I’ve misled you. It doesn’t happen often. In fact, I can’t think of another time I have. It has to do with what we’ll be talking about today.
If you saw the “This Sunday” description in the newsletter you’d know that the Fall Equinox (which occurs tomorrow) is in the title, and as is the word ‘darkness’ – turning toward it.
Sounds pretty seasonal, pretty welcoming of the arrival of Autumn as daylight gives way to darkness. Certainly, there are lovely reflections that can and are made about this worthy topic.
But that’s not exactly where we’re headed today, although Fall’s Equinox is not completely irrelevant, because it underscores the changing of a season.
As our first reading said, it amplifies a balance between two seeming opposites -summer/winter – hot/cold…the red/blue temperature indicators on a faucet.
It’s the red/blue part that’s on my mind. But not water temperatures.
Instead, it’s the temperature in this country, which has been way up in the last week and a half since the murder of Charlie Kirk.
If you have access to social media at all, you’ll know that political red/blue battlelines are more entrenched than ever.
It’s remarkable that another agent of division was if you’d ever even heard of Charlie Kirk. This came up at the workplace of a friend of mine (who is a Democrat) on the day of Kirk’s death a co-worker came up to her and said, “Did you hear that Charlie Kirk was shot and killed?”
My friend’s response was, “No, but who’s Charlie Kirk?” At that the co-worker’s face and energy immediately turned. “Oh,” was all she said before she turned and walked away. But that tiny word spoke plenty.
Oh, you don’t know who he was, which makes you one of them.
Clearly that was a very brief conversation.
A longer one occured between the us’s and the them’s recently. This past week a couple came to visit Lisa and me…one is a Republican, one a Democrat.
The Republican expressed deep sadness over Charlie’s killing, and indicated a desire to be like Charlie, to emulate the way he lived aske. She asked that us liberals in the room spend time getting to know who Charlie was.
In an effort to practice what I preach, I did that. Although I too had never heard of this man until his death, I can now see why he was beloved by many. And I can see why he was decidedly not embraced by many.
But beyond the specifics of those politically polarizing details (which are important, granted), I learned that he was willing to engage in conversation.
He was willing to put himself in harm’s way for the sake of the cause. This obviously includes the danger of vengeful gun-toting people that ultimately cost him his life, despite the warnings of people in his circles regarding inadequate security.
He went anyway, exposing himself to dangers beyond guns and bullets…namely to the often-treacherous terrain of deeply felt ideologies of the other side.
He was willing to talk with the people, unlike many lawmakers who aren’t keen on direct discourse with their constituents these days.
I want to pause here and ask each of you a question. It’s not a rhetorical question, it’s an answer-seeking inquiry that I offer to each of you.
In this mega-polarized culture that we are now in, do you believe that exposing yourself to a diverse group (yes, that means the other guys) is helpful to decrease polarity and increase mutual understanding?
Do you personally believe that there’s any merit in that?
My friend the Republican did, and thus summoned the courage to ask that I look beyond my comfort zone in hopes that understanding would be deepened.
After doing the requested research I invited the couple back so I could discuss my findings, ask some clarifying questions.
The fact of the matter is, I didn’t love all that I learned from my research, or all of my friend’s answers. I didn’t, don’t and won’t any time soon be embracing many of the ideologies that Charlie Kirk espoused.
But by stepping into my own darkness of ignorance, I now better know my friend and I better understand who this public figure was. And I know more about leaning in.
One of the biggest takeaways from that conversation actually came from our left-leaning Lisa. After she quietly listened to my questions and our friend’s responses, she said, “We are all such complex beings. Charlie was no different, as he was on his path.”
How simple and yet fundamentally insightful…Each of us are ever-evolving. We all have light and we all have darkness.
It’s the dark part that I to visit for a moment.
Have you ever notices how we often liken darkness to negativity…being afraid of the dark for what harmful things could be lurking? I’m remembering the old TV show “Dark Shadows” with the blood-thirsty vampire Barnabas Collins.
