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A Few Words From Pastor Bryan
...and John Roedel
I imagine many of you are feeling the weight of the news from Israel/Palestine this past week. I certain have been. As more details are revealed regarding the heinous acts of violence and unspeakable cruelty, it is all so heavy and tragic. It feels beyond words really, but I'll try to offer a few.
I'm not one to advocate for a "just avoid the bad news so it doesn't bother you" kind of spirituality. That's not the path of Jesus. Jesus calls us to deal with reality and to try to somehow respond in faithful ways. We are always given the grace we need to deal with life on life's terms. We don't need to fear that the sadness will overwhelm us as long as we keep offering it to God and as long as we do our part to stay close to the inexhaustible and irrepressible Source of Love.
But I also think there's a time to shut down the news and not take in unnecessary details and images. I mean we get it. Something absolutely atrocious, heinous, and completely avoidable has happened, and things are about to get even more violent. This is a VERY sad and gut-wrenching chapter of human history, and all indications are that it's about to get worse. As if this world of ours needed another major geo-political crisis. As if we need to feed the congressional/industrial war profiteering machine another dime or another moment of our time, energy, and precious resources.
And so at times like this it is important to ask ourselves-- Does our Judeo-Christian faith have anything to offer us as we try to deal with all of this?
Well yes it does. Lots in fact. But nothing trite or easy will touch this. So let's just get to the real stuff.
First--there is the tradition of lament. That's a biblical world for "feeling it deeply and authentically." In other words, be in touch with how this all feels and give it expression. Grieve. Mourn. Cry. Shout. Ask God where He/She is in all of this. Just be a real human and feel what you need to feel and take your time with it. It's way more healthy to grieve and feel than to run and avoid or numb out.
Second--to just begin with, there are the "big 3" of Micah 6:8. "What does God require of you oh humans but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God?"
A verse from the Hebrew Bible such as Micah 6:8 feels very appropriate now. But the beautiful mandates of Scripture don't help if we don't live them out. The prophet Micah put it as simply as it can be put. Do justice. Let's face it. NONE of what's happening in the Middle East right now would be happening if the humans on all sides of this avalanche of suffering truly embraced justice. What Hamas did this past week was and is inexcusable. The word "Hamas" literally means "courage and bravery." There was nothing courageous or brave about slaughtering innocent civilians, including toddlers and infants. But neither is there anything noble or just in the modern nation state of Israel's brutal mistreatment of Palestinians for decades. Period. If we can't deal truthfully with this we're never going to get anywhere other than where we are right now. Micah tells us that God requires justice. That's the only way to move toward a resolution of this perennial conflict. No justice, no peace.
And Micah calls for kindness and humility. Yes, a profound embrace of those 3 things--justice, kindness, and humility-- would lead the way out of all of this. But the potential for that process just got set back and slowed down to a heartbreaking degree.
And finally--what makes any sense for us as followers of Jesus other than to keep responding with love, compassion, and truth? That's different from trying to fix things. There will not be a quick fix. But we can all keep responding with love and compassion, and we can do our best to be truthful and to work toward loving conversations and explorations of the core issues. The simple truth is that Israel and Palestine need to share that piece of God's earth. Neither of them are going anywhere.
And then, thankfully, there are also the gifts of the poets among us. Once again I have to thank Trish Kalhagen for often sending me some of the soulful poems and videos she discovers online. She sent me this poem from John Roedel a couple of days ago, and John sums my response to all of this up pretty darn well. Thanks Trish and thanks John.
Oh--here's a link to a nicely written statement on this past week's events by our Wisconsin Conference Minister Rev. Franz Rigert. I think you'll find it meaningful and well done.
Give John Roedel's poem a read. He nails it as far as I'm concerned.
Hope to see you this Sunday in church,
Pastor Bryan
"Love Is Big"
By John Roedel
In the face of war
I’m so small.
Yet love is big.
I can’t make the
world be peaceful
I can’t stall tanks
from roaring down roads
I can’t prevent children
from having to hide in bunkers
I can’t convince the news to
stop turning war into a video game
I can’t silence the sound of bombs
tearing neighborhoods apart
I can’t turn a guided missile
into a bouquet of flowers
I can’t make a warmonger
have an ounce of empathy
I can’t convince ambassadors
to quit playing truth or dare
I can’t deflect a sniper’s bullet
from turning a wife into a widow
I can’t stave off a country being
reduced to ash and rubble
I can’t do any of that
the only thing I can do
is love the next person I encounter
without any conditions or strings
to love my neighbor
so fearlessly that
it starts a ripple
that stretches from
one horizon to the next
I can’t force peace
on the world
but I can become a force
of peace in the world
because
sometimes all it takes
is a single lit candle
in the darkness
to start a movement
“Lord, make me a candle
of comfort in this world
let me burn with peace”
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