“Each person, human or no, is bound to every other in a reciprocal relationship. Just as all beings have a duty to me, I have a duty to them. If an animal gives its life to feed me, I am in turn bound to support its life. If I receive a stream’s gift of pure water, then I am responsible for returning a gift in kind. An integral part of a human’s education is to know those duties and how to perform them.”—Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Verse of the day
For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power.
– 1 Corinthians 4:20
Voice of the day
Power is not brute force and money; power is in your spirit. Power is in your soul. It is what your ancestors, your old people gave you. Power is in the earth; it is in your relationship to the earth.
– Winona LaDuke
Prayer of the day
Ingrain a true sense of what should empower us as we face every day.
Verse of the day
Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.
– Romans 12:10
Voice of the day
Leaving no one behind means giving way for the most vulnerable segments of society to move from the back of the line to the front, so they can lead.
– Eddie Ndopu
Prayer of the day
God of the oppressed, may those who are usually left unheard be honored and at the forefront of discerning what a better reality truly means.
“In a nonviolent struggle, it’s not a, ‘me against you.’ It’s how do we join forces together to make things better, to back away from unnecessary suffering?”—Michael Nagler, The Nonviolent Moment
Verse of the day
In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.
– Job 12:10
Voice of the day
Every life has its kernel, its hub, its epicentre, from which everything flows out, to which everything returns.
– Maggie O’Farrell, “Hamnet” (2020)
Prayer of the day
Living God, meet our outstretched hands with yours while we long for and labor toward restoration.
I have been reflecting a lot on the situation in the US and specifically the actions of our military off the coast of Venezuela. The more informed I become, the less sure that I am of the ethics and morals of an institution that I once was a part of… the US Military.
As a Chaplain, one of my key responsibilities was to provide moral and ethical advice and guidance to combatant leadership at all levels. I was called upon to do that a number of times throughout my career. It wasn’t always easy to “buck the system” so to speak, but at times I had to make that decision. Sometimes my questions or concerns were accepted and the commander took my advice into consideration. At other times I was essentially told to go back to the chapel and stay in my lane.
I’ve been retired and out of that world for over fourteen years now but this current moral quagmire has me wondering what in the blazes is going on in that institution (let alone in Washington, D.C.)and what sort of ethical and moral advice is being given and/or ignored. It’s at times like this that my mood darkens as I watch hope and love being snuffed out by hate and fear. Thomas Merton, as always, spoke to my heart concerning this matter.
I discovered the following quote from Thomas Merton’s paper Note on Civil Disobedience and Non-Violent Revolution which he wrote in 1968.
“The real focus of American violence is not in esoteric groups but in the very culture itself, its mass media, its extreme individualism and competitiveness, its inflated myths of virility and toughness, and its overwhelming preoccupation with the power of nuclear, chemical, bacteriological, and psychological overkill. If we live in what is essentially a culture of overkill, how can we be surprised at finding violence in it? Can we get to the root of the trouble? In my opinion, the best way to do it would have been the classic way of religious humanism and non-violence exemplified by Gandhi. That way seems now to have been closed. I do not find the future reassuring.” — Thomas Merton On Peace, p. 230
I admit it, quite often I do not find the future reassuring either. Yet somehow I know that I must continue to search for that light shining in the proverbial darkness. I don’t know how that’ll happen… yet I find comfort and promise in these words from Gospel of John: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. John 1:5 (New Revised Standard Version Updated)
Dear reader, as we enter the season of Advent,ay that light not only shine, may it become brighter as we traverse these challenging times.
We are sent into this world to be people of reconciliation. We are sent to teach and heal, to break down walls that divide people into different categories of value. Young, old, black, white, gay, straight – whatever divisions you can come up with – Serb, Croat, Muslim, Jew, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist – beyond all those distinctions that separate us, there is a greater unity. Out of that essential unity you can live and proclaim that truth that every human being belongs to God’s heart, which beats from eternity to eternity. The mystery of God’s love is that when you know in your heart that you are chosen and blessed, you also know that others are chosen and blessed, and you cannot do other than embrace all humanity as God’s beloved.
“To allow governments to pour more and more billions into weapons . . . is one of the most colossal injustices in the long history of man.*“—Thomas Merton, Peace in the Post-Christian Era
“We must remember compassion is contagious. The more we spread it the more people will cherish it and share it.”—Widad Akrawi
As I read the final chapter of Bishop Charleston’s book, this particular passage spoke to my heart.
…the earth is not inanimate. It is alive. If we are spiritually awake, we recognize this fact and we understand that we are all living in a covenant, an agreement, with this living world. Other covenant-based religions may describe community as a willingness to obey the letter of the law in that agreement, but for Native American prophets, community requires each person to embrace the vision of the earth as a living being. Covenant is not law. It is love. — We Survived the End of the World: Lessons from Native America on Apocalypse and Hope (p. 182)
The current reality in this country is one of fear-mongering, hate-mongering, and the sowing of an “us versus them” mentality. I saw that reality last night as we watched the movie It’s A Wonderful Life. The movie highlights corporate and political greed versus the citizens simply trying to get by and those who help them to achieve the life-goal of owning a home. It wasn’t the powerful Mr. Potter who changed people’s lives for the better; it was George Bailey and the Bailey Brothers’ wonderful old Building and Loan.
In addition to George Bailey’s story, Bishop Charleston has been helpful to me in my own journey as well, especially in this human-made apocalypse that we are living in. An apocalypse that has been fuelled, in part, by the institutional church, specifically the christian nationalist movement (lower case is intentional), a disease which has infected large and small mainline denominational and non-denominational churches.
There are days when I feel the weight of the world descending upon my heart and find my depression kicking in. When those dark clouds (which it seem are present daily) obscure the light that is out there, it is the hope offered in things like the movie and book gently help blow the clouds away.
This weary Padre finds comfort and challenge in these words from Bishop Charleston’s book. As we approach the Advent season and prepare our hearts for Christmas, may these words bring us hope as we remember that Covenant isn’t law, it is love. May that love both encourage you and sustain you as we seek to make a difference in this world.
