Reaching Out, Staying The Course, And Finding Our Way In The Wilderness

A lot of people that I talk with these days are at a loss for words related to where we find ourselves lately.(1) Domestically, there is an erosion of democracy, and we’re witnessing the rise of authoritarianism, white nationalism, xenophobia and hate speech. We’re also seeing assaults on immigrants and refugees and cuts related to basic safety net programs. Meanwhile the billionaire class (which includes the world’s first trillionaire!) is growing. Furthermore, people in elected office often speak of what’s happening with forms of bravado and pride. Most days I feel a mix of heartbreak and anger when I read the headlines.

At the international level, we’re witnessing a few major global conflicts that are not resolving, a climate crisis that seems to be deepening (causing extreme weather all over the place) and rising global tensions.

Now I know that “bad news” is not the only news. But it is rough out there!

In light of this, I was encouraged (literally meaning they gave me heart) to read today’s readings because I think they offer us something that speaks to the moment that we are in.

In the first reading from Hosea 2, God says, “See, I will lead her (Israel) into the desert and speak to her heart…And she will respond with love, mercy and fidelity.”

In the Hebrew scriptures, the “desert” is the place of testing. It is the place of reshaping. It is a place of difficulty and disorientation. And when Israel went into that place, something new emerged for them which could not have emerged under their prior circumstances or with everything being just as they wanted it.

So we hear the prophet Hosea calling the people BACK into the desert. In fact, many translations say that God allures the people back in (my friend Edwina Gateley even says that God ‘seduces’ us). But we get allured/seduced into the difficult place where we must decide who we are and whose we are.

And we HAVE been seduced. By convenience. By wealth. By consumption. By capitalism. By greed. By power. By simple explanations. By untruths.

And now we find ourselves in the desert/wilderness trying to find our bearings. And if we’re able to hear God’s voice here, we, too, might be led back to love, mercy and fidelity to our original instructions.

Then in our gospel from Matthew 9, Jesus is approached by an official whose daughter has died. On the way, he encounters a hemorrhaging woman who believes in the power of Jesus to heal her. She touches his clothing and finds herself healed. “Your faith has saved you,” he says. He then arrives at the house of the official and finds that the rituals of death have already begun. He says that this girl is “not dead, just sleeping” and the crowds ridicule him. But he calls her forth and she arises!

I love both of these stories in the gospel.

First the hemorrhaging woman reaches out to touch Jesus somehow and finds in him a source of healing.

Then the one who seems dead is awakened back to life.

These days it can feel like decency, democracy and civility are hemorrhaging and/or that something which was once living is now dead and gone (and that it is ‘too late’ to do anything). The wound and the seeming death feel very real and present. Those of us who might be holding onto hope are ridiculed by some for believing that another world can still exist.

And yet death and discouragement will not have the last word.

This does not mean that Jesus will swoop down and save the day. Hardly!

What it teaches me, however, is that the hard space that we might find ourselves in has something to teach us and offers us a chance to reorganize, reprioritize and recalibrate – individually and collectively. I might not have chosen this path, but it is the desert in which I and we find ourselves and that something important can happen here – something related to a reawakening of love and justice.

Secondly, it urges me to stay the course – to keep striving for justice, to keep reaching for equity, to keep working to build the beloved community – even if that does not seem possible right now. There are powers and forces at play which I might not be able to see that are at work in the world – powers of healing, powers of new life, powers of possibility. These forces may be reliant upon my efforts (like the woman with the hemorrhage) and they may be beyond my efforts (like the daughter who has died). But I am called to stay in the mix.

The scriptures also help me to remember that we are not the first people to have gone through a journey like this and that there are so many examples of people and groups who have endured over time – in spite of what they saw happening against them.

In our summer bible study, we’re exploring the Hebrew scriptures and will be diving deeper into the book of Exodus. This is a foundational story of surprise endings and God’s power prevailing over empire, and it is a story that we would do well to study and take in – both in terms of how to endure and in terms of how to organize.

As we move through our weeks, may we remember to keep reaching out to touch Jesus – believing that healing might come our way. And may we learn to keep trusting and staying the course – even if we can’t see an outcome at the present.

(1) I am also aware that, for many groups, where we find ourselves is not “shocking” in any way because this has been a reality for marginalized groups since day one. I have been reflecting a lot (along with others) on the 250th anniversary of this country’s Declaration of Independence and how, from the beginning, the rights of Native Americans, Black people, women, people living in poverty, etc. were NOT included in that original vision. So while our current situation is disturbing, it is not inconsistent with a reality which has been with us all along…As the great poet Langston Hughes said, “Let America Be America Again.”