss Rumphius” by Barbara Cooney. Enjoy this story as read aloud on KidLit TV.
Keep singing! I promise I’ll start a playlist of my recommendations soon. I swear, though, song is really the thing that carries me through each day.
What is helping you hold tight to union, to our holy covenant, in this time of division? I hope you’ll share that with me and with others. Good will and stories have a power like few other things.
For now, in the words of the above hymn, I say, “How great is God almighty who has made all things well.”
Until next time,
A. Bird