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Rev. Rich Lang |
Food banks and soup kitchens give testimony that lines are increasing. Grocery shopping gives testimony that prices are rising. The media gives testimony that something wicked this way comes. Our economy is falling into deep recession while at the same time the cost of living begins to inflate. Our national crusade against all oil-producing countries continues to increase, while at the same time our jobs decrease. Gestapo tactics are used on the homeless as an iron fist descends upon the poor. Hard times are coming.
There are several occasions in the Bible when a priest or prophet tries to warn his people that a storm is coming. Quite often, most often, the people will not or cannot hear. The ears of a people become plugged whenever wealth separates the few from the many. The few, those who live in stratospheric splendor, won’t hear the warnings for the simple reason that they cannot conceive that anything of importance could rock their boat. The many, those who struggle to make ends meet, can’t hear the warning because they are too worn out, too overwhelmed, too fatigued, and they feel far too powerless to do anything about anything anyway. They just try to hang on even as their fingers slip one by one from the lifeline.
Biblically, the one who brings the warning also brings the hope. The hope is on the other side of the tempest. The hope is found in the seed that springs forth from a people’s willingness to practice solidarity, to become a we rather than a me. To build networks of mutual aid, not segregated aid.
Hard times are coming whether or not you live in good times today. As a nation we are bankrupt financially. As a people who go along with war, torture, and a treasonous governing administration, we are bankrupt morally. As a people who are addicted to amusement, enslaved by insatiable desire for money, and entranced through spectacle, we are bankrupt spiritually.
There is no longer a way to prevent the sorrows from falling upon us. But there is the way of binding ourselves to one another in communities of care, compassion and mutual aid so that we can develop the capacity to endure the storm. Together we become the helping hands that keep our fingers on the lifeline.
The time of solitude is over. The time for solidarity begins. Our task in this time of sorrows is to form communities of cooperation that will look out for one another, value one another, become bound together through the cords of affection and respect. Hard times are coming. A hardened people will try to endure on their own, but they will not be strong enough. Hard times are coming, times that call for softened hearts strengthened only through our ability to trust one another.
Those with ears to hear, hear then what the Spirit is saying.
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