Okay, one more time, then I'm done whining. I am tired of reading Psalm 119. It's the longest book of the Bible. It's an acrostic about God's law, with a full poem using every single letter of the Hebrew alphabet. I've been reading this thing in the Moravian Daily Texts every day for at least two weeks now.
But I have to admit...reading it today, I feel like it's God's timing. (Who am I kidding, it always is; it's just sometimes I'm better at noticing it.)
There's something I've taken for granted all my life, that I'm just now noticing. It's the assumption that in the grand scheme of things, our system of laws, of impartial justice, of basic order, will always work. And when it doesn't, the people of our country have a recourse to change the system in a peaceful way, at the ballot box, or by making use of our constitutional right to peacefully protest.
The more of history you read, the more you realize what a gift that is. Our history is rife with wars of succession, civil wars, assassinations and political kidnappings--even in the church, there was a period of about a century when there were two "legitimate" popes, ruling alongside one another!--and in the other Daily Text for today (1 Kings 1:28-53) we have yet another example. Adonijah, sensing King David's approaching death, just goes ahead and gathers some supporters and anoints himself King. Then Bathsheba and Solomon come to David, who names Solomon as successor, and chaos ensues. This is how things used to be done all the time. You tried to back the right horse, make friends with the right people, but heaven forbid if "your guy" was ousted, all your property and rights, and maybe your life, went out the window.
I used to look at stories like this and give thanks. Give thanks that we're beyond this. That anything and everything can be worked out in our system of democracy: through elections, or barring that, lawsuits, court rulings, public protests, legislation...in a word, the people of a free republic working together to solve their problems within an agreed-upon set of rules.
My faith in that system is severely shaken right now. For the first time in my life, we have a presidential candidate hinting that there may not be a peaceful transition of power. Suggesting, without a single shred of evidence, that voter fraud is rampant at the poles, and that his followers should show up "in certain areas" and try to stop "the wrong people" from voting. We have legislators who have already broken the record for holding up a Supreme Court nomination, suggesting they may just hold it up permanently, and let our country's highest court continue to operate in a compromised state. We have peaceful protesters being violently maced and injured with rubber bullets for trying to protect their own water supply. We have citizens more afraid of the actions of the police who patrol their neighborhoods than of any crime their neighbors may commit. Every possible way our system was designed to protect us seems to be malfunctioning, and whatever happens on Tuesday, it shows no signs of getting better on its own.
So I have to admit my privilege, realizing that from where I sat in society, I didn't have much cause to question the fundamentals of the system before now. The fear I feel now, is a fear that many who have been discriminated against based on race, creed, gender or sexual orientation, have felt all their lives. Now, we are all scared together.
Never in my life have we needed God's law more than we do today. Now, please understand, I am not talking about a theocracy, or legislating Christian values or social agendas. What I'm talking about is a subset of the American people, however large or small, who are willing to regulate themselves when human regulations fail. Who are willing to hold ourselves to a higher standard, even when our society's standards are plummeting. Who are willing to truly love our neighbor as ourselves, even if it's not illegal not to do so. Who act in others' best interest, even if no earthly judge will sentence us for acting selfishly.
I realize it makes secular folks nervous when Christians conflate morality with faith. I agree, we should be able to be decent to each other just because it's the right thing to do, even without appealing to a higher power. But we're not doing it, are we? And if appealing to my faith--understanding that, though God's grace has saved me, I will still stand before my Lord at the end of my life, and we will talk about how I used these years I was given--will help me be part of the solution, I will use it. God's law doesn't go away, even when human systems are in danger.
God, thank you for your law. Help us--all of us--to love our neighbors as ourselves, even when nobody's watching. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment