But later in the month, we mark the grim anniversaries of shootings at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., and Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. We begin with the celebration of Pentecost, known as the “birthday of the church,” which will undoubtedly be a day of great joy for the faithful. THE MONTH OF June will require spiritual caregivers to take note of tensions. I remember the words of James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” The scriptures for this month help us change what needs to be changed by facing it and trusting in God’s ability to move us forward. Today, we see state legislatures seeking to prohibit educators from teaching uncomfortable truths about our country’s past because of the dominant culture’s inability to confront that truth. Our willingness to accept human complexity is key to our ability to reshape ourselves into more just communities. While I think our investment in the good/bad dichotomy is still substantial, it seems popular culture might agree with the psalmist who says, “there is none who does good” (Psalm 14:3). It’s never totally apparent who the “villains” and “heroes” are. An antagonist police officer in the movie’s opening becomes a hero by the end, while his idealistic partner takes the inverse path. One example is the Oscar-winning film Crash, a complex racial narrative released in 2004. I appreciate the way that popular 21st-century movies have embraced some of that nuance. There was little moral complexity in these stories, which I suspect reflects our tendency to look at the world in terms of a good/bad dichotomy. MY PARENTS WERE raised watching Westerns in which the tropes were all the same: There were “good guys” and “bad guys.” I was raised on Disney movies with similar tropes.
Whether our posture is active or passive, our faith is still called into action because the world needs our witness. Our scriptures this month encourage us to exercise and examine our faith so that we keep going forward, even if we must stop and reset ourselves. It is more than sentimental, and sometimes is best exercised by simply being still and remembering who God is. It’s the same faith exercised by the woman with the flow of blood and shown in the litany of ancestors in Hebrews 11. That word can also translate as faithfulness, a dogged determination that refuses to acquiesce or let anyone stifle it. Throughout the New Testament, the text refers to faith using the Greek word pistis. We have all done and been through so much.
Two years ago this summer, the waves of direct action in response to the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd left many of us particularly drained. Vocational and social demands have taken their toll, not to mention the profound collective trauma we have all been through.
By this time in the liturgical cycle, I’m usually exhausted and my spiritual (and sometimes physical) walk includes a pronounced limp. YOU, FAITHFUL CHURCH workers, have survived the demands of Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost, and I’m willing to wager you are tired.
0 kommentar(er)
