Be still… and love.

Luke 6  

This past Tuesday, Deacon Kari and I had the pleasure of worshipping at Luther Seminary chapel. We went because our former vicar, Bethany Ringdal, was the preacher. In her message, she reflected for a long time on a Psalm that rejoices in the destruction of enemies… how it can feel good that our enemies are going down for a while, but sooner or later, when the Bible is calling for judgement against the unjust, we just might find ourselves on the wrong side... we might find out we are the unjust, the  enemy of God. She invited us, in the face of all that, into God’s invitation to “Be still.” When we are still, we may just find ourselves opening up to God’s way in a new way.

So in the gospel this morning, Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Meet all that is evil with what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called “soul force,” a powerful, nonviolent response that refuses to make more enemies…

I love to watch Trevor Noah, to me this amazing South African-born comedian is still the "new" host of the Daily Show... But to be honest, I have to sort of limit my intake because although at first it's fun to laugh at my enemies, after a bit of laughing…
I can get really, really scared by the overwhelming amount of evil going on in the world and can cycle into a downward spiral of fear and despair that takes me nowhere good.
Instead, I have to claim that wise saying... “You cannot do everything, and realizing that will free you to do something.”

Last Sunday, a number of us went to a workshop with Debby Irving, the author of Waking Up White. She provided us with some very simple but powerful resources about how the culture of white supremacy in the U.S. is part of its very founding. Now, when she says “white supremacy,” she's not talking about just the KKK or active violence or prejudice in action. She's actually describing something much more subtle, hard to see and pervasive... And that's the idea that our culture is mostly white and that's mostly superior. Then, she describes how actually a culture of white supremacy has to be undone because it is destructive to us all, including people who think of themselves as white. And then she shared with us a long list of expectations of a white supremacy culture... Here are a few of the ...

Hierarchical, dominated space

One right way, on right perspective

Emotional restraint

Conflict avoidant

Sense of urgency, fix now

Be busy, Blame, Interrupt

Withholding (empathy, trust, money, knowledge)…

That’s just a little bit of a list that goes on and on, and I feel convicted…

How often I have wished that things didn't have to feel so urgent, yet I can make those who make me wait into my enemies...

How often I have missed the chance to really listen and be present as I want to because of a pervasive culture of busyness that surrounds and gets in me…

How often I have consciously or unconsciously dominated, or felt dominated by another…

So God, knowing full well how easily we project responsibility for our pain outward, blaming others, says "Try the opposite." Meet hate with love. It seems impossible and that's why it's so transformative. And we won't do it perfectly, so there's the opportunity to keep practicing.

In a diverse community like this one, we have such wonderful weekly opportunities to practice forming transformational cultural relationships across what might be deep differences... I remember one week when an Ethiopian member looked at my children and said wistfully, "They are so lucky because they don't know the deep divisions between cultures within Ethiopia..."
We could have a lot of discussion about whether any one of us is lucky, given the whole mix of sorrows and joys in each of our stories... But it also seems like if we can get to the point where we know what the deep divisions have been and we can love across those divisions on purpose, where we can actually intentionally see our differences and not only appreciate them but acknowledge how deeply we need the wisdom from each perspective, where we can bind together and oppose any ideology that wants to make some people enemies and lock them up or wall them off or take all their resources for ourselves, making the resources more important than the people... Then, we might be catching the vision of God who says let's do what all the ancient wise ones have said... Do to others what you would want them to do to you.
Because it's in loving that we'll experience the abundance that is really abundance.

My friend Kate lost her brother this week. Here's what she said about him...

Who was Andy? 

Explaining Andy was a constant task in our family. Andy had a rare genetic condition similar to Down’s Syndrome called Smith Lemli Opitz Syndrome. When he was born, the doctors were unsure about his future. He was 4 lbs 12 oz, had an extra finger on each hand and an extra toe on each foot. There were other concerns as well, his parents were told by a physician that his condition was “incompatible with life”. A priest came to perform the baptism in the hospital room and told his parents, “There are no guarantees in life, you just take him home and care for him”. They did just that.

Andy did not cry to be fed like most infants, he did not naturally know how to breastfeed, nor did he even try to suckle. His mother held him close almost constantly, timed his feedings and expressed the milk into his mouth. Andy never slept well. His dad paid close attention to his needs and often slept near or with him. For every minute of his life, there was one certainty, he would have the best love and care anyone could hope for. He was completely dependent and vulnerable which was a great gift to those who cared for him because it always made us better versions of ourselves.

Better versions of ourselves… 

I heard this week that “Mercy is God's primary quality,” and I imagine that is the source of all that Jesus proclaims to us in Luke this week.

God wants to subvert things we think are important—whatever I am rooted in that is taking me away from God, whether I’m distracted in my resources or relationships (or my problems with both)... and if I get uncomfortable?
Maybe when I am uncomfortable, there is potential to meet God in a brand new way.

My friend Heidi was recently in Nepal.
Here is what she wrote about that experience...

People are poor everywhere. Sometimes that poverty is material in nature. It looks like food insecurity; illiteracy; lack of basic medical care; gender, caste-based, and ethnic oppression. Sometimes that poverty is spiritual in nature. It looks like millions of us, who have allowed ourselves to be convinced that what we need is more and more stuff when what we really need is each other. We who experience these different kinds of poverty have much to teach each other. May we whose voices echo more loudly in the global landscape find the humility to listen for and amplify the voices of those who are excluded. 

God is present everywhere. Her face is reflected in Nepali Dalit hill women and in suburban Chicago soccer moms… May we remain open to the infinite and surprising ways that God still shows up in this beautiful and broken world. 

Where we find only poverty, God invites us to remain open…

Where we find circumstances that are incompatible with life, God teaches us nurture that makes us better versions of ourselves…

Where we are surrounded by domination systems that want to divide and conquer, God invites us to work to navigate complex relationships across difference to building thriving, cohesive communities…

Rather than make enemies, God says, “Be still.” And surrounds us and fills us with love.