The Event
There are some things that really should go without saying
among decent people. The vast majority
of Americans looked upon the spectacle of an armed assault on the U.S Capitol building as a frightening attack on our nation by an internally-spawned enemy. If it is necessary among us to condemn this—if
the jury is still out on that in people’s minds, then we are quite likely already
destined for our own destruction.
We certainly should pray for our elected leaders, the various
law enforcement workers in the Capital, and all those who live and work in
Washington, DC. This should be
instinctual among us. It is good to
remind one another of this, but I hope is it not entirely necessary.
I want to step back a bit from the routinized responses and
set all this in a broader context. If
you know much about me, you know I find the lens of Bowen Family Systems Theory
helpful. This way of looking at life
reminds us that we are all part of a common emotional and behavioral system. We all participate in that system; we all
contribute, for better or for worse, to what happens in that system. This is true whether we do or do not directly
participate in an event. Another way of
saying this is that we all co-create one another in an ongoing cycle of
interactions.
It is easy to look with disgust at armed rioters running
through the Capitol building, debasing emblems of our national values. This creates two challenges for followers of
Jesus. First, we can be tempted to an
arrogance that absolves us of any responsibility for or connection to this
outrage. Second, it confronts us with the
challenge of loving our neighbor when we find the behavior and values of our
neighbor objectionable.
Challenge One: Arrogance that Absolves Us
What happened at the Capitol was, one could argue,
the inevitable outcome of a series of choices people have made. Outrage is an appropriate response, surprise—maybe
not so much. This was not all spawned in
a single day of infamy.
Followers of Jesus are to be salt, the light of
the world. We are to be a city set upon
a hill to which others look for guidance and hope. We are to let our light shine before others so
that they might see a better path forward (Matt 5:13-16). The Gospel writer John pulls
no punches in describing our work as a type of counter-cultural insurgency:
And this is the judgment, that the light has come
into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and
do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But
those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen
that their deeds have been done in God” (3:19-21).
Have we
fulfilled our role in recent years? What
things have we done or left undone that have made a space in our nation for this
clear and imminent danger? How have we
gone along in silence because it was easier and less costly than taking a stand
for the things of God—love, peace, mercy, charity, the dignity of all human
beings, and justice?
Perhaps
none of us stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday, but how did we contribute
to that catastrophe by leaving undone the work of our calling? This is not a time for self-exonerating arrogance; this is a time
for sober reflection.
Challenge
Two: Loving Our Neighbor
It is
hard to love our neighbor when our neighbor is acting in an objectionable way
or espousing values that violate the convictions of our faith. Jesus laid an even more ambitious challenge
before us than simply loving our neighbor; we are to love our enemies (Matt.
5:43-45). This does not mean we endure every outrage in silence. It does
not mean we that we stand paralyzed in the face of the abuse and
degradation of others. It does mean that we extend to all people the
dignity and regard that is due everyone who is formed in the image of God. To extend dignity to someone does not
necessarily mean we respect their values or condone their actions. It means that we strive to see buried beneath
the armor of their hate and hurt and malevolence that part of them that is irreversibly
of God.
Stephen Carter wrote that any human
being “whatever his or her strengths, weaknesses, and simple complexities, is
also part of God’s creation. We should
be struck with awe at the fact that we are face to face with a part of God’s
work.”[i]
It is hard to despise someone who elicits awe in us. This is our challenge as followers of Jesus,
to see God even in the armed violent White Nationalist scaling the walls of the
Capital building. This will take some
work.
In Conclusion
Wednesday was a frightening day. It can, nonetheless, be an opportunity for us
to reflect anew on what it means to be the children of light in a world where
darkness is always trying to gain additional ground. It is also an opportunity to stress test, as
understood in the world of banking, our capacity to love our neighbors, even
the ones who behave objectionably. As we
feel our neighbor slipping into the category of enemy, our task grows more challenging.
As we see images of those breaking
down the doors of the House Chamber, it is an opportune time to ask what does
it mean for us to be faithful to the Gospel as the wood is splintering.
Jim Kelsey
Executive Minister—American Baptist
Churches of New York State
[i] Carter, Civility,
101.
