The Commonwealth's Calling

I want to continue to reflect on the interplay of church and state from that history to which I am made close through my teen-aged years in Tappahannock, VA.  But my reflection must respect the events of the past weeks which rose to a horrible crescendo in El Paso and Dayton.  We named them specifically in our prayers.  We held hands when we prayed.

As a gathered community Sunday morning we brought our anguish and holy hunger in a sublime gesture of hope and "Blessed the Backpacks" of our school children as they begin a new year of study.  There was a gift in the way our liturgy allowed for the confusion of a dozen or of so unrehearsed adolescent actors to turn into a tender moment full of humility and imagination.

We passed the Peace and settled into our places and transitioned through my notoriously rambling announcements to hear from two respected parishioners as they professed their heart-felt concern for our country, our children and our own lives.

Only during the burials of beloved parishioners like Berry, Ginger, and Charles have we been that vulnerable as a congregation.  When we closed with the prayer attributed to St. Francis I had the sense that we really wanted God to make us servants of peace.

Whenever we speak of peace in our lives we have to remember that it intends more than an absence of conflict and noise.  The Hebrew shalom/שָׁל֣וֹם means so much more and is closely kin to the historic-for-us concept of commonwealth.

Think back to how our role in a constitutionally structured discourse is to bring together and act on the new authority of citizens whose speech is protected, whose assembly is protected, whose press is protected and whose petitioning the government is protected.  The First Amendment imagines our church, actually that ALL churches empowered by protected citizens are to speak from a respect and affinity for the commonwealth.

And when we speak as the church we speak best as servants of the God of shalom.  We speak knowing the false assurances of bigger barns and abundance beyond our use.  God says "your life is required!"

God is calling us!  Calling us everyday! There is no security or privilege that frees us from this calling!  We honor the spirits of the past like Berry, Ginger and Charles and countless others as we move forward into a community, a nation, a world desperate for shalom.

It will not do for us to be silent or to add to the partisan noise or to assure ourselves falsely with bigger barns. "This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" Luke 12:20