Friends, it did my soul good to be with you in worship on Sunday. As our nation feels caught right now in a hurricane of words—anxious projections, angry accusations, frantic dissections—please remember and never forget that we are the church, the living body of Jesus Christ. We belong to the God in whose image we are made, the God whose mercy is everlasting and whose truth endures in spite of what humans do.
Wherever you fall on the optimism-despair continuum, I hope these words from Sunday’s sermon may offer fresh encouragement for this day.
“If I told you I believe that the most life-affirming way to respond to the present moment in our nation is to nurture a contemplative life, I would expect raised eyebrows. You might reply, with reason, that, no, now is the time for action.
I hear that. And I get that. Anyone with eyes to see and ears to listen knows we have reasons for concern about the future of our country and the fabric of social life in the U.S. The crisis we’re facing should, one might rightly argue, spur us to action. Contemplation sounds too much like retreat, detachment. Real contemplation, though, is anything but. Contemplation invariably leads to action.
Contemplation, remember, means to gaze, to observe, to pay attention.
A contemplative is simply someone who’s learning to pay attention to divine presence; someone who’s learning to see beneath the surface and to listen beneath the noise—as Elijah did, outside his cave, straining to hear the still, small voice. As Mary did at the Annunciation, absorbing the angel’s impossible words, ‘The baby in you will be called the Son of God,’ and pondering, contemplating them in her heart.
The work of contemplation includes three key dimensions:
We see the world as it is.
We see God present in the world as it is.
We remain open to what God is up to in this world, and then offer our own, genuine, God-given response.
As Anglican priest and author, Rachel Mann says, we turn our face toward the horror of a world on fire…while simultaneously seeking to respond to the situation in the love of God.”[1]
Desmond Tutu, the South African Anglican bishop and theologian known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist, said: ‘There is still much work to be done to fulfill God’s dream and bring about the transfiguration of the suffering that exists in our world.
‘But before we can address this suffering from a place: of love and not hate, of forgiveness and not revenge, of humility and not arrogance, of generosity and not guilt, of courage and not fear—we must learn to see with the eyes of the heart.”
FBC family, may God make it so in your life…and mine…and in this nation and world we love.
Peace,
Pastor Julie
PS: I recommend as more soul food for today this article Beyond a Fetal Position — Church Anew posted by Walter Brueggemann a day or two after last week’s election.
[1] Rachel Mann, Facing a world on fire, The Christian Century, June 2024, p. 31.