Category: Love

Love Your Neighbor – Vote

“Voting is one of the most powerful tools we have as people of faith.” 

It is no accident that the Gospel’s directive to ‘Love Your Neighbor’ is frequently written off as mixing politics with religion.    But what if the teachings of Jesus, by addressing the necessity of compassion and care for the least of these, are not just political but profoundly so?  Indeed, if the definition of politics (from the Greek word, polis) asks, ‘How do we take care of each other,’ imagine if our sacred text is the most political of documents?

 Yes, we are overwhelmed by the number of consequential, if not existential, issues facing us. Be it climate change, poverty, hunger, healthcare, immigration, housing, or violence waged against the most vulnerable, we are in a state of polycrisis, as when multiple challenges are affecting our world simultaneously.  Yet what if politicians bankrolled by fossil fuel corporations and other big-money interests lost an election?  What if they were voted out of office by the very people adversely affected by their greed and complicity?  

Imagine if, all along, democracy has been the engine that has the means to change the levers of power. What if the unassuming, humble voting booth where ordinary citizens go to cast their vote is the basis for sacred ground? 

Prayer: Holy One, when tempted to relegate politics beyond the scope of what our faith requires of us, teach us to remember that the love of one’s neighbor requires otherwise.   Remind us that our actions, especially towards the least of these, were never intended to be separated from the faith we profess to hold.   In your mercy, restore us to your likeness, we pray.  Pour out your life-giving Spirit upon us so that we, as your people, will do whatever is necessary to protect and preserve your creation and all of humankind.   Let your grace dwell richly within us so that, as citizens and people of faith, our actions will testify to your all-encompassing love.   We ask this in all the holy names of God.  Amen.  

[1]  I am indebted to the Third Act’s panel discussion on the Sacred Right to Vote, held earlier this May.    In particular, those serving on the panel, Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, Rev. Carol Devine, Activist Mubarak Elamin, and Rabbi Stephanie Kolin, illuminated this urgent topic through a well-informed discussion on the intersection of voting and faith.   

What You Do Makes a Difference

 

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact 
on the world around you.   What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

Lately, I’ve been returning to this quote when feeling powerless, wondering if I or anyone else can make any difference.   Yet then, Goodall’s observation, ‘that none of us can get through a single day without impacting the world around us,’ harkens to her own experience.  Having worked for decades as a primatologist and anthropologist in seeming isolation, she must have lived fully into each day, with one building upon the next.    

Indeed, in the face of palpable suffering and ruthless exploitation on this planet we call home, my hope is that each day allotted will be lived by us entirely.   Not ignoring the world’s cries, but out of love, doing what we can to make a difference:  
Whether it is serving a meal in a homeless shelter,
tending to those ravaged by severe weather,
serving on a phone bank to safeguard democracy,
caring for those devastated by trauma,
supporting those marred by war & bloodshed,
or resisting rather than resorting to violence…
through love, we have the means to make a difference.

Prayer: Holy One, take my hands, my voice, and my body, and through your grace, use these as a conduit for your love.    When I feel there is nothing I or anyone else can do, remind me that you have appointed this day to do what I can to make a difference in the world around me.    I pray this in all the holy names of God.  Amen.

[1] At 89, Jane Goodall, an English primatologist and anthropologist, is the world’s foremost chimpanzee expert.  Yet she has also championed conservation and animal welfare issues,  serving on the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project, which strives to change the status of animals from property to that of persons.    She is also an outspoken environmental advocate.   

 

 

Rouse Yourself, O Sleeper!

“Why wait for your awakening?
Do you value reasons for staying small more than the light shining through the open door? Forgive yourself…now is the only time you have to be whole.
Now is the sole moment that exists to live in the light of your true nature.
Perfection is not a prerequisite for anything but pain.  So, please, oh please, don’t continue to believe in your stories of deficiency and failure.
This is the day of your awakening.”
Danna Faulds

Rouse yourself, O Sleeper! Please, oh please, don’t fall back back into a dreamless slumber. You have all that you need to stand tall, even now. So do not be afraid. However uncertain the times may be, this day is yours.

Perfection is not a prerequisite. Nor will you be redeemed by it. Step away from the self-defeating narrative you tell yourself. It is not valid, nor was it ever. So, don’t go believing in something that, out of fear, kept you small, unseen, and unthreatening.

Instead, I ask you, that part of me that earnestly desires to awaken, to open your eyes, push back the covers, and step into the light of day. So take heart, my truest and best self. Now is the day of your awakening.

Prayer: Ancient of Days, who fashioned us for more than we could ever hope for or imagine, awaken us, we pray. Prompted by your divine initiative, may our eyes be opened to the possibilities before us, for we are nothing less than the marvelous embodiment of your unfathomable love. We ask this in all the holy names of God. Amen.

