Faithful
Poetry Friday
Friends,
I was thinking about the word faithful as I cast my vote yesterday. Sometimes politics and religion intersect. It brought to mind my religious values and what it means for me to be faithful. I am a Christian and as with any religion it comes with a lot of baggage. Christianity can be used, and has been, to lean towards freedom (which I would say is the best outcome) - or to lean towards control (in my opinion, the worst of any religion). Both freedom and control are on full display right now in our nation. So is being faithful to your religious values and ethics.
I voted thinking about all the incidents where Jesus came upon people who were “the least” in their country: prostitutes, thieves, and other “sinners”. He met them mostly with compassion and invitation, not control. They had a choice to join in his mission. I think about the least in our country right now. The new immigrant who made their way from foreign lands, many to escape persecution. In our church, we have a family who traveled here to protect their high school aged daughter from female genital mutilation which is practiced in their home country. They risked so much to protect their daughter. Do we send them back to that? Are they the “enemy within”? I live in the state where vulgar lies were intentionally told about our Haitian legal citizens -immigrants. The lies brought bomb threats and disruption to that county. They have built businesses and lives here. Are we rounding them up to send them - where? I have several friends who are transgender. They are just trying to be congruent inside and out. And the stories about gender operations in schools? We all know that is made up. I find myself curious about where the humanity is in all this? I thought about this quote here from The Christian Century called “Playing to the Crowds”.
“ In Matthew’s Gospel, hypocrites are those who blow a trumpet when they give alms, pray ostentatiously, and alter their appearance when fasting. All for one single reason: ’in order that others will see them’ (6:1). A desire for attention typically tops the list of psychological and social motivations for people who habitually make up stories….. According to Jesus, those so desperate to be seen by others and win their acclaim have lost their core identity. They have reduced their dignity to the applause of others and relegated God to the periphery of their lives.” 1
When you vote this year I hope you think about the least of these in your life. I hope you think about your religious values and ethics. It’s not always easy to profess faithfulness to your religious values. I even thought about whether it would be safe for me to do so here. Maybe you see things differently and that is your prerogative because at this point we still live in a democracy. Some want to take freedom away and to control what others can and cannot do. It’s your choice now to have your say in what happens in our country going forward. I urge all of you to vote.
prayerfully,
Jace
Who’s Missing at the Table?
January 31, 2020 by Rosemerry Wahola Trimmer
In a time of national crisis, what our country really needs is a good poem.
—Herbert Hoover
This is the time when we must say to the stranger,
the other, sit here. Notice how difficult it can be
to even come to the same table, how hard
to look the other in the eye. Something in us screams,
“Right, I am right.” And it is hard to hear the voice
beneath that scream, a whisper of a gospel that says
nothing at all.
This is the time when we must say to ourselves,
I am also the stranger, when we must look
in the mirror and not know who it is we see—
someone capable of being more courageous,
more compassionate, more devoted, more
astonishingly vulnerable and connected
than we ever knew ourselves to be. Who
is that stranger in the mirror, we must ask,
and vow to never let her down.
This is the time when we must write the poems
our country needs, the poem that builds the bridge
from truth to truth and never touches the river
of lies. The poem that allows our country
to fall in love with itself again, the poem
with enough places set at its table
that everyone knows they have a place to sit
and the rest of us know when that person is missing
because their chair is empty.
This is the time for the beauty that passes
all understanding, a testament of goodness
that cannot be contained, a congress of delight.
This is the time to pick up your pen
and with your most tender, most beautiful,
most ferocious self, fight.
Songs of the Spirit: faithfulness
Before I knew you,
Before I heard the sound of your waters
Or saw the ripples of your waves,
Before I touched the surface of your depths,
You were there.
Evening and morning,
Like the tides that never cease,
You remember your ancient promises
And pour out your very self,
Sweet and good.
You are deep and vast,
And yet willing to break around me,
Strong to hold all that I bear,
And you welcome me,
as I pour my self Into you.
By Christine Woolgar
https://faith.workthegreymatter.com/spirit-faithfulness-poem/#poem 
Marty, Peter. The Christian Century, “Playing to the Crowds”, November 2024, p. 1.