OPINION: The pope, the world and our kids
Michael Poole
The world has changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it. — The Lord of the Rings
Who has not been stirred by the inaugural ceremonies of the new Pope Francis? Two hundred thousand people were standing, watching, hoping to get a glimpse of him. Worldwide, more than a billion Catholics (a billion!) celebrate centuries of sacred decorum. Protestant, Muslim and Jewish worlds are both enthralled and inspired by a faith tradition with peculiarities quite different their own — Mary was born without original sin, a celibate clergy, an expanded version of the holy book and a leader empowered to speak, at times, as the voice of God.
That Protestants have become comfortable with these things is quite a transformation. “The world has changed. I feel it ….” Don’t you?
Not so long ago, Protestant leaders and churches (including Baptists) dissed Catholics. Mainline Evangelicals labeled the Pope “anti-Christ” and Rome “Babylon”
This shifting of tides was mutual and has much to do with something called R-E-S-P-E-C-T. John Paul II was the first pope ever to enter a mosque and pause in prayer. He said that Christians and Muslims share the same God. He apologized for the shameful Crusades, that period when Christians massacred Muslim Arabs in the name of Christ, something Muslims have never forgotten. He apologized to Jews, women, Galileo and victims of child sex abuse. He prayed at the “wailing wall” in Jerusalem, an expression of affection for Jews. He dialogued constantly with Protestants, which is partially why we’ve stopped protesting.
Pope Francis seems to walk in this Way. His model demonstrates that respect is not limited to those who agree with us; it’s especially needed for those who don’t. Who was it that said, “Love your enemies?” We never win by TALKING down TO anyone; we win by SITTING down WITH them. Another has written, “Let’s get out of their faces and into their shoes.”
When one genuinely respects the other (even an enemy) or, better, when someone who is my enemy genuinely FEELS valued and respected, then something beautiful takes place, weapons drop, friendships begin, love has the chance to win and life to change.
In the new world that’s upon us, the flat world of countless migrations and refugees, the world of cablevision, Internet, air travel, the world where neighbors, co-workers and our children’s schoolmates are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, New Age and secular humanist, along with multitudes who are daily becoming “none of the above” — in this new kind of diversified world, we would do well to learn to show respect rather than contempt.
“We reap what we sow.” “Those who live by the sword (gun) will die by the sword.” We must find the courage to beat our spears into plow shears, and engage in earnest, heart-felt, respectful dialogue with those who disagree with us. Somebody remind me what we’re afraid of?
What does this have to do with our kids — and parents, grandparents and teachers, too? For one thing, we need to get comfortable with this global village reality, this new multi-cultured world, because our children need mature leaders whose hair is not always on fire about some issue. They need a calming presence, patient leadership and authentic friendship.
The world has changed, and it’s not coming back. Not now, not EVER. I’m not saying all changes are good, but there is much good that God is doing. “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” If we fail to partner with God in this great work here and now, and if we only see the bad, if we cower in fear and hide from reality, then what’s left to offer our children? What good are we? The salt has lost its savor. Do you see what I’m saying? It’s not easy but it is necessary.
Worldview shapes thinking and behavior. Imagine a harmonized world where “the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together. … The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:6-9 NIV).
Imagine with St. Paul the re-creation of all creation: “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. … The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-22 NIV).
Envision people of every race, kindred and persuasion transformed so that every thought, breath and action comes into harmony with the desires of Jesus the Christ, so that, for example, the Sermon on the Mount actually becomes a way of life … or love and peace prevail regardless of circumstance … or where one’s hands, feet, mouth, ears, eyes and very soul become instruments of touching the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives and prisoners trapped in darkness … or being an instrument in shaping a world where “justice roll(s) on like a river and righteousness like a never-ending stream” (Amos 5:24).
Imagine being part of a revolution that seeks to transform whole neighborhoods, cities, regions and continents. Consider God’s kind of life — empowering, motivating, liberating, no longer intimidated by darkness, or fiery rhetoric, or even change itself. As firefighters invade hell-fired buildings to save, the revolutionaries of Christ invade hellish lives of those entrapped in humanity’s sins like poverty, crime, addiction, disease, prejudice and injustice.
Emerging from the ashes of the passing modern age, this now and future way of church attracts children, adolescents and young adults, those with little or no spiritual background, who hunger to eat spiritual bread and thirst to live a story woven from threads of “what was, what is and what is to come.”
Imagine a new kind of world, a world where “they and them” become “we and us.” WE are the hungry; WE are the broken, the rejected, and discarded. WE are the marginalized “spiritual-zeroes” for whom Jesus died and lives, and for whom the Kingdom is at hand. WE are welcomed into this new, emerging Way of Life, out of what was, into what is and onto what is to come.
We love the symbol: a warm, people’s Pope Francis working the crowd like a Sunday morning preacher, welcoming all, judging none, engaged in real-life problems and rolling up his sleeves to help. It’s a symbol of hope for the world, hope for our kids, hope that indeed heaven’s real place is on earth and heaven gets here through frail and faulty souls — you, I, we and us. We, the Pope and our children are here and now living creation’s story, God’s story, our story — a story which was, is and sure to come.
Yes, the world has changed. We feel it in the water. We feel it in the earth. We smell it in the air.
Thanks be to God.
Michael Poole ([email protected]) recently retired after 24 years of church leadership in Central Virginia. This column also appeared in Joe Kendrick’s blog “Lantern Thoughts.”