 

An Icon for the Ages

 

“An icon isn’t just a religious work of art…”

If the timelessness of icons is as much about their applicability and relevance, what do these two parallel images have to say to us? While the ancient image on the left portrays the Madonna and Child, this icon also compels us to remember how God chose to enter our world, not as a mighty warrior but as a helpless infant wholly dependent on the protection of others.

What, then, of the image on the right? In a current photograph, here, a Palestinian infant clings to her mother against the backdrop of shelled buildings in Gaza. No, it isn’t Mary, the Mother of God, and the infant Jesus. Yet what if the nature of icons also challenges the limits we impose on God? What if God is all the more present in those we deem insignificant and of no account?

A priest once said, “Do not go out and buy icons. Instead, go to those who are hungry and thirsty, the war-fatigued and grieving, and look for Christ there.” If we are indifferent to the image of God in other people, we will never find God’s image within icons or ourselves, for that matter.

Prayer: Divine Maker, who fashioned all humankind, non-sentient life, and creation, heal us of our blindness, we pray. Teach us that it is not enough to merely hope that the violence and suffering will somehow come to an end on its own. Instead, be in our thoughts, words, and actions so that we may exemplify the radical expansiveness of your love for all of God’s children and creation. We ask this in all the holy names of God. Amen.

[1] Attribute these images to friend and colleague Mary Ann Holtz, who continues to labor for a cease-fire and non-violence in this region and other parts of the world.

What every one of us shares….

“We are separated by continents
but share the same vast, beautiful, and sunlit sky.”

Some years ago, our daughter-in-law’s family shared images of a funeral outside Tehran. Held to commemorate the life of a grandmother on her father’s side, and as customary in the Middle East, the funeral procession took place outdoors. Surrounded by family and friends, several men, including our daughter-in-law’s father, carried the deceased. Wrapped in linen cloth, the body lay on a narrow platform hoisted on the shoulders of men who brought her to her final resting place.  

The palpable grief of those during the procession and subsequent burial all took place against the backdrop of a vast, blue, sunlit sky. As the funeral came to a close, our daughter-in-law’s father took the body of his mother into his arms and gently placed her in a freshly dug grave. 

Death comes to all of us. Yet the images of these past weeks from the land of Israel and Palestine are saturated with atrocity. There is death that comes after a long life, and then there is the kind of death that is senseless, depraved, and malevolent. No matter what side we may find ourselves on, can any of us justify the annihilation of children and youth? Can any one of us excuse unleashing weapons of mass destruction aimed not at military targets but at whole neighborhoods and cities?   

I ponder these questions in the face of the mayhem that continues in what is also known as the Holy Land. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, a land of significance for Jews, Christians, and Muslims for decades, it is also a land saturated by war and grief. But lest we forget, every single one of us shares the same vast, beautiful, and sunlit sky.  

Prayer: Divine Maker, when we find ourselves consumed with anger and grief but at a loss for words, compel us to lift our eyes to the hills from whence your help comes. [2] Through your grace, may we have the courage to refrain from violence, instead asking the difficult questions that persist. For just as grief comes to every single one of us, You hold us in the embrace of the same vast, beautiful, and sunlit sky. Amen

[1]  Sunset off the coast of Rhode Island, January 2021

[2] Psalm 121

Love’s Endeavor

“The endeavor to genuinely love engages all our emotions.” [1]

Imagine if love’s goodness includes facing the obstacle that challenges us?     Which, of course, seems counterintuitive.  If love is genuine, it should be experienced as uplifting, inspiring, or consoling, right?  Any indication otherwise refutes it as satisfying the auspices of love.

Yet what if authentic love insists on not being limited?    What if love means engaging ALL of our emotions?    Those we gravitate to, such as a sense of belonging, intimacy, trustfulness, and tenderness, and those we do our utmost to avoid: raw, fierce,  deeply honest, and fearful emotions.

Loving this way makes a “…personal, spiritual, ethical, and moral demand on us.” [1]  An insistent love, yes, but a wholly inclusive one.  A love not separated from the truth but bound up in it.  A love that is inconvenient and even hurtful at times.   But a love that also moves us beyond sentiment and into the realm of trustful connections, authentic living, and even joy.

Prayer: On this St. Valentine’s Day, Limitless One, we give thanks that your summons to love authentically is not in opposition to living joyfully.  Instead, in your fierceness and fullness, you seek to complete us, humankind, and all Creation.  May we, as your children, incarnate your love, a love not separated from the truth but bound up in it.  We ask this in all the holy names of God. Amen.

  [1]  Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, an author and activist, Rev. Lewis is the Senior Minister for Public Theology and Transformation at Middle Church in NYC