January 7
Day 299: Stomped by the Elephant in the Room
This, the first Thursday, is that one day each month when I will devote most of my workday hours to meetings on Zoom. All of which will have no planned margin for today's obvious elephant in the room.
This elephant looks like pent up anger spilling over into rioting in our nation's capitol. The senior Legislative leadership on both sides have condemned what happened. Most (if not all) of the news agencies have apparently condemned the same. Somehow, everyone seems to know when civility has been breeched.
Yesterday does not end today. While everyone is condemning what's happened in DC, it does not mean everyone agrees over what caused it. Or who's at fault.
Some will say "It's OUR turn to be violent!" Others will say, "Well, we never went THAT far, at least not THERE!" And still others will say, "YOU brought this on yourselves!" Because each of us will interpret what's happening on the other coast through the lens we choose to employ.
We will each look to focus the blame quadrant on somebody. And it may be we Christians are within most everyone's quadrant.
For most of us, our being within the quadrant is certainly not by choice. Being a "Trumper" is not a requirement for being a Christian, no more than being a Christian requires one to be an angry political conservative.
But you wouldn't know it if you viewed any filmed coverage of yesterday's chaos. Therefore, like it or not, we are within at least someone's blame quadrant. Hey, even every Republican official is within some other Republican's blame quadrant.
Our inclination will be to distance ourselves. While most of us distanced ourselves from Antifa or other entities this summer, we will now try to distance ourselves from yesterday's violence in DC.
Because we feel the Church, and we Christians are under attack. So the fight or flight response will kick in. Fight back with political rhetoric, parroted from our chosen lens. Or run and hide until the smoke clears.
So while I get ready for this morning's Zoom meetings, I ask myself the question, "How should Christians react and respond this morning?"
We should confess our sin, if we've allowed our political persuasion/s to dominate our worldview. If we've spent inordinately more time having our daily devotions with cable news, we should confess it for what it is. Idolatry.
We should grieve, all of us knowing this is "not the America we grew up in." It's okay to mourn, even over an entire country. The Bible gives us examples of that. And I bet our Canadian friends are grieving over us, with maybe a hint of smugness.
We should pray, asking for the impossible - unity in our country, and unity between Christians and churches around what we hold in common. None of us have been too good at that lately.
And we should again consider what makes a Christian distinct from the greater culture. How do we embody (incarnate) the gospel of Jesus? (The question, and the answer.)
Because people are looking at us, reading us, listening to us, waiting for us to respond. And our responses are being assumed by at least some. Humility and grace are likely not what's initially assumed.
At least it might be helpful to know if we're about to get stomped by the elephant in the room.
-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church Juneau