ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

Every week members ask me if I have anything to say about the chaos and confusion of our days. I know they really aren’t asking for my personal opinions. They want to hear what God might have to say. Some want a word of clarity that will address the violence, division, misinformation of a civil order that is quite disordered. Others want to hear a word that gives them peace and comfort in the face of all that is spinning out of control. Some want to hear what scripture, and our God may have to say about ICE raids and a government seemingly out of control. Others want to hear nothing about these things. Rock, meet hard place.

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Not long ago I wrote about the injustice of throwing thousands of people off the SNAP roles because it victimized the poor and hungry – the least among us. I received great support from people who found the word I shared helpful and true. I also received at least one phone call excoriating me for being political. I explained that standing up for the hungry was not a political thing, but a Jesus thing. It did no good and my heart broke because we could not find peace. Rock, meet hard place.

According to the Constitution of every ELCA congregation, a pastor’s call requires that pastors “Witness to the Kingdom of God in the community, in the nation, and abroad; and Speak publicly to the world in solidarity with the poor and oppressed, advocating dignity, justice, and equity for all people, working for peace and reconciliation among the nations, caring for the marginalized, and embracing and welcoming racially and ethnically diverse populations.”

As you can see, this charge necessitates that pastors address political realities in the world. That does not mean pastors are being “political” when they use scripture and the teaching of the church to call leaders of every political stripe and nation to account before the Lord. You can also see that this is a difficult duty to execute without offending somebody. Rock, meet hard place.

Jesus was crucified as a political prisoner. He did come to make us all feel good but to save the world from itself. The martyrs of the early church were fed to lions and burned alive because they would not bow to Caesar – the political leader of the world. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hung not because he was a theologian and pastor, but because he called out the Nazi movement and its leader. Martin Luther King Jr. was not assassinated because he was an outstanding preacher and pastor, but because he upset the status quo.

Now, I am not claiming that anything I have ever done or ever will do will place me in such faithful and courageous company. I am saying that for any pastor to faithfully answer the call to serve, they may have to call injustice what it is, call oppression what it is, to (as the theology of the cross demands), call a thing what it is. The preacher is called to work in the narrow and grinding space between the rock and the hard place.

There are hundreds of pastors and religious leaders working to hold political and economic leaders of every stripe accountable for actions that contradict the reign of God. I recently joined a large and diverse array of Christian leaders calling for a better world and nation. Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Orthodox, Methodist, Episcopalian – and any other tradition you can name have signed a document called A Call to Christians seeking to influence leaders of all political parties to seek justice, peace, reconciliation – the marks of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A summary of the document signed by bishops, pastors, professors, and lay leaders can be found at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sB_n7XTsnCEr5Y4VJK70xZs91i-atbYG/view?usp=sharing

I don’t ask any to agree with the document or me. However, at the end of my ministry, when my body is laid in the earth, I will not be satisfied with a life that sought to avoid making waves and told people what they wanted to hear. My prayer is that people think that I, “fought the good fight…finished the race… kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7), that I, at least in some measure, lived out the verses preached on at my ordination: “proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:2)
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Pax Christi,
Tim Olson- Lead Pastor
 
 
 
Image by Anita S. from Pixabay