Nov. 14, 2024

By Rev. Rick King

Sometimes someone will say it better than I could ever say it.

This is the case this week. Rev. Steve Garnaas-Holmes is a retired United Methodist pastor who has served churches in Montana and New England. This is from his blog, Unfolding Light, posted after the recent election.

All will be thrown down 

“Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
—Mark 13.2

This is not a metaphor. The temple will be destroyed.
What we love, what we thought permanent,
will be thrown down.
Night descends.
Now, in the darkness, the lights matter.

Jesus is not preparing us to picnic in happy suburbs;
he’s training us to live with grace in a troubled city,
to live with kindness and courage amid turmoil and loss.
This brokenness is the world in which mercy matters.

When things fall apart, when chaos and fracture surround us,
we can stay whole.
When fear and anger rule, we can stay faithful to love.
When the temple comes down, don’t panic;
stay kind.

Empire will come and plunder,
but they can’t take the light in you.
They can’t take your courage to choose.
They can’t take your commitment to live with grace.
No one can take the Beloved from you.
That tender, strong presence is in you to stay.

Despite what falls around us,
tend to what rises within us.

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Resilience. It’s what this moment calls forth from us, and in her own blog, Piloting Faith, Rev. Cameron Trimble of Convergence recounts the story of civil rights leader Fanny Lou Hamer and the resilience that her experience of racism called forth in her. There are reflection questions at the bottom of the post and some poetry if you’d like to reflect further on your own resilience, and what God is calling forth from you.