Please pardon the football metaphor, but when things went awry with Alabama Football under the legendary coach “Bear” Bryant, he would say, “We’ve got to get back to ‘blocking and tackling’”…in other words, mind the little things. In our country and in our world right now, everything seems macrocosmic; our problems are so big that to think of them is just overwhelming, let alone doing something about them. It’s easy just to throw up our hands in defeat.
But we are not defeated people. Ours is to persist in crisis, because we know that every end is yet a new beginning. Perspective is our friend during this pandemonium. Most of us here at All Saints are relatively privileged, that is to say that there are many who are suffering far worse than we. Our privilege softens the blow of the bludgeoning apocalypse. I’m grateful for that; but what shall we do? How do we serve with integrity in a crisis such as this?
We do what we are taught to do in the Gospels: the little things. We are to welcome the stranger, the immigrant, the resident alien in our midst; we are to raise up the poor, the outcast, the oppressed, the disenfranchised; we are to feed the hungry and take care of the sick; we are to remember and care for those in prison; we are to be advocates for justice and equality… and we are to pray without ceasing.
Those who followed Jesus in the first century in his quest to reorder society, were taught to concentrate on the little things, that if practiced en masse, would bear exponential ramifications. But the early church lacked something that we have… and that is the right to vote. Our vote matters more in the upcoming election than at any other time in our country’s history. Don’t underestimate the power of your vote. If exercised en masse, the vote will reorder our world.
We clergy are inhibited from telling you how to vote, not that you need me to do that, nor would I so presume; but our vote should reflect the values we share as people who follow Jesus, and his egalitarian vision for the world. Which candidate embraces policies that best serve the least of us, the left out of the “American experience,” the abundance of this land? Which candidate has a healthy respect for justice and the rule of law? Which candidate has a plan to care equitably for the sick? Which candidate would treat immigrants as if they belonged to our own family? Which candidate would more likely address the disparity of wealth in this country? Which candidate abides by the truth, or at least tries? These aren’t my criteria… these are biblical principles.
When I was discerning the possibility of ordination years ago, I was told by many people whom I trusted to “trust the process.” That’s where we are right now. “Trust the process” is really a statement of faith, that if we do the “little things,” the greater thing will be transformed for the better. Pray that is true, good people… pray that is true.
