The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; 

then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

– Matthew 13:44

Beloved of God,

Massive shifts are under way in our society and world, and it remains to be seen how it all will sort out.  As we mark Independence Day, the symbols and sound bites that traditionally accompany our celebrations—like phrase “liberty and justice for all”—are sounding differently on our ears. The Black Lives Matter movement and the question of how or whether to “defund” police department budgets; the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases around the nation and the ongoing economic turmoil that attends the pandemic; the looming election; the question of what school and college education will look like in the fall—the list goes on and on.  It’s too much, really.  With no relief in sight.  What are we to do?

Reinhold Niebuhr, the great mid-20^th century theologian, who became known for an approach of Christian engagement in the world known as Christian realism, once articulated the human task this way:

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness. (The Irony of American History)

While personally and collectively we are called to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God” (Micah 6), we must understand that our conclusions and actions our neither perfect or pristine.  Shades of grey cover the field.  Motives are mixed.  Hazards abound.  We cannot see clearly.  Yet, choices must be made.

Thomas Merton, in a letter he wrote to young activist named James Forest, says it this way:

“Do not depend on the hope of results.  When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, essentially an apostolic work, you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no results at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect.  As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the truth of the work itself.  And there, too, a great deal has to be gone through, as gradually you struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people.  The range tends to narrow down, but it gets much more real.  In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything. . . The real hope, then, is not in something we think we can do, but in God who is making something good out of it in some way we cannot see.  If we can do God’s will, we will be helping out in the process.  But we will not necessarily know all about it beforehand.” (1st Vol. of Merton’s Letters).

Personally, I’m going to try to channel a bit of the wisdom that I picked up from a dear colleague of blessed memory, and recommit myself to being a less anxious presence in a world turn asunder by turmoil.  I have a notion that, focusing first on that task, I’ll be more likely to stumble upon that treasure hidden in a field.

With you, on the Way.

Pastor Erik