'Good' for the Future
Stopping at the door of the Vestry, one of my parishioners caught my attention before worship on Sunday, handed me a small magazine and simply said she enjoyed the article and thought I might, as well. It was the February 2020 issue of the Reader's Digest. Prominent above the printed pages was a sticky note which marked an article she wanted me to read and the words, "I've always felt people aren't so bad one on one." It was signed, "Kathy".
The article highlighted by Kathy Hardin-Odle is, "Kindness, Pass It On!" This article is the record of a variety of Twitter conversations which seek to tell the story of kindness as people have experienced it along the way. The words recorded there bring tears on the train, give pause along the pathways and traverse the skies above us, all of them intended to remind us that there is good at work in the folk around us, if only we are open to the possibility and watching for the impact . . . all of which got me to mulling a bit about our world and, in particular, my ministry in recent times.
Negative stories, troubling behaviors, shootings, robberies, mayhem, racism, sexism, political decline, national insecurity, violence, anger, hatred and the horrid actions of a few in our world, all seem to garner the largest amount of viewership, listeners and ratings in our technological world. They are, first and foremost, the lead stories on the headlines of each paper, the first covered topic of each newscast on television and, more often than not, the majority of scrolled topics which fill our news services via our internet feeds. We have a proven hunger for the sensational, the incredible and the hard to watch - and we feed that wolf with more and more of our time, energy and interest, leaving positive human relationships, community and culture shaping events to the last thing to be watched or heard in a thin attempt to set everyone, in the end, moving forward with a heart-warming story. We are failing our children, not intentionally, of course, but we are failing them - by the example we are setting on a grand, global scale.
We are teaching our children to keep the lights on for security, rather than embrace the night skies and the beauty of the stars. We are instructing them in the manner of cynicism making certain that few in our world are trusted before first having to prove themselves. We are showing them a world unworthy of God, degraded by sin and so corrupt that crucifixion pales in the light of what we can do to each other today. We are underscoring the massive unreliability of government to do its job, in this or any country, and our increasing personal need to associate ourselves with small groups who will protect our special interest, whatever that may be. And, we are coaching our children that the only way to truly succeed is to win, at any cost, on a sliding scale determined by a corporate headquarters who sets the goal based on revenue generated by the purchase of their goods and services. Nobody wins without investing everything, believing everything, doing everything, one particular way, or so it seems.
Ministry, in its many forms and expressions, is not exempt from this indictment. Jesus said, "Allow the children to come to me," Jesus said. "Don't forbid them, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like these children." (Matthew 19.14 CEB)
In far too many instances, rather than bring the children to Jesus in the justice Jesus embodies, the mercy He extends or the humility in which He walks, we scare them to Him under the auspices of sin, by the injustices we teach or in the manner by which we instruct them in the faith. We strip them of innocence by insisting that dogma and doctrine matter more than care and compassion, by requiring them to jettison an understanding of a diverse global human village for one in which only Christ's disciples win and all others suffer the indignity of whatever hell in which they exist, and by holding to traditions of Biblical exegesis which separate the nations, divide the Spirit and make unattainable a sense of the nearing kingdom by any other means than our own. We are failing our children.
When I look into the eyes of our granddaughter and grandniece standing side by side next to the Christmas tree during our family Christmas gathering, I see only love, laughter, wonder and joy in their eyes. Who among us adults would dare to wear a princess gown to such a party, to throw on costume jewelry which made us feel special or to find a headband which allowed us to stand out among our peers? Who among us would be more interested in the appearance of our socks and shoes than the correctness of our theology? Who among us would embrace others as family, regardless of from where they had come, what church they attended or the nature of their politics?
Jesus understood, and invites us to understand, that we get too bent out of shape over the stuff that really doesn't matter in the Kingdom of God. We use a system of weights and measures for right and wrong that just does not exist in the heart of God, especially as it regards the soul. Jesus looks at us and perceives the forgiveness we need, not because we were born into original sin, but simply because we haven't found it in ourselves to live in the freedom of faith God has intended from the beginning. We are more consumed by doing it ourselves (whatever 'it' is) than allowing the Spirit to guide us in ways which allow us to relax, relate to one another, find the good in each other and trust in the Creative Breath of God to point out the wonder which exists for the other. We are more committed to naming the sin (whatever we name 'sin' to be) than celebrating the Grace God gives. We cling to the nails on the cross rather than live in the forgiveness Jesus offers from there. We are more likely to stand pointing at the grave and the death we can cause than notice the fact it is emptied of any power by the God who calls all Creation to new Life.
It is time for a new beginning. Even the prophets lifted up the eyes and lives of the people to look at God and know that God only desires good for each of us in the New Age. So it is that it is time we highlight the good in our daily lives, name the stories of good in our ongoing encounters and celebrate the good which are the signs of the nearing Kingdom, as did Jesus in His ministry among us. Remember, His entire ministry is spent highlighting what the 'nearing Kingdom' means. Maybe we should take a page out of His playbook and do the same?
I am not sure we can convince the news outlets to favor such stories, short of only giving our attention and ratings to those stories and moments which favor the good done in our world over the grotesque done to our world, but we will see. Yet, most clearly, nothing will change in the world if it does not change in me, in you, in us working together.
The time to stop failing the children - and setting them up to do the same to their children - is here. We are given the freedom in faith to choose the manner in which we will go and I pray we will be intentional in going the way of Christ over cause, Jesus over just us, and the Spirit over the spurious. It is time to become the 'good' of God's ongoing Creation story.
Thank you, Kathy, for starting the ball rolling by sharing the good in this article and thank you, Liza and Lily, for inviting this old Papa and Great Uncle to be the child God intends.
Something to ponder on the journey.
(c)dcw2020
Photograph (c)dcw2019
