Spiritual Leadership

           

            I can remember how deeply impressed that I was with what Dr. Martin Luther King had to say during the days of the Civil Rights Movement and how distressed we were when he was killed by a lone assassin in Memphis.  I also was lifted by Billy Graham and the way that he helped this country count its blessings and move forward in honor of God.  There were also some television preachers who annoyed me.  I would listen to Jerry Falwell and wonder how he could ever think that he was eligible to be given a pulpit or Pat Robertson who always let us know how far we were from God’s love. Mr. Robertson even told us once that he had re-directed a hurricane from our shores with his profound prayer. in all of this ,I am afraid that we have lost our deep spiritual leaders who could lead us out of the depths into the glory of God.

            I can’t tell you how disappointed that I was when Franklin Graham, Billy’s son, spoke at the memorial service for those killed in the collapse of the twin towers in September, 2001.  He offered a speech that blamed the entire Muslim world for that atrocity.  He lowered rather than lifted my spirit.  I came away from that speech angry and distressed that we seemed to have so little understanding of how it is that God works in this deeply dangerous world.  I’m sorry for this because I think that we need spiritual leadership in this terribly raucous time to lead us back into the place that God would like us to be.  I am not impressed with the statements of bigotry and hate that have been so evident in this political campaign.  I want this country to be respected around the world.  When hatred seems to be the driving force in our political world, I can’t see how the rest of the world can have any respect for us.

            There is certainly hope.  We have had a series of terrible events in this world that I think have brought out the best in many people.  There have been the terrible floods in the South, particularly Louisiana; the fires in California and the destructive storms in the Midwest that have sometimes spilled over into our area.  In each of these places, lives and homes have been lost and there has been great suffering.  Also, in each of these places there have been heroes who have given their all to try to rescue  and give back lives to people who without their help would have lost everything.  I have been watching these same saints working in the terrible earthquake in Italy to bring small children out of the rubble and to make partly whole what might have  been completely lost..

            Jesus always tried to rescue rather than condemn.  When he came upon need, he did all that he could to give life and health back to those who had lost it.  There is the beautiful story of the woman that he met in Samaria who asked him to heal her daughter.  Jesus at first argued with her telling her that it was not proper to throw the food of the people to the dogs.  The woman replied to him that even the dogs ate the crumbs that fell from the table. Jesus was taught by this encounter and told the woman that her daughter was at that moment healed.  He caused the child of a Roman soldier to be healed and given back her life after all of the people around her knew that she had died.  Jesus even told the thief on the cross beside him on Calvary that this day he would be with him in Paradise.  There is a singular beauty to Jesus’ encounters with people in these ways.  When I read about them, they increase my faith and tell me that my role in this world is to pay attention to what our Lord did and to follow in his way.

            In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the writer tells us to remember to always show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so many have entertained angels unaware, and to remember those in prison as though we were in prison with them; and those who were being tortured as though we were being tortured ourselves.  This is a call for empathy and compassion, two of the great words that Jesus exemplified during his life.  It is exactly what those responders are doing in the floods, fires and destructive weather to help the people around them.

            I can see in all of this why God has created the Church.  We are here to give life and hope to the world not by the things that we say, but primarily by the things that we do.  Working to restore that which has been lost is our mission.  For Dr. King it was civil rights.  He went to prison during that battle.  He eventually lost his life on behalf of the sanitation workers in Memphis who were striking for a better work life.  I wonder what he would think of our political process today.

            Our religious life is the key to all of this.  When we treat each other with love rather than with hate we set the stage for redemption.  Redemption not only for the crises that we and others are facing but also redemption in the eyes of our God for all that we have done and what we have not done.  God bless us on our way.