Needed voices

Does it seem to you like the world has just gone mad?  Many - too many - people in the world see violent extremism as the only option open to them to try to make a difference, to try to escape from the bondage of poverty and oppression that is all they have known in life.  Many - too many - people in our own country seem to respond to voices that cry out against the "others" in our lives, in our world, in our society, in our own communities.  We see people acting out of our baser instincts rather than striving to live to be our best selves, and so they react out of fear and hatred and self-interest rather than living in love, compassion, and service.

One of the biblical paradigms for this kind of living situation is seen in Israel during the time of their Exile in Babylon.  They found themselves living in a culture that was, in so many ways, antithetical to who they knew they were called to be and Whom they were called to serve.  Babylon's voice called to them, luring and enticing them to give up the ways they knew to be true, and wallow in cultural norms that should have been repugnant to them.  Many people gave in, listening more to those dissonant and disruptive voices rather than to the Voice that continued to beckon to them to hold true, to stand tall, to be faithful in the midst of what must have seemed like easier ways to live.  Thankfully, many ignored those tempting siren calls, and bound themselves in covenant communities of love and prayer, of service and witness in order to stay on the right path.

The French monk, Prosper Gueranger, in his book, "The Liturgical Year," wrote about this:

"We are sojourners upon this earth; we are exiles and captives in Babylon, that city which plots our ruin.  If we love our country, if we long to return to it, we ourselves must be proof against the lying allurements of this strange land and refuse the cup she proffers us, and with which she maddens so many of our fellow captives.  She invites us to join in her feasts and her songs; but we must unstring our harps and hang them on the willows that grow on her river's bank, till the signal be given for our return (home) to Jerusalem.  She will ask us to sing to her the melodies of our dear Zion: But how shall we, who are so far from home, have heart to 'sing the songs of the Lord in a strange land?' No, there must be no sign that we are content to be in bondage, or we shall deserve to be slaves for ever."

Voices of love, of compassion, of peace, of understanding, of service to others, of faith, of grace, of empathy, and of giving need to be heard now more than ever...and it seems to be increasingly hard to raise those voices when other, angrier, judgmental, vindictive, hate-filled voices cry louder and louder.  But don't let them silence our own voices!  More and more, as we join with others in communities of faith and worship, of mission and evangelism, of compassion and service, we will find islands of sanity and hope and love, from which we will be encouraged each day to speak words we know to be true, to live lives of compassion and love, to show that there are different values, instilled in us by God, demonstrated for us in Jesus our Lord, which the Spirit empowers us to live out.