{"id":5234,"date":"2016-11-15T10:52:09","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T17:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=5234"},"modified":"2016-11-15T18:59:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T01:59:00","slug":"heres-what-i-told-my-church-after-the-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/11\/heres-what-i-told-my-church-after-the-election.html","title":{"rendered":"Here’s What I Told My Church After the Election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"stair.002\"<\/a>Wednesday evening after the election our church gathered for one of our 6 yearly congregational meetings. We planned it for the night after the election on purpose, wondering if there might be a healing moment for us there. I\u2019m guessing our church is half and half on red or blue politics. But our neighborhood is mostly Hispanic, predominantly poor, and definitely living on the margins. This is what I said that night.<\/p>\n

There are about 16 kids from the neighborhood who are part of our youth group, 12 of whom are Hispanic. Any given Wednesday\u00a0maybe 6 or 7 of them will be at church. They were all here tonight, all 12 of them\u2026 and they all came early. They brought stories with them about being harassed at school today. One young man was called a \u201cstupid illegal\u201d to his face. This is a sweet kid, a good kid, who\u2019s just started to trust our church. One kid shared a text saying, \u201cIt hurts seeing people call Mexicans lazy when I see my Mom & dad come home from work tired after working two jobs that we stole.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Several endured comments at school along the lines of, \u201cI\u2019m surprised you are here today. I thought you\u2019d be packing your bags for Mexico.\u201d Another student was told, \u201cYou better watch out now, they\u2019re gonna be coming for you.\u201d They all agreed that this was a common experience.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of pain & fear in our neighborhood right now. Members of my congregation are wondering if their lives are about\u00a0to be turned upside down.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the last month I\u2019ve had several good conversations with folks in our church who have felt on the fringes for a long time. Not just in our society, but sometimes even at our church. They\u2019re not part of the cultural or intellectual elite. They\u2019ve felt ignored for a long time, as if their concerns don\u2019t matter. They are not bigots, nor are they uncaring or uneducated. They are good people\u2014moms & dads who love their families\u2014but they feel like they are being asked to compromise their values by those who want change to move quickly in our society than they\u2019re comfortable with. They feel frustrated and disenfranchised.\u00a0The appeal that Donald Trump had for them was that he was speaking directly to their concerns.<\/p>\n

Learning to respect these two lived experiences is essential to our faith, and my role as a pastor. Listening with compassion to those with whose beliefs make us crazy, or frustrated, or sad is one of the hallmarks of any mature Christianity.<\/p>\n

Lesslie Newbigin was a missionary from England, who served the church in India. He constantly bumped up against the English Colonial attitude. The English considered India\u2019s culture to be inferior, and asked people to convert to British culture first, and Christianity second. So, their dialogue was never honest. They always dealt themselves the good cards. They were suspicious of people who had dark skin, and\u00a0different beliefs. English missionaries\u00a0saw themselves as smart, enlightened, & right. They saw the other people as a problem, an enemy who was both wrong and foolish. So no genuine dialogue among equals ever happened.<\/p>\n

\"stair.001\"<\/a>Newbigin would draw this diagram with two opposing staircases descending to a platform in between them on which a lone cross stood. One stairway represents your point of view. The other represents a person from a different\u00a0point of view. They he would say, God comes to meet us at the bottom of our stairways, not at the top. If we want to have a real relationship with another human being\u00a0we must descend our cultural staircase, and meet each other on common ground at the bottom, because that\u2019s where Christ is.<\/p>\n

Nobody has a privileged position before God. We are all beggars. You\u2019ll never heal from your own hurts, until you surrender the moral high ground, and confess your own brokenness and need for understanding and healing.<\/p>\n

Newbigin said our ascent of the staircase takes us both further away from each other and further away from God\u2026 \u201cfurther away from the place where he actually meets us.\u201d He wrote, \u201cOur meeting, therefore, with those of other faiths takes place at the bottom of the stairway, not at the top. \u2026 There has to be a kenosis, a \u2018self-emptying\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most difficult part of Christian community is humility. You have to walk down your staircase and enter into the presence of Christ as equals. It\u2019s not as though\u00a0I have some\u00a0secret knowledge with which to enlighten you. I don\u2019t have any answers right now. I\u2019m confused and extremely disappointed in our society\u2014both parties. But, when we both walk down our staircase and expose ourselves to God & each other & we are all\u00a0called into question before Christ. Unless we are all receptive to this conviction and correction and a greater awareness of another person\u2019s point of view, we\u2019ll only create more problems. Standing at the top of our ideological staircase lobbing hand grenades is a tired script.<\/p>\n

Christ meets us at the bottom of the stairs. We stand on common ground, all of us called into question by the cross. That\u2019s Christian community. It\u2019s possible that after I come down my staircase & meet Jesus, I may never see my staircase the same way again. A bunch of stuff I thought was important won\u2019t look so important anymore, because my version of Christianity, my\u00a0vision of reality is always incomplete and flawed. My ideas about politics or social policy always need refining.<\/p>\n

I have to find a way to accept people who have experienced what Walter Brueggemann called \u201can alternative obedience\u201d \u2026 a different lived-experience from mine, in regard to matters of faith and obedience.<\/p>\n

We ended with a prayer exercise. We all came to the front of the church and stood in a circle. It was a tight squeeze, so most of us were nearly touching shoulders. I handed out copies of The Prayer of St. Francis, and we went around the circle each person reading\u00a0one line of the prayer. When one person ended the prayer, the next person began it again. Around and around we went. We must have read it more than a dozen times together. At first people were nervous, a few people used their best TV host voice. But after awhile the words began to sink in. Every once in awhile, when it was their turn to read, people would have to gather themselves. Arms started to go around shoulders. I could sense the emotion, and hear the sniffles and see the tears. It was a beautiful moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cLord, make me an instrument of Your peace.\u201d \u2026 your peace. Where there is injury, let me sow pardon. Where there is discord, let me so harmony. Where there is doubt and despair, let me sow faith and hope. I do not\u00a0know if this is possible for a culture so bitterly divided. But I am certain we have to find a way to do this as the church. Our legitimacy, our very being\u00a0depends upon it.<\/p>\n

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.<\/em>
\nWhere there is hatred, let me sow love;<\/em>
\nWhere there is injury, pardon;<\/em>
\nWhere there is discord, harmony;<\/em>
\nWhere there is error, truth;<\/em>
\nWhere there is doubt, faith;<\/em>
\nWhere there is despair, hope;<\/em>
\nWhere there is darkness, light;<\/em>
\nAnd where there is sadness, joy.<\/em>
\nO Divine Master,<\/em>
\nGrant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;<\/em>
\nto be understood as to understand;<\/em>
\nto be loved as to love.<\/em>
\nFor it is in giving that we receive;<\/em>
\nIt is in pardoning that we are pardoned;<\/em>
\nAnd it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday evening after the election our church gathered for one of our 6 yearly congregational meetings. We planned it for the night after the election on purpose, wondering if there might be a healing moment for us there. I\u2019m guessing our church is half and half on red or blue politics. But our neighborhood is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHere's What I Told My Church After the Election<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wednesday evening after the election our church gathered for one of our 6 yearly congregational meetings. 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