What Shall We Do?

They Come in Battalions

A line from Hamlet has been haunting my mind recently.

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions.” (Act 4, Scene 5). 

That’s how I feel every morning when I wake up to headlines announcing another Trump-fomented crisis, another breach of Constitutional boundaries, another assault on the First Amendment, another racist rant about immigrants, another abuse of Christian faith for the sake of political power, and more outrageous disinformation (a.k.a lies) from the White House.

The headlines come “in battalions,” culminating in a $1 billion-per-day war that is probably illegal in terms of the Constitution, and clearly immoral in terms of the Roman Catholic “Just War Theory.” With Diana Butler Bass, I find myself “longing for normalcy.”

The questions keep coming, too. “What can we do that might make any difference?” “What should we do to slow down the juggernaut of authoritarianism?” “What difference does it make for me to say I am a follower of Christ?”

Answers From the Past

In my early years in ministry, I heard former Bishop James Armstrong give his answer to those questions. I’ve carried his three points with me for nearly five decades.

1. We Do Who We Are.

What we do is determined by who we are. First, last and always, I am a follower of Jesus who calls me to live in ways that are consistent with his vision of the Kingdom of God. My brother, Jack, preached a powerful sermon on the Kingdom of God as “An Outpost of the Heaven.” You can watch the March 8 recording here.

Jesus could not have made the point more bluntly at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. 

“Not everybody who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter … “Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a house on bedrock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It didn’t fall because it was firmly set on bedrock. But everybody who hears these words of mine and doesn’t put them into practice will be like a fool who built a house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It fell and was completely destroyed.” (Matthew 7:21-17)

As a follower of Jesus, it’s not enough to simply hear or even believe his words; he actually expects me to put his words and the way of life he demonstrated into practice. I don’t hear much about the Sermon on the Mount from folks who promote the oxymoron called Christian Nationalism.

2. We Do What We Must.

During Lent I’m often drawn to the “mustness” in Mark’s gospel. Jesus said he “must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead.” He is equally clear in declaring “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.” (Mark 8:31-34).

The apostle Paul simply said, “The love of Christ constrains/controls us.” One paraphrase reads, “The love of Christ leaves us no choice.” (2 Corinthians 5:14). As followers of Jesus, there are times when we know there is something we must do.

In their own time, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Desmond Tutu, and a host of ordinary persons whose names we will never know, saw the evil of Nazism, segregation, and Apartheid. They knew there was something they must do. The love of Christ left them no choice.

If I am following Jesus, there will be times when I see some hurt, some need, some injustice, and the love of Christ leaves me no choice. I know there is something I must do.

3. We Do What We Can.

We can’t do everything. And we can’t be sure that anything we do will make any apparent difference. But being who we are a followers of Jesus, and feeling the mustness of God’s love within us, we can do something.

We can pray. We can serve. We can vote. We can call our Senators and Representatives. (I use 5 Calls.org.) We can demonstrate the compassion, empathy, and care for others that are central to the gospel (even when empathy is attacked as “the fundamental weakness of Western Civilization.” ) We can laugh at the arrogance of human leaders. (Psalm 2). We can love. We can act from hope and not from fear.

Diana Butler Bass reminds us that “everyday life, lived with intention and attention, informed by but not afraid of the news, grounded in gratitude, faith, and love, is our strongest force for goodness against authoritarianism. Indeed, the beauty of normal may be our superpower in the face of evil.”

And so, I return to one of my favorite poems, “Stubborn Ounces” by Bonaro W. Overstreet.

(To One Who Doubts the Worth of
Doing Anything/ If You Can’t Do Everything.

You say the Little efforts that I make
will do no good: they never will prevail
to tip the hovering scale
where Justice hangs in balance.

I don’t think I ever thought they would.
But I am prejudiced beyond debate
in favor of my right to choose which side
shall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight.

I’m haunted by words from Hamlet. I’m also haunted by the realization that when our great-grandchildren read the history of this critical moment in our nation’s history, they may ask, “So, Gampa, what did you do about it?”

Grace and peace,

Jim

I’m grateful for the opportunity to offer Great Days for Great Living as a weekly series on the MinistryMatters web site during The Great Fifty Days of Easter.

You can read the first installment on Resurrection Matters here.