The September Tidings letter has always anticipated the fall program year and that regathering of the body of Christ in a somewhat more regular rhythm than what the summer offers. This year I find myself looking to the fall with the great hope that we will be able to regather in increasingly normal ways after a period of time much greater than just a summertime. As I write this article, I continue to be aware that all of our plans continue to be contingent on factors of which we are not fully in control – namely an ongoing pandemic. Every school is putting out their guidance and their plan for how to navigate this year in a way that will hopefully be more normal than the last year and a half. Churches are navigating the same journey, some guided strictly by fear, some guided by what they are calling faithfulness, but which sometimes looks more like bravado. At Peace UCC we are continuing to try to navigate this journey with the humility of only knowing what we know and trying to continue to lead in love and care for all of our members and our community. And I know that we are not managing to please everyone.
There is a common theme that I hear in conversations and that I feel in my own heart, and that is exhaustion and longing. Our healthcare systems speak of doctors and nurses experiencing PTSD-like symptoms as the health crisis that we had hoped was behind us is once again exerting a strain on the system. I imagine that for teachers and business owners there is that nagging concern that we don’t want to go backward… for the church we share that concern, and we share that longing to get back to normal.
Through the last year I have been regularly drawn to the story of the Exodus and of the Exile. Our story of faith holds deep wisdom for those who are frustrated and just want to get back to a more predictable existence. Interestingly, our story at no point simply suggests that God's people get to just go back to the way it was, nor does the story suggest that restoration happens quickly. God's people are always reminded that our journeys unfold in God's time – a euphemism for “get ready to practice patience.”
But the other thing that God keeps challenging the people to practice in the midst of adversity is a different way of living for themselves and in relation to others. This month the word ubuntu has been running through my mind. This philosophy that comes out of the Bantu-speaking cultures of Africa captured the imaginations of many people some years ago with definitions of the ubuntu as being something like “I am because we are.” At its core, this African philosophical system speaks of all of us being interconnected and finding our humanness in that interconnection. Letseka and Venter speak about how Ubuntu refers to the interconnected-ness between human beings which reminds one of the isiXhosa proverb Intaka yakha ngoboya benye, "A bird builds its nest with the feathers of other birds."[1] That sense of interconnection is at the heart of God's narrative for God's people. And in this moment in time, it feels like that interconnection is desperately lacking in our society and in our world. But that’s nothing new. In that period of exodus and exile it is a common theme for God's people to whine about what they want, what they need, instead of looking around and claiming the strength of possibility of being woven together into the fabric of God.
In Isaiah 58 the people “Cry with full throat, without restraint” with a lament that they hope will urge God to restore them to the ways things had been. Here are the people at the end of the Babylonian exile, longing for their return to Jerusalem and they just want God to make everything the way that it was. They practice the fasting that had been their way to get God's attention and they just want everything to change. And then they’re frustrated: “Why, when we fasted, did You not see? When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed?” The people are practicing their faith expecting God to take notice, and what they get in return is God admonishing them for their selfish behavior. The people are crying out to God for relief and return to a past that they remember as glorious while failing to place the needs of others before their own. God calls them to something more like that ubuntu philosophy. In Isaiah 58:6 God declares “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply…”
We are living during an exhausting time, and perhaps most exhausting of all is the deep divisions that are being fueled at every turn. We have had an extraordinary opportunity to come out of a global crisis stronger and more unified as a people who have looked to care for their neighbor, to consider how they might place their neighbor’s health and strength and wellbeing as important as their own. I am because we are… We have had that opportunity, but like God's people in the past we desperately struggle to get out of our own way.
My prayer is that this fall we will get to celebrate a choir returning to worship, that we will manage to keep singing and gathering in greater numbers, that our Faith Formation classes (Sunday School, Confirmation, Adult Ed.) will be in person, that we will keep sharing fellowship and keep moving forward as a congregation with the strength and care that has been our hallmark. I believe that we can do this if we all work together, if we humbly embrace a little ubuntu philosophy, if we hear those words of Isaiah spoken to a people filled with longing to return from so long ago. God has shown us what it looks like to heal the divisions in our world and to hear God's cry “Yes, I am here.” It always starts with that simple command to love God and to love one another.
I have great hope for us, and I have faith that God is far from done with shaping us into a glorious tapestry of God's people, but I am also humbled that it looks like we all have a long and arduous journey of healing our hearts and souls ahead of us, rebuilding our relationship with one another and with God.
May God bless us on the journey,
Pastor Eric
[1] Letseka, MM & Venter, E 2012. "How Student Teachers understand African Philosophy", Koers - Bulletin for Christian Scholarship 77(1):1-8.