Steadfastness

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Charlottesville, clarity, division, faithful, firm in resolve, grounded, Meg Wheatley, prejudice, racist, steadfast, steadfastness, Texas, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning I read Meg Wheatley’s reflection on the word steadfastness. I was trying to find something to redeem my world from all the racist experiences I heard about or saw on the national news yesterday. All the care of neighbor for neighbor that was imaged over the past week in Texas with no reference to preferred status for rescue seemed washed away in the same kind of horrific visuals and speech that were manifested during the recent incident at Charlottesville. I have no place inside me to find comprehension of such division and prejudice. I thought we had come farther on the road to acceptance of diversity. The question before me this morning is whether or not I will stand up and use my voice in situations that call out prejudice of the kind that I thought had been conquered. Meg Wheatley calls me to a challenge.

Steadfastness is a lovely old-fashioned word that we don’t hear much about these days. It describes how warriors stand their ground, how they find their position and stay there, unshaken and immovable. Steadfast people are firm in their resolve; they are not shaken by events or circumstances. They stand clear in their beliefs, grounded in their cause, faithful to the end. (Perseverance, p. 55)

May it be so in my life, beginning today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cooperation

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bad, division, Ezekiel, good, heart, new heart, new spirit, passivity, prophet, reconciliation, responsibility, sins, spiritual path, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unity, violence

I’ve always been partial to Ezekiel’s verse in chapter 36 that has God saying, “I will take from you your stony hearts and give you natural hearts…” It’s something I hold onto when I’m feeling ungenerous or grumpy – or worse. This morning however, in the earlier text from Ezekiel, chapter 18: 21-28, I read a serious message about bad and good behavior and the consequences of turning in one direction or the other. In case we miss it in the first reading, the verse before the gospel says this: Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, says the Lord, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. (18:31) The lesson for today, then, is that we have a responsibility to work toward restoring ourselves to God’s image rather than letting God do all the work.

There is more to this story, however, that resolves the apparent contradiction in the above comments. Why did Ezekiel change his mind from chapter 18 to chapter 36? The story goes that Ezekiel became a prophet in Babylon during the exile, and “his first task was to prepare his fellow countrymen in Babylon for the final destruction of Jerusalem, which they believed to be inviolable. Accordingly, the first part of his book consists of reproaches for Israel’s past and present sins and the confident prediction of yet a further devastation of the land of promise and a more general exile. In 587 BCE, when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, Ezekiel was vindicated before his unbelieving compatriots.” (New American Bible commentary, p. 972)

The good news of Ezekiel’s prophecy which I quoted at the beginning of this reflection is that God never does abandon the human race, but there are questions that arise, I think, from a comparison of the Israelites’ situation to the state of our fractured nation today. Have we been shaken enough by the division and violence that continues to occur in our country and the world to wake up? Will we take the responsibility to change our own hearts and cooperate with God in moving toward unity and care for one another before we devolve into a people who will lose any semblance of humanity? I know those questions sound alarmist and dire but the story of the Israelites this morning calls me to look deeply into my own spirit and ask myself about my behavior. Am I so sure that I am “above the fray” by saying my life is on a spiritual path? Do I avoid difficult conversations because I think I have the right answers and don’t trust people on “the other side” to be rational about differences? Is praying for movement toward peace and reconciliation enough to do if I am unwilling to leave my prayer space to reach out to anyone I see as unsafe or uncomfortable? The blindness of the Israelites and the severity of Ezekiel’s message this morning have touched me as never before and shaken my passivity as one who believes that God will always save us. I still know that truth but now ask myself how long I am willing to watch what we are doing to each other before I give God some active help in the effort of our reconciliation. A sobering question for this first Friday of Lent…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transition

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division, inauguration, justice, kindness, Peace, protest, psalm 85, reconciliation, salvation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transition, truth

Transition ceremonies for the inauguration of a new president of the United States have already begun.  The early morning news is reporting the use of pepper spray by police to quell what seemed to portend a violent protest. Today begins in trepidation and – for me – sadness that we are in such a position of fear of disruption and disrespect from within our own country as well as from foreign terrorists. I have not been enamored of every president who has been elected during my life but I learned early on to respect the office. “How have we come to this?” I ask myself. The only answer I am able to offer myself is: “It’s not that simple.”

There’s no sense in wringing our hands and longing for “the old days.” I find it ironic that the refrain for lectionary psalm for the morning, Psalm 85, announces that kindness and truth shall meet. The verses 11-14 that appear tell us that justice and peace shall kiss. Truth shall spring out of the earth and justice shall look down from heaven, promising also that the Lord himself will give his benefits; our land shall yield its increase. Justice shall walk before him, and salvation, along the way of his steps.

It seems impossible even to conjecture how that might happen here and now for us, in this “winter of our discontent.” There is so much division in the country; what will heal us? “Well, nothing but every person’s recognition and responsible participation,” I hear as I read the gospel acclamation: God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Call me Pollyanna if you will; I know that unity in this “land of opportunity” seems a far distant goal at the moment. What I believe, however, is that if I work toward reconciliation inside myself as well as in all the situations and with all the people in my life, by acting with love as the impetus and prayer for unity as the guiding principle of each day, I will have done my part. And I trust that I will continue to find like-minded people willing to do the same. In that way we will undoubtedly, someday, reach “critical mass” and see the renewal of justice and peace.

May God bless our efforts and our country today and in the days to come!