Romans 12:9-16b
Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth - Year A
In days when there is much talk of schism within The United Methodist Church and an increasing gap between the rich and the poor, there is great disjuncture and disharmony. There is no solution to an intractable tension between self and other. Both are real and both invisible.
An ever present danger of dealing with an eternal G*D is that we too easily claim our experience of G*D to be eternal. This makes it extremely difficult to carry ourselves lightly and humbly with one another. We take the on/off switch of chaos/creation and extend it into every other part of our personal/corporate theology. This turns the analog of tuning life into the digital of right/wrong. Eventually an awesome G*D requires sinning worms and the church develops its scapegoat of the day.
In our economy it gets to be a false divide between the rich and the middle class. The old false saw about seeing that the rich get theirs and then all boats will rise cannot be re-purposed to securing the middle class. As long as the poor are not the central measuring rod for our economic health there will continue to be fever upon fever and burst bubble after burst bubble. Though difficult for us to get our minds and hearts around, ultimately there is no wealth that is not generated by the poor. Sustainable wealth requires the health of the poor for this is the great untapped pool of resources that is intentionally kept from offering the gifts invested in them.
Where, in a patriarchal system, are pregnant women meeting? Where, in a capitalist society, are the lowly gathering? Here is where hope will be borne and born. In both instances mercy is remembered and enacted. Where mercy is forgotten the beauty-way fades into mirage and we are truly lost.