March 2020

Iowa Episcopalians visiting with legislators

Jesus once asked his questioners how it was that they could look at the sky and tell the weather, but were not conscious of the real life circumstances they were in. He was referring to end times, an understanding that history was finite, and that the will of God reigned supreme over the affairs of the human race. Now Jesus never succumbed to the folly that we could predict end times, and acknowledged that even He did not have that information. It was important, however, that we live with a certain humility of spirit that always gave room for the divine will; and never that we were the be all and end all of human existence.

On our travels recently, Donna and I saw a rather macabre church sign that read “God recycles; He made you from dust.” In January, on the UK TV nightly news there were back to back reports on the Australian wildfires; followed by pictures of a huge sandstorm, prompted by the fires, about to engulf an Australian city; and then a switch to farmers in East Africa trying to bat away massive swarms of locusts devouring their crops. As the camera switched back on the news anchor, he said “All we need now is a plague!”And as if on cue, enters coronavirus, or COVID-19

“Thought and prayers” don’t go over well when we are dealing with situations that we cry out for clear legislative action to prevent, like addressing new episodes of gun violence such as in Milwaukee. But we must admit to the fact that if even recent generations had experienced the string of events we are facing, we would find them on their knees. How do we give ourselves the “grace margin,” as Eric Law would say, to acknowledge our need of God? This season of Lent is timely arrived upon.

You could say that the gift of knowledge beyond their capacity was the offer of the serpent to Adam and Eve, in our reading for first Sunday of Lent. We may become too sophisticated for our own good, and a little humility could take us a long way. Interestingly, such humility is often expressed by those very experts who devote their lives to warning us of reckless, mindless pursuits that wreck our environment, or who have to seek answers to the consequences of these actions, or to find responses to the biological warfare we face daily and/or with the hidden enemy of an unexpected disease such as Covid-19, or a more known one such as cancer.

The irony is that we are thrust into this dilemma at a time when we are revving up to a national election, where knowing it all is a prime claim on every candidate’s lips; and that’s because we demand it of them. Modesty is not the order of the day. These are politicians and not prophets, or pastors. The more authoritarian a figure, the more the demand upon them to know it all.  That is what leadership has become.

On March 3rd, a group of Episcopalians gathered at the state Capitol to see our legislators at work, and to meet with Episcopal representatives. We were given an overview of legislation that might touch upon our Gospel values, and encouraged to build relationships with our representatives as a way of bringing influence to bear. These were individuals who practiced “grace margins” within their calling as politicians.

Jesus offered images for knowing our place in human affairs. He referred to His followers as salt, yeast, and light. Salt sustains life and preserves the taste of things; yeast acts as a hidden substance that only reveals the hardening consequences of its absence; and light offers the ability to see what we are doing, to provide perspective, and offer guidance. Without us the world becomes tasteless, hard and in the dark. Sound familiar?

Our Episcopalians on the Hill day was accompanied by a reporter from the Episcopal News Service. He asked me if I thought the Church should be involved in politics. I answered that our Baptismal Covenant demands three things of us—to be worshipping people (promising to attend to the apostles’ teaching, breaking bread and prayers); to be an inwardly aware people (promising to resist evil and have a penitential spirit when we fail); and third, to be a political people (working for justice, peace, truth, as we lift every one’s dignity and see Christ in all whom we serve). The latter work goes beyond food pantries and social welfare (necessary and good as they are), and seeks to bring grace into our very legal structure. What we are not, I said, was partisan. The apostle Paul sees this as working like the Body, in fact the Body of Christ. Every part needs each other; and that requires mutual respect, collaboration and common purpose.

Jesus did not survive the political intrigues of His time. And yet He overcame them. For the worst his political enemies could do to Him, could not hold Him. “He conquered death by death.” as the Eastern Orthodox acclamation at the Easter Vigil proclaims. In this assurance of victory, we engage the human struggle to read the signs of the times, for God has not stopped speaking in the earthquake and the fire, the pestilence and the plague, and we can never be too sophisticated not to pay attention.

In the peace and love of Christ,

+Alan
The Rt. Rev. Alan Scarfe, Bishop of Iowa