Hope Out of Shameful Acts

Hope Out of Shameful Acts

“In the Cross and the Lynching Tree, James Cone highlights a paradox of the gospel: out of the shameful and humiliating act of crucifixion comes hope.”—Debra J. Mumford, “Living the Word” in The Christian Century (3/14/2018).

We drove through Montgomery, Alabama, a week before opening The National Memorial and Museum for Peace and Justice—better known as the Lynching Memorial and Museum. We think we caught a glimpse of it in the distance. We felt a call that we must return to Montgomery to visit both parts.

Between 1950 and 1877, more than 4400 African American men, women, and children were lynched by being burned alive, hanged, shot, drowned, or beaten to death. The memorial structure at the center of the site is made of more than 800 steel monuments, one for each county in our country where a racial lynching occurred.

The adjacent museum is built on the site of a former warehouse in which enslaved Black people brought in by boat or rails were imprisoned before going to the slave market.

Ironically, James Cone, one of America’s best-known advocates of black theology and liberation theology, died two days after opening this memorial and museum.

In her Good Friday message in The Christian Century, Debra Mumford reminds us how the horrific lynching of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in the Mississippi Delta in August 1955 sparked national outrage. This led Rosa Parks to move from the back to the front of the bus in Montgomery that December. Her arrest began the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott, a groundbreaking event in the civil rights movement.

The Lynching Museum and Memorial, Black Lives Matter Marches, and the Good Friday services in which we will soon participate can remind us of the shameful acts that did and still take place in our world.

We are to remember this on Good Friday and remind each other, especially our spiritual friends, that our hope, our small part, is not unlike that of Rosa Parks. We are to change the world by remembering the cruelty and standing our ground with trembling hearts in love wherever we see social and racial injustice, as has happened so much this past year.

Cone and Mumford remind us that when we talk with spiritual friends, at some point, we are also to remind them that our traditions teach us about great hope that can follow horrendous and unjust tragedies.

This is part of the problematic walk we will soon walk in Holy Week. The hopeful part is that our last president signed into law that lynching was a federal hate crime. The horrendous part is how long it took for this to happen.

Joanna. joannaseibert.com. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Parker Palmer: Seeking Sanctuary in Our Own Sacred Spaces

Parker Palmer: Seeking Sanctuary in Our Own Sacred Spaces

“Sanctuary is wherever I find safe space to regain my bearings, reclaim my soul, heal my wounds, and return to the world as a wounded healer. It’s not merely about finding shelter from the storm; it’s about spiritual survival. Today, seeking sanctuary is no more optional for me than church attendance was as a child.”—Parker Palmer, “Seeking Sanctuary in Our Own Sacred Spaces” in “On Being with Krista Tippett” (9/14/2016).

by the mattaponi and york rivers, a sanctuary

Our news has been full of churches, towns, and cities providing sanctuary for new and old immigrants from Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Central and South America, as well as undocumented immigrants facing possible deportation—dreamers, many of whom have been working, living, and raising families in our country for years. They sought a better life for themselves and their families and feared losing everything sacred.

Many who come for spiritual direction seek a sanctuary for their sacred spaces, a chance to revive a spiritual life that once had been vibrant but now may seem lost. They had decided to live boldly and follow a road less traveled, but they have come to a spiritual fork in the road, or perhaps a dead end. They fear they have lost the spiritual life they once had. They are now on a path that seems uncharted.

Our ministry as spiritual friends is to be a sanctuary for the souls of those who seek our trust and guidance, especially when they feel isolated from their connection with God. It can be a lonely time. We must treat this precious part of all people as sacred, that presence of God within each of us that sometimes is nearly undetectable.

We must never lose sight of the privilege or awesomeness of being asked to care for another’s soul, especially at a vulnerable time in their lives. This is a holy trust, a rare chance to make a difference—just as our churches in the past were and will remain places of sanctuary in the future.

The red doors of some of our churches are an ancient sign of sanctuary within. When we meet with a spiritual friend, may we imagine sitting together within the protection of red doors? We are called to relate to other seekers who need sanctuary at this time of their lives—in prayer and in person—remembering that we are all seekers, and we, too, are on an undocumented, uncharted path.

We hope that we will have the courage to stand, sit, sleep, work, eat, and pray beside all who need sanctuary within the red doors of our churches, as well as within our minds and hearts. Sanctuary is vital during this time when so many parts of our being, including our churches, are still in conflict.

We are called to find a place of sanctuary where our soul is renewed, a chair by the window in our home, a bench outside, a bank by a river or ocean.

We are also called to be a sanctuary for those who are homebound, with visits, cards, phone calls, and food.

May we also be ready to give sanctuary to those fleeing their homes in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and our southern neighbors.

Joanna joannaseibert.com https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Listening Lessons from a Buzzing Harp String

Listening

“Be a lamp, a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.”— Rumi (1207-1273), Daily Quotes, inwardoutward.org.

photography by paula volpe

 If I were redesigning a program about spiritual direction, 90% of the time would be devoted to listening. My experience is that listening is one of the best tools of the Holy Spirit within us. I am talking about active listening, where we clear our heads of agendas and what is going on in our lives as much as possible.

We offer the gift of time for forty-five minutes or an hour to listen to someone else’s life. For this short time, we are given the privilege of caring for the soul of another, helping a person realize God’s never-failing presence in their own presence.

I sit, and all these great ideas come to me as I listen. “I think they would like this book. Changing to this spiritual exercise might be helpful.”

I am learning that if I interrupt with my ideas, they often fall on deaf ears, but if I wait until there is silence and speak, the person seems to see and hear better what I might suggest. As I wait, I sometimes realize, “No, this was not the right book or spiritual exercise.”

I have learned a great deal about listening from my harp. Perhaps you have occasionally noticed a loud buzzing sound when some harpists play. Buzz. One of the reasons for the buzz is that we have plucked a string that is still vibrating from a recent finger placement on that exact string. We must wait for the string to stop vibrating before we play it again, or this annoying sound interrupts us.

 My buzzing harp reminds me that I must wait for the person I am visiting to stop talking. 

I am learning to play fewer buzzing notes as I talk less and listen more. As a result, my buzzing harp string has become my icon for listening.

 Listening can become a “lamp, lifeboat, and ladder” to the Holy Spirit’s presence in our own lives as well as the lives of our spiritual friends.

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/