I wrote a small reflection for a gathering of the North Suburban cluster of churches who are members of Community Renewal Society. Here’s the reflection:
So I have been tasked with preparing today’s faith reflection. Given the ecumenical nature of our group, it was difficult to choose a text that could be broadly relatable as well as specifically powerful. I grew up in the Southern Baptist church, where their idea of ecumenical was inviting everyone from the surrounding Southern Baptist churches to a potluck supper, but only if no one talked about politics or religion. In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, I have chosen a text from the Dao De Ching, the foundational Daoist text by the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. Historians disagree on whether or not Lao Tzu was one person or merely a collection of wisdom handed down through oral tradition, similar to how bible scholars view Proverbs. Nevertheless, the wisdom is timeless, and Lao Tzu’s words can have powerful effects on us today.
Lori and I were discussing in our one-on-one a few weeks ago our own struggle with Daoist texts. It exhorts us to mimic the Man of Inaction (Woman of Inaction, depending on the translation), who achieves most by doing the least. Like water, the Dao flows to where it is needed, without force or violence. Water benefits everyone by preferring no one, seeking to take part in the flow of life, not to disrupt it with Action or Legislation. This is obviously wonderful wisdom that can help us understand how to interact in many situations at work, at home, at school, and in our personal and private lives. However, as we have noticed that the world is woefully out of balance, spiritually dry as a bone, and flying headlong into disaster caged in a Trump-sized basket, Lori and I (and I’m sure all of you) seek concrete actions we can take to make effective change. Thankfully, in a local bookstore I found a new translation of the Dao called the Activist’s Dao De Ching: Ancient Advice for a Modern Revolution. I read now from William Martin’s translation of the Dao De Ching:
Ideas, concepts, and words
Have separated us from life.
Masquerading as friends,
They have made us enemies
Of each other.
Free of our own prejudices,
We act with spontaneity.
We move naturally.
We accomplish what is necessary.
Caught in our prejudices,
We act as puppets,
Moving in lockstep
To the beat of commerce.
All emerges from the Dao,
All returns to the Dao in time.
Meanwhile, darkness deepens,
Bringing fear and despair.
Darkness faced, however,
opens into daylight.
We all know and have felt the coming onrushing of power that seems likely to overwhelm us. We see every day in the news another horror, another sick injustice perpetrated in the name of Society or God or Common Sense or The Economy. Whether we believe in God, Dao, or the inimitable goodness of humankind, we can all agree that when good people band together to acknowledge our collective power, align our common goals, and restore each other’s hearts, we can be just as elementally powerful as the injustice that we face, just like the water that Lao Tzu spoke of. No matter the dams built by Rahm or Rauner or Pence or Priebus or anyone else, water seeps under, it flows over, it bursts through, or maybe it evaporates and rains on the other side. Once we align together, our forces cannot be stopped, and need not be violent or hazardous or felonious. There are many concrete actions we can take, steps we can begin, here, together, to break any dam that comes against us.
Embodied Theology 