In the world of synchronicity this resonates with my mental meanderings on my morning drive. I live in an area where you see a lot of lawn signs for a candidate who wants to make America great again. I won't say the name. I'd have to wash my mouth out with soap. And somehow I ALWAYS wind up in those neighborhoods, but that's another story (and probably another humiliating confession) for another day.
I was thinking about what it means to be great in my universe and what they mean by making America great. I was thinking about all those people who want to bomb the people who don't want America to be a Christian nation. I was thinking about the people who want to check our naughty bits to make sure we're pooping in the right room. And a line from a hymn jumped into my head.
It's an "inner verse" hymn. I've often found that this is where a hymn is most powerful for me -- not in the opening verse, which is usually more general and setting the stage, and which is the one everybody (at least church-going everybodies) knows, the one you sing at hymn sings. It's those inner verses I love, the ones that lay out the implications of the first verse, and I've sung them enough times over the years that I do actually have them mostly memorized.
Mostly memorized. Because I'm missing a phrase in the set-up, but the REST of the stanza goes
Lead on, O King Eternal, 'till sin's fierce war shall cease
and (words words words) shall whisper the sweet "Amen" of peace;
For not with swords loud clashing, nor roll of stirring drums -
With deeds of love and mercy the heavenly kingdom comes.
When people talk about making America great they talk about being a world power, about being The World Power, and they are talking about the ability to get what we want, when we want it without any interference from or obligation to anyone else. And that's certainly not MY definition of a Christian Nation. With deeds of love and mercy the heavenly kingdom comes. So wouldn't that be how an earthly Christian Nation is shaped and formed, how it interacts with and in the world?
Deeds of love and mercy for our own people who work 60 hours a week and still can't afford decent housing in the areas where they live or milk for their kids. Deeds of love and mercy for those who use up their last cent caring for an ill and/or elderly parent and wind up in debt for the rest of their own lives. Deeds of love and mercy for those who self-medicate with something that's socially unacceptable instead of a martini or scotch. Deeds of love and mercy for those who committed crimes, did the time, and now need to find a way to live without hurting anyone else again. Deeds of love and mercy for those who are running from the horrors of war. Deeds of love and mercy for those who are fighting because they are afraid we will make them like us.
We teach our children that they shouldn't be selfish and then immerse them in a culture that is self-centered, materially focused and determined to stay that way, even if someone else needs to be hurt OR DIE to make it so. Why are we surprised when they shoot each other in school? How would they even know what love and mercy look like in a community?
Greatness is not raw power or coercion. It is strength and encouragement. It does not give you a position to control others, it allows you to lift them up. It is love for those who are different, mercy for those who consider themselves our enemies.
It's easy to say "Bomb them all! Torture the information out of them!" or "If they've failed they're just losers, forget about them!" And that may be the way of the world. But it is certainly not greatness.
GOD'S mercy comes faster than we can imagine, and it comes to those for whom we cannot imagine it. This is the scandal of the gospel. So it even comes to those for whom it is a horror, because it reminds them that at some level we are all losers, terrorists, and creeps. Admittedly, some of us more than others. And God loves us enough to invite us to admit it and to leave that life behind.
{As a post script, quite frankly, I find all the talk about and obsession with sex and gender to be pointless, boring, and puerile. Get over it! You use the same bathroom as people of the other gender at home for heaven's sake! Replace urinals with toilets and close them in so that we girls aren't standing in line for a half hour while the boys breeze in and out after us and we'll all use the same bathrooms. It's not a big deal. Girls use bathrooms. It's not like we have to pretend we're just going "to powder our noses".}
[Post Post Script - Read Flannery O'Connor. It is not light reading. It will challenge you to the depth of your heart. It will make you ask yourself hard questions. It is good for your soul.]
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