Us Against or For Them

Us against Them or Could it be Us for Them

Guest Writer: Chris Schaefer

“What if we would commit to…opening ourselves to the value we know the others possess as beloved children of God? Maybe our efforts would begin the change that the world desperately needs. Maybe we can become the pebble tossed into the pond that creates ripple after ripple, transforming a destructive Us against Them culture into an Us for Them culture, consistent with the self-denying challenge of our Lord Jesus” The Rev. Ken Kesselus, Bastrop, Texas part of his sermon on Mark 8:27-38 as seen on the episcopaldigitalnetwork.com Sermons that work

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34

She turned to me tears in her eyes and said “They just don’t understand what goes on in my head. They don’t see me!” She is a schizophrenic (by her own admission), homeless young woman that has come into a charity’s thrift shop looking for food. She has been there often before, and the manager of the store has just spoken harshly to her.

The crowd is standing, frozen in place, starring at this forlorn, unstable, dirty woman. Is it “Us against Them” or is this my opportunity to be an “Us for Them”? Can we step out of the “Us” crowd to extend our hands to the “Them”? Yes! Something guides me, and we walk hand in hand out of the store. Through her tears and confusion, she talks of being abandoned by everyone and of her total defeat.

It is her eyes that draw me in, blood shot from lack of sleep and hollow from being lost in a world that steps around her. Nowhere to sleep, nothing to eat, and no medication. With nowhere to turn, her desperation is palatable. Others also step out of the crowd, she is given some food, money and a ride to a shelter and most importantly she felt the extended hands of love and caring.

It is her eyes that have stayed with me. Where is she? Is she safe? Did she stay in the place that could help her? There are the cynics that will say “you can’t fix her, she will be right back on the street, you know she just used that money for drugs!” Maybe, maybe not! But I will pray for her and I will hope that maybe just maybe this was the time that she knew someone loved her and did see her! I must think this way because there will be another homeless person in a thrift store, another forlorn elder in a memory center, another injured soul in a hospital.

I wonder about how Christ has used others and this particular lady to remind us of the least of our brothers and sisters. Christ reminded us through her that writing a check to our local charity is not enough. He wants us to love, to step out of the crowd, to stretch out our hands. To see the forlorn homeless woman, this beloved child of God! To listen, to touch, and love her. By following Jesus in His footsteps, we must step out of the crowd, denying ourselves in our fears, and to make our world more about Us for Them. We can start the ripple effect one person at a time.

Chris Schaefer

Art of Pilgrimage

The Art of Pilgrimage

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.” T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding

Phillip Cousineau’s The Art of Pilgrimage, The Seeker’s Guide to Making Travel Sacred, has been a book that I have gone back to time and again, preparing for a trip and hoping to make the journey a pilgrimage.

Cousineau’s family traveled a great deal in his childhood. He relates how his father thought travel was good for the mind while his mother felt it was good for the soul. Cousineau reminds us that a traveler visits a place. A pilgrim allows a place to become a part of or visits within him. As travelers we often plan trips and then, upon getting to their destination, have a sense of unfulfilled expectation. This disappointment results from the way we engage with the place, not the site itself.

The Celts would tell us to imagine the moment of our departure as like crossing a threshold of a door.

Cousineau also asks us to imagine our first memorable journey. What images rise up in our soul? They may be a childhood visit to the family gravesite, a visit to relatives who live on a farm, or a trip with our favorite aunt to a religious site. Do these feelings have any connection with our lives today? The author asks us if there are some place that are sacred to us, our family where we long to visit? He suggests that as we undercover what we long for, we will discover who we are.

Cousineau reminds us that we will reconnect to our soul, the part of God within us by learning to be aware and listen to our surroundings. On the pilgrimage we are to look and listen intently to everything around us. Listening to music in solitude is his recommendation of how to get back into the habit of listening to our surroundings. We also usually do not look, but we overlook. Keeping a journal may help us to look more closely as we describe what we are seeing.

There is an old Nigerian saying that “the day on which one starts out is not the time to start one’s preparation.”

We are to begin the Sacred Journey with our journal. We are encouraged to keep sacred a silent alone part of our day where we write in our journal. Our journal can help us relive our pilgrimage, but we can also relive the journey by bringing back pictures, stones, or shells as did Anne Lindberg in Gifts from the Sea.

We are also to plan ahead how we will reenergize ourselves each day. We are to be open to serendipity, coincidences, that may take us off our planned path.

I remember a time I spent at the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral. I was walking through the Cathedral near the entrance, and a large group of elementary students, perhaps ten years old, hurried in. They were distracting my silent mediation. But then I most vividly remember one young boy tilting back his head and looking up at the high vaulted ceilings and immediately shouting out, “Wow!!” To this day, I can still see and hear that young prophet.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Natural Disasters

Natural disasters

“When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was not dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.” John 6:16-21

After Ivan

Fourteen years ago, on September 16th, Hurricane Ivan made a direct hit on the town of Orange Beach along the Alabama gulf coast near the Florida line. There were twenty-five deaths in the United States including fourteen in Florida. This category three storm caused major destruction to an area that had become our family’s beloved vacation spot for years.

My heart goes out to the people on the North Carolina and South Carolina coasts who have just been visited by Hurricane Florence. I remember the days of looking at any picture that might show if our special place had been destroyed. It was weeks before we could go back to survey the damage. When we finally were able to return to our condo on the fourth floor, the elevators were of course not functioning, so it was a major trek up and down the stairs.

Major parts of the front of the build were gone. Every condo on the first floor had been destroyed by wind and water. We hardly recognized the building. It took some time to figure out exactly where the stairwells were. Two large glass doors had blown out of the condo and furniture had been blown out of the gapping exposed spaces.. We made multiple trips to dispose of the rotting food left in the refrigerator.

My greatest remembrance is the disorientation that came when so many of the familiar markers were gone. Besides the damage to the front of our condominium, street signs were gone, familiar buildings had disappeared, parts of the roads were destroyed so that we had to take detours.

I think this natural disaster is a reminder of what happens when there are major emotional crisis or significant changes in our own lives such as the death of a loved one, a life-threatening illness, a divorce, a move, even sometimes a new job.

All of our usual markers are gone. We become disoriented. Every decision may become agonizingly difficult to make. It is sometimes hard to find our way. Often it is like we are in a foreign country, and many of the people we are talking to are speaking a language we have never heard before.

It is important to recognize this state of mind, to take care of ourselves, and be open to help. My experience also is that recovery comes with the help of friends and the community that supports us. If we try to white knuckle it and get through the crisis by ourselves, the burden often becomes intolerable.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com