Sometimes it's not an adventure.
This is an almost-transcription of what I wrote in my notebook, with small edits.
12/9/14 8:45am Lunch Break
When we sang the closing hymn on Sunday, the facing page was O Come O Come Emmanuel.
We are all called to be Emmanuel. That is the first step and we take it together and it feels good--we ransom the captive, feed the hungry, ignite a spark in each other's breasts and become hope for each other. But it isn't enough.
We are all called to be Israel (to be Palestine, now): to raise our faces to oppression and accept it and face it down with the steady courage of inner peace, declining to breed hate, and when our Messiah comes, to follow him. But it isn't enough.
We are all called to be Pharaoh, to be Herod, to be Pharisees, to be Judas--to love what is close to us, our friends, our church family, our traditions, and especially our children. In order to protect and enrich our children, we impoverish others, and out of love of what we know we order the murder of two-year-olds, we allow the murder of a sleeping seven-year-old. You have to love, but if that's enough for you, you're broken.
And when the babies you tried to kill rise up and become Moses and Jesus our Lord, you are not called to be Emmanuel, or Israel, or Pharaoh any longer. You are called to set aside your mastery and your captivity, your toil and your wealth, your dead firstborn and your throne--you are called to sing, and to follow the Savior, and to know the fierce joy of struggle, and the dancing on the shore.
And it's not enough. Someone must go first, and so we are all called to be Emmanuel, or else to drown.
12/9/14 8:45am Lunch Break
When we sang the closing hymn on Sunday, the facing page was O Come O Come Emmanuel.
We are all called to be Emmanuel. That is the first step and we take it together and it feels good--we ransom the captive, feed the hungry, ignite a spark in each other's breasts and become hope for each other. But it isn't enough.
We are all called to be Israel (to be Palestine, now): to raise our faces to oppression and accept it and face it down with the steady courage of inner peace, declining to breed hate, and when our Messiah comes, to follow him. But it isn't enough.
We are all called to be Pharaoh, to be Herod, to be Pharisees, to be Judas--to love what is close to us, our friends, our church family, our traditions, and especially our children. In order to protect and enrich our children, we impoverish others, and out of love of what we know we order the murder of two-year-olds, we allow the murder of a sleeping seven-year-old. You have to love, but if that's enough for you, you're broken.
And when the babies you tried to kill rise up and become Moses and Jesus our Lord, you are not called to be Emmanuel, or Israel, or Pharaoh any longer. You are called to set aside your mastery and your captivity, your toil and your wealth, your dead firstborn and your throne--you are called to sing, and to follow the Savior, and to know the fierce joy of struggle, and the dancing on the shore.
And it's not enough. Someone must go first, and so we are all called to be Emmanuel, or else to drown.