A Message From Pam Lucas,

                One of Our Conference Ministers

                                                   

                                                     Solidarity and Defiance

 Last year, almost to this date, I wrote an EKIT Article on my return from a meeting of Conference Staff who work with Search and Call/Church and Ministry Committees.  The release of the decision by the New York Grand Jury in the Eric Garner case had occurred while we were meeting. Conversations about Michael Brown and Ferguson and the outreach ministries of the Missouri-MidSouth Conference and the two UCC congregations in and near Ferguson were on the 'non-agenda' agenda. Three members of the Collegium disclosed that at a playground in Cleveland, within blocks of their homes, a 12 year old African American boy named Tamir Rice had also been killed by a white police officer

  I wrote: 
          "How might we be voices crying out in the wilderness of this time. Might it be to
          remember that our beloved Christmas story already carries the seeds of        
          injustice and violence? When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he              
         was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two
         years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Jesus and his
         family were forced to flee as undocumented immigrants to Egypt. Jesus would be nailed to a
         cross as a political prisoner.

        "Jesus, the one born to save us from our sins. Jesus, the one anointed to bring good news to the
         poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed and comfort to
         those who mourn. Might we remember on this Advent Sunday of JOY that there is far too little joy
         around us and cease pretending that all is well in God's world.     
        "It is not all well."

I offered a Liturgy for the lighting (or the NOT lighting) of the third candle of Joy on the following Sunday. I felt strongly the need to at least symbolically share the pain of those who could not find joy in those days.

This year there is no less heartbreak or injustice, no less prejudice or violence, no less terror - it has multiplied.  But in response, there has been a growing rhetoric designed to ratchet up fear, distrust, prejudice and self-preservation at all costs.  This year I feel no less strongly the need to light that candle of joy as a sign of defiance against the darkness that threatens to overtake our world.

This Sunday many will hear the words of Zephaniah, "Do not fear...The Lord, your God, is in your midst."  The Israelite people were in exile - literally - removed to Babylon.  We may feel like we are in exile from the land of sanity. This morning's reflection from the Upper Rooms Disciplines reads in part: 

"...fear is instinctive, a built-in response to threat... Chronic fear can be disabling...When we abandon ourselves to fear we become totally preoccupied with the future and its threat of terrible things to come...Fear distracts us from seeing the God who is in our midst."

The Hasidic master known as Reb Nachman of Breslov wrote words that are usually translated as "All the world is a very narrow bridge/the important thing is not to be afraid."  As a person who dislikes heights because they make me fearful, how is it possible to not be afraid in a world that seems a very narrow bridge? But Rabbi Rachel Barenblat in her blog "The Velveteen Rabbi", provided a helpful commentary when she noted that the verb 'to not be afraid' in Hebrew is a reflexive verb which means 'not to live from a place of fear'.  If fear is instinctive we can't help but feel fear under certain circumstances. But Rabbi Barenblat concludes that "what's important is I not allow the fear to rule me. What's important is that I not allow my fears to limit me, to dictate the contours of my hopes, my dreams, or my choices."

It is because our world is a very narrow bridge that it is so important to proclaim the God who is in our midst, who brings light out of darkness, hope out of fear, love out of hate, peace out of terror, and joy in the midst of this very real world because the Lord, our God is in our midst.

Look around at the sights and sounds of the God alive and well - in the words of both welcome and forgiveness to a young man who stepped into a prayer meeting in Emmanual AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina and killed nine. Or the words of a survivor of the Paris attack who said, "You can't make me hate you."

Light the candle of Joy this Sunday as a sign of defiance - let it proclaim that God is very much alive and is up to something. For God always is always up to something. To be born into our world as a tiny baby was a defiant act in the face of worldly power. 

Pam Lucas