Over the past two weeks, I have received more feedback on my sermons than at any other time of ministry together here. In short, the message is clear: our lives are touched by pain and suffering, both personal and societal, and we are all hungry for, in need of, hope and meaning. Whether it is a medical diagnosis that has turned our world upside down, or a sense that all we thought we knew about this nation, our systems and structures, and our identity as citizens, there is a sense of helplessness and its product, meaninglessness. They are, certainly, the twin dis-eases of our time.
A friend from the other side of the pond sent me a message on WhatsApp, and it is a quote from a book he is reading, Soil and Soul by Alastair Macintosh. I share it with you: "I am often approached by English people who feel confused about their national identity and ask what they can do. I simply suggest that they dig where they stand."
So many have asked, and I ask myself often: What can I do? What can I do in the face of a friend's diagnosis? What can I do in the face of national strife? What can I do in the face of my own helplessness? This answer from Macintosh strikes me as faithful: Dig where you stand. Do not go looking to some far-flung location to find your meaning. Do not seek your identity and purpose somewhere unknown. Start right where you are, with who you are, surrounded by those who are nearby. If we can't dig into ourselves, dig up our meaning with the help of others, or dig down into our Source of faith, hope, and love, then we will certainly not find such things or do such work in some other place. There is nowhere else. We are put right here, with one another, to find our meaning and to know our strength together.
In her poem 'Natural Resources,' Adrienne Rich writes:
My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.
As Jesus teaches us in the Beatitudes: no peoples are more worthy of honor and blessedness than those who, in faith and hope and trust in God, make something beautiful out of a broken world. We cast our lot together.
God bless you and keep this day,
Nick
