Peacemaking and Mending Breaches

Remembering Things that Matter

I rarely post anything about current events, but once in awhile, it happens. I’ve been thinking about peacemaking, mending breaches, and restoring what has been broken. For issues that have existed for years or decades or even centuries, there are no quick fixes, but there are some timeless things that can help in discerning what matters and what must be done.

As always when I’m at a loss for words, I begin with poetry, song, and scripture, and thorough these, I am reminded of the simple yet sometimes hard things that matter. Here are just a few of the things I’ve been dwelling with  in these troubled times.

Blessed are the peacemakers

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Who is our neighbor?

Color, Caste, Denomination

by Emily Dickinson
1864

Color — Caste — Denomination —
These — are Time’s Affair —
Death’s diviner Classifying
Does not know they are —

As in sleep — All Hue forgotten —
Tenets — put behind —
Death’s large — Democratic fingers
Rub away the Brand -—

If Circassian* — He is careless —
If He put away
Chrysalis of Blonde — or Umber —
Equal Butterfly —

They emerge from His Obscuring —
What Death — knows so well —
Our minuter intuitions —
Deem unplausible —

*Circassian women were thought to be unusually beautiful.

Emily Dickinson’s poem seems to reflect the idea found in Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Some final thoughts

I’ve read many, many articles and essays over the past couple of weeks as I try to learn more about the issues that continue to trouble our country. Part of my volunteer work at church relates to issues of peacemaking and justice, so I’m familiar with some of the issues related to families, schools, and the court system. I haven’t been as familiar with national racial issues, but I’m working to amend that deficit through books and articles by a variety of people from different backgrounds of faith and experience. It is a learning curve, but I believe it matters, especially in light of the prayer and scriptures above. Here are two articles from two different perspectives — they are both worth considering.

American Racism: We’ve Got So Very Far to Go by David French — It wasn’t until Mr. French “went from being the father of two white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed kids to the father of three kids—one of them a beautiful little girl from Ethiopia” that he saw and understood how far we still need to go. If you have a hard time seeing what the issues are, this thoughtful article by someone identified as a conservative Christian columnist might help. It’s part of our heritage, and it’s something we need to know.

Another perspective is The Assumptions of White Privilege and What We Can Do About It by Fr. Bryan Massingale, a priest and theology professor at Fordham University offers a very clear look and illustration of what is meant by “white privilege.” This is especially helpful if you don’t feel particularly privileged! Toward the end of the article he writes, “only an invasion of divine love will shatter the small images of God that enable us to live undisturbed by the racism that benefits some and terrorizes so many.” This is something to pray for.

Three books that have helped me with understanding the issues

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson — Always my first recommendation for anyone who’s unfamiliar with the workings of the judicial system. It has been described as a true story in the vein of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s unforgettable, and I believe it’s one that everyone should read.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson — A few years ago, a childhood friend I hadn’t heard from in many years phoned me. She’d been reading a book, and it had brought up memories and questions, and she wanted to share it. That book was The Warmth of Other Suns, and before I could get a copy from the library, we received it as a Christmas gift from another friend who had likewise been moved by the nearly unknown story of a decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South  in search of a better life. Based on hours of interviews with over 1000 people plus detailed data, Wilkerson tells the story of the Great Migration through the lives of three real individuals whose lives are followed from childhood to old age. This was a book I could hardly put down.

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein — This rather astonishing book documents how our government (the very same one that was announced by a Declaration of Independence that declared that “all men are created equal”) systematically imposed policies of racial segregation, including providing subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; race-based zoning laws; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods. It’s another unforgettable and sad book.

Two books for young readers

I read constantly as a child, and two of the books I returned to often were Mary Jane by Dorothy Sterling and Prudence Crandall, Woman of Courage. Each of them provided a window into the challenges of racism – Mary Jane from the perspective of a normal girl who happened to be going to school at the time when the public schools were integrated; Prudence Crandall from the perspective of a Quaker teacher who accepted black girls into her school and faced incredible hostility as a result. There are many other good books that can broaden our world. I’ll try to list more of them in the coming weeks.

One last song

And just because — here is one of my favorite songs. John Michael Talbot’s music is usually just Scripture set peacefully to music. He sings about what matters, and I’ve enjoyed his music since I was young.

Unless otherwise attributed, scripture citations are from memory or from the NRSV, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

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