Holy Distractions
By Rev. William Dohle
Are you one that can be distracted from a project easily? Perhaps by someone walking through your door? Or by some other event? Or do you press on with your projects, despite all the distractions around you?
What distractions urge you to turn away from what you SHOULD be doing?
I'd like to say that I'm not distractable...but I know that's not true. It's too easy to be distracted from what I should be doing. Television is a great distraction. The latest book. A video game I just HAVE to finish.
Most of the time we think of distractions as things to be avoided. Distractions are bad, we say. But sometimes distractions can be good. Sometimes distractions are really pointing you away from what you shouldn't be doing at that moment and pointing you toward what you should.
For instance, this week as I pondered my blog on the 18th and 19th chapters of Leviticus, the world erupted in violence. In two short weeks, violence has broken out in the Middle East and in the Ukraine.
Thinking on this, I decided I had two choices. I could say: "Down with the world! I will not mention or respond to the violence I hear about and see in the world around me. The Bible is my guide and I will follow the text. If the Bible doesn't talk about it now, than neither will I!"
Or... I could respond this way... "The Bible is not my guide, but the living Word of God. Only in conversation with the world will I truly know where I should go with this."
What should I do? Concentrate on the text? Or...put aside the text and respond to the world?
Such a hard question has plagued my denomination (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) for nearly a decade. In that time, we have been distracted by so many internal struggles, all seemingly "important", that we have lost sight sometimes of what we should be doing. We have focused so much on them, making them our focus, that the message of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, and his call to follow and live as he did has become a distraction to us.
Yet, even in Scripture, we read of Jesus setting aside "the plan" to show compassion. "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." (Matthew 9:36) You might say that compassion WAS Jesus' plan and that may be true too. But if so, how often have we set aside Jesus' plan in favor of our own?
So...what should we do? Follow our internal schedule? Or allow ourselves to respond with compassion to others, even if it distracts us from our plan?
I choose the distraction. I choose the compassion. And this is what I have to say.
This week I have heard of terrible fighting in the Middle East. And I have read some terrible plattitudes about the fighting here in the states. I have heard of Israel's march into the Gaza Strip and of the thousand or so civilian Palestinian casualities. I have heard Israel's moral stake in the fighting and seen images of the pain that stake has caused. I have followed the news. And I have heard first hand accounts.
A friend of mine, Rabbi Daniel Bogard, is in Jerusalem now with his family. His attitude and response to the violence is something I long to follow. In his response, he holds the spirit of Christ within him. In the midst of the conflict in Jerusalem, Rabbi Bogard posted this(I think he also wrote this as an article in the Peoria Journal Star):
"If there is any truism that I have come to hold in the Israel/Hamas/Palestine/Arab conflict, it is that none of it is simple or clean or clear. "Israel is the Most Moral Army Ever", "Israel Targets Civilians", "There Never was a Palestine", "The One Video You Need to Watch", etc... all share the same failing, which is pretending like there exists a simple moral clarity in a situation that deeply lacks it.
"I pray that we can open our hearts wide enough to include prayers for all of those kids who wake up scared in the night — Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish and Arab."
This is what I want to be distracted by... compassion! Not the temptation to judge one people over another. Not the urge to see things in black and white. Not the drive to somehow win or come out on top. But to see both people as people and, as Rabbi Bogard says, open our hearts wide enough to include prayers for all kids(or all ages) who wake up scared in the night--Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish and Arab.
May we be distracted to act by such compassion just as Jesus was!
Compassionate God, pour us out to the world as hearts ready to love and care and help all who come to us in need. Give us eyes to see both sides of every conflict as fellow human beings. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment