The Bad, The Ugly and The Good

We are sheltered in many ways, wouldn’t you say? As truly vulnerable as we are because of unavoidable human frailties, we do enjoy many protections. Sometimes I rattle through the language of our Prayers of the People and fail to digest the truly tragic realities they address. When we intercede on behalf of the world and our communities, we are acknowledging how wrong things can go and do, in fact. In Luke’s story of Christmas—Fr. Elwood described it in his recent sermon as “an invasion good news”—the angels announced to shepherds, Glory to God in the highest Heaven! Peace on earth upon all of the goodwill” What glorious news we recall in this season and it came to those shepherds in the midst of a dominating and often brutal occupation by Rome!

The form of prayers we often use in the Eucharist have us petitioning for peace and unity in the world. We know in many places there is neither peace nor unity; that is why we pray. You remember we pray for the aged, the infirmed, the widowed and orphans, the sick and suffering. There are so many people in these fragile states in the human family. We pray for the people to be delivered from all danger, violence, oppression, and degradation. Untold numbers drastically need this deliverance, and we all want it. An acknowledgment that anything can happen, we pray we may end our lives in faith and hope, without suffering and without reproach. The whole notion of the Eucharist is that we are empowered to be people of goodwill in the midst of fearsome things. Every act of kindness you launch is a fulfillment of God’s ways; remember that before I go on to this next part. The context, the harsh world, into which you offer kindness is hard to face.

If you are a student of history, I admire you; I am not adequately trained in history. I believe even the partially schooled can point to significant examples of violent injustice. I learned in an article by journalist, John Donovan, featuring scholar Professor Matthew Payne of Emory University about the brutality of the 20th century The Ottoman Empire saw to the death of millions of Armenians.  The combination of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin brought about untold millions of deaths in an orchestrated series of atrocities. In the latter part of the century, the Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot and the next four leaders in Cambodia, sometimes called the “Genocide Regime”, cost those people 21% of its population due to political execution, starvation, disease, and forced labor. Here are some names associated with the cruelest century imaginable: Adolf Hitler, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, and Emperor Hirohito, and Mao Zedong.

It is crippling to the psyche to learn of the cruelty of human beings in any given century. I actually require an antidote, when reading and learning about the realities of inhumanity. To balance our perspective we have to absorb and learn of the heroism of people of kindness, and courageous goodwill through the ages to recover from learning of the darkest days.

After the surviving Judeans, returned from detainment in Babylon, they were exhausted from their trauma. Their souls needed healing. A word from God through the prophet, in this Sunday’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah, was an effective elixir for the beleaguered returning exiles. The prophet told them, “God has sent me to bring Good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted…”

to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
—Isaiah 61:1-4

The Lord envelopes them with the declaration that he loves justice, hates robbery, and wrongdoing. He wants them to be known here forward as a blessed people. Enriched in this way, they rise as a people rejoicing with their whole being, exulting as people covered in the “robe of righteousness.” This is all about God’s promise to reward those true to the law and of punishment for those who disregard the law. This section of Isaiah elevates the glory of redeemed Zion.

It’s true are not altogether sheltered from the suffering life hands us or that people dish out; no one can be fully protected.  To the extent, we are, however, and with the strength, the Redeemer provides, we should be agents of God’s goodness and grace. Loving-kindness is how Christians ought to be known. There is plenty of ugly, plenty bad, but we can help with the invasion of good the Lord is still waging. In the words, again, of Isaiah, let us help the Lord God “cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”  Let us be instruments of the Prince of Peace.