I've been reflecting a lot lately about being called by faith to action, justice and most of all compassion ... I've had many bits and pieces floating around in my mind as I've struggled to articulate my feelings about this.I know that everything I do is motivated from a deep sense of compassion and care for others. Even in the darkest moments, when I have acted foolishly, my heart holds to (sometimes it is an erroneous rationalization) the notion that my actions are in response to the cry for caring and compassion.
I have been mistaken ... but I can and will say, that I have been mistaken in my actions NOT in my motivation.
I have been used and misused by people seeking their own ends rather then being honest and open ... but my motivations - the WHY? of my actions - remains focused on caring for and helping others ...
That has sometimes been forgotten ... it has often been overlooked. But this past week as I've reflected back on some things and read more of Diana Butler Bass' Christianity for the Rest of Us, I have come to realize or even re-discover, how central that notion of compassion is to EVERYTHING I do and everything I am.
In turn, this commitment to compassion has caused me to see justice not as something that exists "over there" somewhere. But as a need that we find crying out in the streets around us. When I watch or read Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the children cowering under the robes of the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the young mom huddled in the streets surrounded by ineffective phantoms serve as a stark reminder that want and need are felt not only "over there" somewhere far in the distance, but also closer to home as well.
The prophetic call to justice doesn't send us zooming off to the remote corners of the world to feed and clothe the hungry, but rather it challenges us to see the needs in those remote corners AND around the corner from us as well.
This means that when a voice begins to speak out and the content and tone are not comfortable, as a people of faith - as individuals of faith - we owe it to ourselves, to them, and to God ultimately, to pause on WHY? this voice is uncomfortable and reflect on what it is about the ISSUE that causes this discomfort.
Have we grown complacent?
Are we doing enough?
Could we be doing more?
Are we REALLY being faithful?
The list of questions can quickly grow quite long ... it's about asking ourselves the hard questions that the prophetic voices raise ... It's about confronting the mirror held before us that asks US if we really believe we are doing enough ...
Sometimes the answers will surprise us ... sometimes the answers will condemn us ... sometimes the solutions are simple ... but we will never know unless we're open to asking, addressing, and answering the questions honestly ...
Silencing the voices we dub shrill, or uncomfortable, or blunt, or whatever other descriptor you wish to use will not diminish our responsibility of faith to ACT on the words we so easily utter ... silencing the voices will serve only to intensify the NEED for those issues to be spoken of ... we are called to act on our faith ... generations past silenced voices that spoke out on a vast array of issues ... the Spirit will not be thwarted ... and sometimes when the Spirit is speaking, it is those who believe themselves to be most faithful who are among the last to heed her cry ...
Today I thought of two quotations that speak to the call of faith and remind us to keep our eyes, our ears, our hearts and our minds open to the work of the spirit, and that warn us of becoming TOO complacent in our faith ... The first is from Diana Butler Bass, the second from poet-prophet Ann Weems ...
When I was a girl, Christian charity typically meant sending money to the poor, taking care of people's needs at a distance. We thought of the church as a kind of United Way with prayer. On some occasions when the denomination reminded us, practicing justice meant contributing to the national church offices in Washington DC, in support of some political policy. The most committed people in a congregation might attend a protest rally (but they probably wouldn't tell the rest of the congregation about it). These were worthy endeavours, but EVERYTHING happened far away formthe congregation. Essentially, we practiced charity and justice by paying professionals, who often took largely secular political approaches to social concerns to do it. Throughout my journey with emerging mainline congregaitons, I encountered people doing justice that involved hands on service, linking social concerns and spirituality in LOCAL mission and activism !!! (pages 163/4 Christianity for the Rest of Us)
He said, "Feed My Sheep"
there were no conditions:
least of all - Feed my sheep if they deserve it.
Feed my sheep if you feel like it.
Feed my sheep is you have any left overs.
Feed my sheep if the mood strikes you.
if the economy is okay...
if you're NOT too busy ...
NO conditions ... just ... FEED MY SHEEP.
could it be that God's Kingdom will come when each lamb is fed?
We who have agreed to keep covenant are called to feed sheep
even when it means the grazing will be done
on our OWN front lawns. (Searching for Shalom page 47)
Maybe one day we will learn to heed the prophets and listen to their call ...
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