What if we regarded darkness differently? Instead of dark shadows, what if it were simply, say, the flip side, the dark side of the moon.
What if, with the turning of the season, we evolve too? What if we turn mindfully toward that which is less familiar… what we may be a bit in the dark about?
What if we stepped out of our comfort zones and took a chance, a shot in the dark, in the name of self-expansion and interconnection?
What if we choose to do something concrete to address this dismal period, what for many feels soulfully dark, perhaps like a dark night of the soul.
Listen to these words that describe the dark night of the soul, and see if the description mirrors your internal experience during these difficult days.
A dark night of the soul is a painful but transformative period of existential crisis, and disconnection, during which one’s beliefs are stripped away to reveal a more authentic self. This process is not a punishment but a natural stage of spiritual growth and healing, characterized by feelings of emptiness and hopelessness, leading to a desire for deeper truth and a rebirth into a more enlightened state.
Stripping away pre-conceived beliefs to become more enlightened. This reminds me of a little 2-line poem by R. W. Trommer, who said: I remember the day I stopped believing that. Then everything was sky.
The sky’s the limit when we can suspend what we know long enough to possibility add to our knowledge.
We’ve all hear it said – The more I know, the more I know that I don’t know.
I recently heard an interview with political commentator David French about Charlie Kirk’s murder. His enlightened comments reminded me that there is so much more for me to know, to grow.
Like Lisa, he emphasized that we are all works in progress. Charlie, Lori, Ellen…all.
After he emphasized the wrongness of the taking of a human life – a husband, father, friend, son – he went on to say that the assault was also an assault on democracy and the freedom of speech.
French made two important caveated statements that must be underscored.
He repeated that he didn’t agree with all of Kirk’s ideologies, but then highlighted that Kirk showed up and was willing to engage with diverse others.
And then he said the #1 takeaway for me – because I can’t weasel out of its relevance to me personally – was when he said that we are all responsible, to a degree, for this violence if we contribute to this culture of animosity.
My friends, if we are to be enlightened, we must do as the governor of Utah Spencer Cox exhorted every one of us to do…
Look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are going to try to make it better. To find your soul, perhaps in a dark night, and do something to make it better.
So what is there to do? One answer is embedded in a poem I’m going to read an excerpt from.
It’s message is not only something for you to hear or even absorb, but something for you to be challenged by. Where do you personally fit into the message?
I want to hear America singing.
But it’s noise now, more shouting
than song. As if volume makes a leader.
Any singer knows being louder just makes discord, and harmony needs constant attunement to every other singer.
I want to hear America listening.
I want a citizen chorus that knows our voices are only as good as our ears.
I want a new song that begins
with a silence stretching from sea to shining sea—like the silence right before the curtains part
when your whole body leans in
to wonder what comes next.
And when the many parts do arise,
glorious in their differences,
I want to hear inside them
the careful attention that tunes them to each other, I want
to hear in our song the deep listening that makes even dissonance beautiful.
America has a song, and our harmonies are off now. French says we’re a 6 out of 10 off, and headed in the wrong direction, but there’s hope, and much of that hope lives in our houses of faith. That’s us, NCC.
And you know what Mr. French spoke about us church folks doing? Exercising Jesus’ beatitude of exercising meekness. Blessed are the meek, not be confused with weak.
In fact, it’s the opposite. Making room for the other is hardly weak.
Stepping into the dark unknown takes strength. Reaching out of your comfort zone to listen takes courage. Setting aside your gavel of ‘rightness’ in order to learn takes fortitude and humility.
These things are the antithesis of weakness and doing so immerses us in our promise to live like Jesus lived.
It may not be something that sounds comfortable to do, and yet, it is our call as people of faith to work at healing and connection.
Earlier I said I misled you a bit regarding today being about a change of seasons. It actually is about a change of season, but not of the naturally occurring variety.
This change of season is a choice.
I’ll leave you with an adage that we’ve all heard, its truth stronger than ever… If not us, who? If not now, when?
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