Dear FBC Family:
Oh, friends. What a week this has been (after only three days!). I’m writing to you this morning from my mother’s dining room in Clermont, Florida, where Tim, Taylor and I are enjoying some vacation time with my mother.
We flew down Tuesday night on a plane brimming with celebratory folk returning home from the inauguration. When the pilot announced that our route would bring us close to the “Gulf of America,” the plane erupted with whoops and cheers. I didn’t fault the giddy people around me (though I did take umbrage with the pilot). Who doesn’t like to feel like a winner? I spent the two-hour flight wondering how many of the dear people around me on that plane belonged to a Christian church and, if so, what kind of spiritual guidance they were receiving from their pastors.
Plenty of prayers and declarations came this week from a variety of faith leaders, mostly Evangelical Christians. While too many sounded like partisan endorsements, the humble entreaty for mercy upon our nation’s most vulnerable ones from Mariann Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, was a message one would expect to hear from a prophet of God.
Some pastoral words from the heart.
Siblings in Christ, I am holding you in the Light today.
To you in the LGBTQ+ community who are feeling anxious and derided, know that you are cherished, seen and surrounded by this faith community. Your validity is not dictated by an executive order.
To undocumented children of God in our congregation, know that you are cherished and surrounded by this faith community. You belong to the Eternal God whose love knows no borders.
To you who feel abandoned by the assault on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, know that you are beloved by your faith community. You are not alone. Your church will walk with you.
To dedicated government employees in our congregation who are feeling unappreciated or uncertain about the future, know that you are cherished and valued by this faith community. Your worth as a worker is not determined by any executive action.
How do we stay grounded in the months and years ahead?
My goodness, I’m still figuring this out for myself! But I’ll offer three modest encouragements here for keeping your spirit balanced and your soul focused:
Practice the Presence of God. No fancy instruction here. Just be yourself and be aware of divine presence in this moment. Rather than reprocessing the past or worrying about the future, let yourself be aware of Christ’s presence right here, right now.
Don’t get pulled into the vortex of outrage. As Richard Rohr reminds us, “We need the wisdom of a ‘full prophet,’ one who can love and yet criticize, one who can speak their words of correction out of an experience of gratitude, not anger. God must allow us to come to a place of freedom, a place of peace, and a place of fullness before we can speak as a prophet. A prophet must hold on to the truth of their anger, especially as it is directed toward injustice—but the danger of the anger is that when we let it control us, we’re not a help anymore. That’s why we have so many false prophets in America and in the world today.”
Keep asking “What is mine to do?” My mind has returned more than once this week to the Mines of Moria in Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, and the scene in which Frodo Baggins laments to Gandalf, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” Gandalf replies, "So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Dear beloved of God, you cannot fix the world—nor is God calling you to fix it. You can only endeavor to do what is yours to do. What if we discern together what is ours to do?
I’ll be back in worship on February 2. This Sunday, Pastor Eric will preach from Luke chapter four, which seems tailor-made for a week like this one:
[Jesus said,] “The Spirit of Yahweh is upon me. God has anointed me and sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of God’s favor.”
The Spirit of Yahweh is on you, too, and on all of us together. And that is worth celebrating.
With hope,
