Apparently, the flu bug was waiting for my friends to leave before attacking me. Alas, I have been massively assaulted by an ugly flu for the past week, hence my piddling blog production of late. My apologies. I hope to pick up the pace soon. In the mean time…
Jean Neely has a good article on the Sojourners website entitled “Grieving America on the Fourth of July.” I have posted an excerpt below. The entire article is worth reading.
“We in the church have clung too tightly to our country’s myths of exceptionalism. We’ve been too slow to name the real “terror within” and unwilling to listen to those telling us of terror all around. We’ve been reluctant to own up to our history and speak out against unjust policies. We don’t like to think or talk about it, but most of us know that our quality of life here comes directly at the expense of everyone else on the planet (not to mention the planet itself), millions of ordinary folks whose countries have been ravaged by centuries of colonialism and persistent neocolonial structures, who make our clothes and gadgets, grow our food and coffee, and pay in countless other ways for all our out-of-control consumption and addictions. Their problems are our problems. So we can’t set them aside.
“In particular, those of us who claim to follow the poor, Middle Eastern God-man who taught us to give away our possessions, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, and love one another can’t ignore Jesus in the stranger, Jesus on the street, or in the “detention center.” We can’t ignore that Christ embraces and abides with “the least of these,” or the fact that we habitually mistreat, lock up, and deport Christ and those dear to him. We’re called to a different way.
“We might begin with the work of facing the truth of who we are, of being present to the full reality of ourselves and our country. We need to look squarely at reality, at our own churches and our own souls, and deal with the discomfort or pain of what we find there. We need to awaken to both the beauty and the ugliness within, the shadow as well as the light. Sadly, as Thomas Merton put it, ‘We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.’
“It can be terrifying to examine what we cherish about ourselves. But this is the work we’re called to first. We make others pay every day that we refuse to do this work.”
The author well captures my own feelings on this July 4th. In fact, I find myself enthralled by this personal turmoil on a regular basis, especially on Sundays. I attend corporate worship, first and foremost, to contribute my own adoration to the collective praise of our Lord and Savior, God Almighty, and to the Son, Jesus Christ.
But I must confess that this has become increasingly difficult for me. Not that I am wavering in my devotion or am any less committed to glorifying my God. Rather, I find that I must invest more and more of my energy into concentrating on the purpose at hand while fighting off the distractions presented by those around me.
I know. I know. I am fully aware of how self-righteous I will sound. The Spirit and I wrestle every day with this issue in my heart. Yet, the selfish centrality of “me-ism” in our services, combined with the absence of any collective confession of sin or guilt, mixed with the standard American ignorance and indifference to the horrendous levels of pain, suffering and bloodshed casually accomplished by American military ingenuity all around the world every single day often brings me to tears as I stand before my God.
Onlookers probably think that I am having a “deep” moment with Jesus. And I think I am. But not the kind they imagine.
I have yet to sort out how to handle these moments, spiritually, psychologically or emotionally. I only pray that the Lord Jesus will help my nation, my leaders, my community and my church as well as I expect Him to help me.
That’s my hope for this 4th of July.
The Fourth has changed in my mind. Cannot celebrate . I did go down to our amazing small town parade that day and collected signatures for the Universal Healthcare Initiative 1600.
In the songs, like some others, I prefer to use we , us and our.
And I can praise God joyfully with our congregation. Messages there do speak to me of how to live in Christ
without any outward condemnation of our American shared blame. Its a meaningful community that I
continue to support though I know some in this body are not appalled as I am at what we do.