Scripture: Fifth Sunday of Lent

Reflection:  In the Gospel this week, Jesus speaks about what it means to bear fruit. He proclaims that “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,” it will not bear fruit. This troubles us in our work of seeking justice and a better tomorrow in which every person can flourish. What exactly needs to die in us?

As we look ahead to the stark choice we face in the 2024 election, it becomes clear that what needs to die in us is apathy, despair, and all the hatred, anger, and us-versus-them mindsets that keep us from solidarity with our neighbor. All of these things–the division and disengagement–help the wealthy and powerful amass power and resources, while hard-working people in our communities are deprived of the resources needed to live the dignified life we all deserve.

When we “die” to despair and division, our most whole and resilient self can emerge. This is the self we need to meet the challenges of this year, in order to together build a future for everyone.

We all know that policy affects our lives–all of our lives. Bad policy sustains unjust structures that perpetuate poverty, racism, and all forms of exclusion. Good policy, on the other hand, like the expanded Child Tax Credit, food assistance programs, workers’ protections, and more, can actualize the freedoms we need to care for ourselves and our loved ones, to be healthy, to live in safety, and to participate in democracy.

Elections are always a choice, but the 2024 election poses a stark choice, with particularly high stakes. White Christian nationalism threatens our democracy and deteriorates our public processes. Politicians use racial scapegoating, especially against immigrants seeking safety, to consolidate power and divide us. And the wealthy few continue to hoard astronomical wealth, while the rest of us struggle to put food on the table or pay the rent.

The politicians seeking to consolidate power and resources want us to give up on elections–to sit the elections out. They sow confusion, chaos, and division in the hopes of disenchanting and disengaging us. But we know better, and we choose engagement. We choose multi-issue voting. We choose a future for all of us, no exceptions — echoing the words of Pope Francis, whose 11th anniversary as pope we celebrate today, a future for “todos, todos, todos!”

Prayer by NETWORK Executive Director Mary J. Novak:  

Merciful and loving God, we come before you in need of care and assurance
In need of your assistance in mustering the courage so necessary for resilience
We journey today, aware of the challenges and perils before us, but struggling for hope
We journey ready to give of ourselves, but fearful of the possible cost
Help us to move forward to do what it ours to do in building Beloved Community
Help us remember that you are with us in the depths of every earthly struggle
Help us to be open to the possibilities of your goodness, grace, and surprises
For all things are possible with you, and that is the greatest assurance of all.

Amen.

Scripture: Fourth Sunday of Lent

Reflection: Lent week four readings focus on God’s mercy, even in the face of so much gone awry in the world due to human wickedness. Today, that wickedness shows up most fully in our society in racism, poverty, and all forms of oppression, exclusion, and alienation.

As we enter the fourth week of Lent, we turn to our deep need to both accept God’s mercy and extend mercy to others. To show mercy to others (and to oneself!) means joining in God’s merciful, broad, and inclusive invitation to work together for the common good, and to transform our structures of racial, economic, and social injustice.

We can only do this together. In this week’s Gospel, Jesus says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” This Lent, let us condemn injustice, not each other.

With mercy, we can interrupt the cycles of violence and exclusion that characterize our politics and many of our social systems. With mercy, we can renew our politics, and our world. With mercy, we can build the Beloved Community, and create a society in which every person—with no exceptions—has what they need to thrive.

How will you add mercy to your Lenten practice? What does it mean to you to show mercy in your politics?

in this week’s first reading, we hear the lament of the Israelites in Babylon–which is much like the laments of the justice-seekers of our time. They warn us again and again about what white Christian nationalism will do — and is already doing — to tear apart the fabric of democracy in this country. We are warned, for example, by Fr. Bryan Massingale, Dr. Robbie P. Jones, and other experts in NETWORK’s White Supremacy and American Christianity series. Will we ignore their warnings, like the people in this Sunday’s first reading? Or, will we engage in the 2024 election as a critical opportunity to root our politics in mercy, and begin to transform the wickedness of racism, Christian nationalism, and more?

Prayer by Seattle-based spiritual writer Cameron Bellm:

Tune our ears to hear your messengers of mercy, O God,
The ones who call us to lead with loving kindness,
The ones who encourage us to lay down the arms of vengeance,
To embrace not retaliation but reconciliation.
Guide our hearts to be ever watchful for the lost sheep.
Turn our eyes to seek the forgotten and the mistreated,
Not resting until we bring them home.
Bless our hands to build better structures,
A nation that nurtures, a society that is safe for all.
Transform us with your rich mercy, O God,
Until it is the only language we can speak.

Amen.