I have a confession to make. Two-part confession. I’m a news junkie. I subscribe to four newspapers and follow multiple digital news outlets. I try to hear both sides of an issue. But the second part is that I am sick of the news. It’s so hard to keep reading tragic news. It is difficult to discern what really happened and what really needs to happen. It’s easy to give into the temptation to build a shield around my heart and protect my mind from processing more bad news. But I know that God calls us to keep engaging. How?
The first baptism I ever did was in a muddy lake in Venezuela. The woman was young, maybe 19. A year later, I went back and visited her village. We were there to dedicate a new water well that we had financed for her community. The young woman came up to me and said in Spanish. “I’ve done really well this past year since you baptized me. I’ve only been a backslider a few times.” I laughed out loud. To be a Christian is, yes, to be a backslider at times. And that is how I sometimes feel when I read the news. I feel my heart slamming the door shut. How do we Christians remain engaged in the challenges of our own time? How do we avoid sliding back into our own privatized form of religion and keep practicing the radical and beautiful love of Jesus for the whole society?
This morning, I found a bit of hope in the words of pastoral theologian Parker Palmer. Several years ago, he was interviewed by Kate Bowler on her podcast “Everything Happens.” Palmer said that in all periods of history, Christians live in the “tragic gap,” which he defines as “the gap between what is and what could be.” Many of you have told me in recent weeks that you are frustrated with a host of issues unfolding in public life. You are describing the “tragic gap.” You see the huge gap between the vision of Jesus for a world of love and peace, of harmony and justice, and the way things are right now.
Palmer says that we sometimes respond with corrosive cynicism. This is when we say, “oh, I see how the system works, I’m just going to game it and get what I can.” We resign ourselves to the fact that this is how it is. Other times, we respond with irrelevant idealism. We close our eyes and place our naive trust in God that it will all be just fine, so don’t worry. Palmer says that both approaches – corrosive cynicism and irrelevant idealism have the same effect. They flip us out of the tragic gap. But as Christians, we are called to stay in the gap and do what we can every day to make a positive difference in the world. He says, “No social change in the history of humankind has been accomplished in one fell swoop. Every one of them has been accomplished by a million million tiny steps over usually generations.”
The words of the Hebrew prophet ring as true today as ever: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God? (Micah 6:8)
Grace and Peace,
Carla
