Dear Epiphany,
There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.
Sometimes I think about these words of Desmond Tutu, the late South African Anglican Bishop (and namesake of Desmond Conn!) when I, say, drive by 12th and Jackson after dark. How did these folks fall into such a terrible river? What could we have done—collectively, communally—that might have kept them safe on solid ground? The word justice almost always comes to mind.
Not the justice of human law. That justice only reflects the fallible consciousness holding sway at the time, hence such legislation that gave us Jim Crow, forbade so-called “mixed-race” marriages, and denied women the right to own property and vote. I mean the justice of the Old Testament prophets.
When COVID-19 locked us up, I decided to read the Bible. Read a chapter of the Old and New Testaments and a psalm every day and you can do four or five laps around the Psalms and New Testament before your Old Testament slog gets you to the Prophets. (And you will learn why Leviticus and Numbers don’t appear in the Lectionary.) I was struck that the prophets often equated “turning back to God” with upholding a just society and showing mercy and compassion to its weakest members. The late Charley Bush, the first chair of the herd of cats who now call ourselves Service & Outreach, loved to quote Micah: “…and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” For Micah, justice is something you do, an action item on the daily agenda, not a lofty word to wave for the future.
This kind of justice is in essence the love Christ would have us bear toward each other. This justice arises in our hearts and is carried out in word and deed in our communities when we realize—when we are in our right minds and bring our best selves to the moment—that our own comfort and well-being are eternally bound to the comfort and well-being of everyone else.
When The Rev. Ruth Anne Garcia was the staff liaison for Service & Outreach, I recall her saying that an Anglican bishop (I think) claimed that if charities stopped mitigating the harm done by the forces of injustice and indifference, society would get a good look at its ugly ways. Then we might work more honestly to address the root causes that keep landing people in the river.
Not likely, I’d say. More likely: If all charitable work, and with it all our compassionate impulses from which that work grows, were to cease tomorrow, we might find ourselves like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, when Clarence the angel shows George that without him and his good effort, his sweet hometown has become a merciless and mercenary Potterville.
It is certain that we will be pulling people out of the river for a good long time to come. Consequently, organizations devoted to this compassionate work still need our financial support. “Clients” of these organizations are souls incarnate in flesh and blood as surely as Jesus. Their bodies, minds, and souls need care. Here is justice we can do.
We hope to see you this Sunday evening at our big party. Yes, we want to raise a lot of money for our nonprofit friends. But we want love always to be the motive force of Have a Heart. Dollars are simply the necessary fuel for the work. Let’s all bring our best selves to the party. And please bring a friend.
Gratefully,
Holly Boone,
Chair, Epiphany Service & Outreach