Chaos the eventual hope

Dimly he knew at what end the attack aimed; some disintegrating force was being loosed at the vessel—not conquest, but destruction, was the purpose, and chaos the eventual hope.

The looters, the brick throwers, a few members of City Council, and Donald Trump—a disintegrating force, chaos the eventual hope.

I’ve watched Jenny Durkan, the Mayor of Seattle, and Carmen Best, the police chief, doing their best to make clear the difference between those protesting the crime against George Floyd and those who would tear the city apart. Trying to explain the difference between a police officer who would kneel on a handcuffed man’s neck for almost nine minutes and officers struggling to stay calm and disciplined in the face of threats and their own fears.

Those protesting for justice, the officers protecting their right to assemble and speak, the mayor and the police chief, the citizens who came to clean up downtown, the city’s clergy—are all on the same side.

Those looting and destroying stores, fighting with the police; and those in positions of authority enabling the violence; cops engaged in acts of brutality,and a president dispersing peaceful demonstrators so he could hold a Bible while standing in front of an Episcopal Church—are all on the same side.

Moral discernment can be tricky. Some confuse being able to “understand” the forces that drive destructive behavior with rationalizing, and thereby legitimating, the behavior. Some use slogans instead of considered thinking, e.g., "we don't condone the violence but we also don't condemn it," and "people over property"(thereby washing away the loss of jobs, access to needed supplies, and the sense of fear that has been engendered), and there's attempts on the right and the left to appropriate Martin Luther Kings comments on riots (here's the actual speech). That doesn’t make them evil, just wrong and morally confused. Others seem to revel in the chaos. They aren’t simply confused. They set out to hurt and damage. They have allied themselves with the destruction. It’s a bit harder to see the divine image in them. Even then, for the sake of truth, our nation, and our own souls, we must try.

In response to yesterday’s post, a friend wrote, “You help me persist, though I’m not always sure at what. It is at least persisting in a refusal to despair.” Maybe Charles Williams can help.  

Charles Williams has been a help in my journey. In War in Heaven, there’s a scene in which malign forces are attacking the Graal. There’s an Archdeacon, Duke and Kenneth in the room. Here’s some of what happens—

Archdeacon: “It may be that God is dissolving it but I think there is devilry. Make yourselves paths for the Will of God. …Pray …”

Duke: “Against what shall we pray?”

Archdeacon: “Against nothing. Pray that He who made the universe may sustain the universe.”

A profound silence followed, out of the heart of which there arose presently a common consciousness of effort.  … They existed knit together, as it were, in a living tower built up around the sacred vessel, and through all the stones of the tower it’s common life flowed. Yet to all their apprehensions, and especially to the priest’s, which was the most vivid and least distracted, this life received and resisted an impact from without. The tower was indeed a tower of defense, though it offered no aggression, and resisted whatever there was to be resisted merely by its own immovable calm. 

In the priest: Dimly he knew at what end the attack aimed; some disintegrating force was being loosed at the vessel—not conquest, but destruction, was the purpose, and chaos the eventual hope. … Silence and knowledge were communicated to him as if from an invisible celebrant; he held the Cup no longer as a priest, but as if he set his hands on that which was itself at once the Mystery and the Master of the Mystery.

May the priestly people of God pray—That He who made the universe may sustain the universe.

This morning Bishop Peter Eaton issued a pastoral message in response to the President’s sacrilege. In it he wrote this,

Yet, however our history has been shaped and by whom, all of us bear responsibility for taking our part in righting the wrongs of centuries, and it does rest with the President and the Administration to respond to the present crisis in ways that actually advance the American dream, and that do not perpetuate the nightmare from which we never seem to be able fully to awaken.  There are many rights at stake here, well beyond the Second Amendment - rights that are rarely mentioned, and even more rarely upheld.

Nor can the Church simply criticise.  The Church must be ready to take our place with the Government and all others in any and all endeavours of good will and sound principle that seek to make this country the nation we were brought to birth to become.

It must further be said that we are not meant to stand in front of churches and other houses of faith; we are meant to enter them, pray in them, be formed by the community of faith that worships in them, and be changed. And Bibles are not meant to be held up; they are meant to be read, marked, learnt, and inwardly digested.

If we really mean the words of this majestic prayer in our Prayer Book, it will have consequences:

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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