Fighting cynicism

One of the things we most appreciate about where we live now on the near-east side of Syracuse, which is in the Meadowbrook neighborhood of the city, is how quickly we have gotten to know so many of our neighbors.  We actually have things like porches and sidewalks where we now live!  Where we lived previously was in a 1950's subdivision that had been built devoid of such community-building things.  One of the nicest surprises here is that some of our neighbors are becoming our friends as well. This past weekend, our backyard neighbors/friends hosted the winter meeting of the Board of a non-profit organization known as Doctors for Global Health.  Similar in some ways to Doctors without Borders, though much smaller, DGH works with partner communities around the world.  As they describe themselves:

"We fund and support local projects that build on the energy, creativity and passion of local leaders. We educate and advocate for domestic and foreign policies that promote justice and peace. We accompany communities in fulfilling health and other human rights.

"Since its inception, DGH has accompanied communities in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uganda and the United States. We are improving the health and well-being of these communities by increasing access to quality health care; developing educational opportunities and avenues for artistic expression; and raising awareness of health and other human rights.

"Every community we accompany has unique strengths and needs, but they all share a common thread: the health inequities they face are symptoms of larger social, economic and political injustices. Malnutrition, poverty, preventable death and violence all violate basic human rights."

One of the Board members that we met this past weekend was the founding president of this group, Dr. Lanny Smith.  Lanny is a physician working as a clinician-educator primary care in Jamaica Plain, MA.  He talked about the challenges of people who work to help those most in need in our communities and in our world... who work to address basic human needs in the midst of deplorable conditions and desperate poverty... who believe that, as written above, "health inequities... are symptoms of... injustices."  One of the biggest challenges people face who do these things is allowing oneself to become a cynic.  "Cynicism does nothing but cause disease," Lanny said.  Being a cynic saps one's energy, affects one's health by the toll it takes on both body and spirit, and ultimately leads to disappointment, disillusionment, and bitterness.

It occurs to me that the dangers Dr. Smith described for people working in organizations that confront poverty and injustice are the very same dangers for people working in and with the Church.  I've too often seen people - good people, bright people, passionate people - become disappointed, disillusioned, and bitter from experiences they've had and/or witnessed in the Church.  Alas, we Church folks are not always good reflections of the light of Christ, are we?  (How's that for an understatement?) We are, as theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer so eloquently wrote about in his first doctoral dissertation (yes, first dissertation...can you fathom that?) is that the Church of Jesus Christ is not only the "communion of saints," but we also are the communion of sinners.  That can be disheartening, to say the least.

What do we do about that?  What can save us from cynicism about the Church, about General Assembly, about our Presbytery, perhaps even about our own congregation?  Lanny Smith said that what we need to keep is a good, well-developed, often-practiced sense of humor!  Think "Patch Adams" here.  I agree with him.  However, as Christians we have other resources available also.  Staying in community with each other, no matter how challenging that can be at times, can save us from isolating cynicism. Prayer, meditation, and reading the Bible, along with reading other devotional materials and spiritual reflections, help us as well.

A couple of Sundays ago in church, the closing hymn we sang was We Are Your People (words by Brian Wren).  The fourth stanza of that hymn is a prayer.  It says, "Glad of tradition, help us to see, in all life's changing, where You are leading, where our best efforts should be."  The Church needs you.  The Presbytery needs you.  Your congregation needs you.  Yes, God needs you as well.  God needs each of us to remain focused on where Christ is leading, on where our best efforts should be. And if we stay thus focused, if we stay involved with others, we will be saved from slipping into cynicism.

Oh, and if you'd like to find out more about Doctors for Global Health, you can read all about them on their website: http://www.dghonline.org/.

Thoughts across a backyard fence

There is a wonderful couple who live in the house behind us.  Even over the short period of the past nine months that we've lived in our home, they've become friends.  In the past two weeks, Shirley has shared two things with me, inviting me to read them.  One was an article in the magazine, The Hidden Child.  This semi-annual journal publishes stories about some of the Jewish children during the Holocaust, and the families who hid them from the Nazis.  The article she asked me to read was entitled, "Do We Always Have to Forgive," written by Rabbi Leo Michel Abrami, who was himself a "hidden child" in Normandy, and is now teaching at the Jewish Studies Institute in Phoenix, AZ.  In his article he shared a bit of a story related from the experiences of Simon Wiesenthal.  This was the tie, naturally, to the book that Shirley also invited me to read, which was Wiesenthal's work, The Sunflower.  Both works led me to ponder further my own thoughts about sin, forgiveness, repentance, and reconciliation.  Both works affirmed the traditional Jewish teaching on forgiveness, which, briefly, is this: "...the Talmudic Sages held that God absolves all of our sins against Him, but not the offenses committed against our fellow human beings, until we have sought reconciliation with them and made peace with them.  (Why?)  It is because only those who have been wronged can forgive."  I affirm the Sages' wisdom and beliefs about forgiveness.

However, I believe there is something more... at least one other element to the whole, complex issue of forgiveness.  I believe that when someone has wronged me, I need to offer them forgiveness so that I can move past the hurt and anger I feel, and then move on.  If I hold on to unforgiveness, it usually does not affect the person who wronged me, and therefore only affects me.

From my perspective, when I forgive someone it does not mean that I've forgotten, nor does it mean that I think everything is now okay.  For me, forgiveness is one part of the process of reconciliation, but reconciliation can take place only if the one who committed the wrong asks for forgiveness and demonstrates some degree of repentance.  In other words, reconciliation is a two-way street; both parties have a role to play in sincerity if reconciliation is to be even a possibility. However, forgiveness is one-way; I offer it as a way of opening the door to the other person, but also as a way for me to let go of feelings that otherwise could become all-consuming.

Let me offer an example.  A congregation I served had a treasurer who stole a little over $120,000 from the church.  He was a 4th-generation member of the church, and most of his family and friends were very active in the church.  I was asked by a couples' group in the church to talk with them about their hurt and anger and sense of betrayal by this man who had been a valued member of that group for some 40 years.  In the process of our conversation, I talked about what I see as the difference between reconciliation and forgiveness.  As a Christian, I do believe that I have a responsibility to forgive someone who comes to me and asks for my forgiveness for some wrong they have done to me.  As a Christian group, we had a responsibility to forgive that man if he came and asked, demonstrating a sense of culpability, contriteness, and repentance.  However, I told them that whether or not he ever came to us in that way (he never did, by the way), we had to get to the point where we could forgive him in our hearts, because otherwise the hurt and anger would eat away at us.  We had to forgive him, whether or not he asked, because we needed to be able to be healed and to move on.

It is not an easy thing, this whole business of sin, repentance, confession, forgiveness, reconciliation.  But isn't this part of the heart of that most familiar of prayers, the Prayer that Jesus taught us?  Weekly (maybe even daily!) we pray that God will "forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us."  May God help us to embody that Prayer