When John Lewis walked across the Edmund Pettis bridge, he also knew that he was going out as a lamb among wolves. Being a citizen of the world of justice, peace and love, he went out to make good trouble. And like the apostles before him, he shed his blood, terribly wounded by the citizens of the world of evil, hatred and violence.
We live in a number of worlds: a) the physical world of space and time, e.g., of nature, towns, cities and countries; b) the emotional world of feelings; c) the mental world of thought and understanding; d) the moral world of right and wrong; and e) the spiritual world of universal and personal consciousness which is the world of all-inclusive Creative, Healing and World-transforming Love.
We live in all these worlds at once. And we have a choice. We are called and enabled to build one world of beautiful, all-embracing justice, peace and love, a world that is the one radiant Body of Christ on earth. This world in the one that loves Jesus.
For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them; if prophecy, in proportion to the faith; if ministry, in ministering; if one is a teacher, in teaching; if one exhorts, in exhortation; if one contributes, in generosity; if one is over others, with diligence; if one does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Rom. 12:4-8)
Or we can build a world of greed, hatred and evil, a world that is morally and spiritually lost, with broken individuals and,families, poor education, morally compromised political parties and government, etc. This is the world that hates Jesus and his followers. (John 16:18-20)
We are free to live in the world of our choice. Jesus has called and empowered us build up the world of justice, peace and love for all people and for all of nature, with a special option for the poor, sick and outcast. This is the world that is the Kingdom of God on earth that Jesus prayed to be built and developed. "Thy Kingdom come...on earth."
In building the Kingdom of God of earth we have to learn how to "get in the way" of the world that hates Jesus. Thankfully, Jesus has taught and enabled us how to "get in the way" and "make good trouble." He has made us everyday mystics and everyday prophets. As everyday mystics we can see what people without faith cannot see. (How many of those who attacked John Lewis and his fellow marchers called themselves Christians and attended Christian churches?)
As everyday prophets we can and must make good and necessary trouble by peacefully and lovingly working to open people's eyes and minds to the world of love, as Jesus did. All we need is the commitment to act, with the gifts and opportunities that God provides to us.
St. Francis of Assisi very beautifully showed us how to make "good trouble:"
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love.
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive
It is is pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen
Thank you, St. Paul. Thank you, St. Francis. Thank you John Lewis. Thank you, all who are making good trouble as you help build up the Kingdom of God on earth. All that we do, we do for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ. To him be all honor and glory now and forever. Amen
