06-20-23

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
June 20, 2023
Yesterday was Juneteenth. Today is World Refugee Day. Both of these days encourage people to educate themselves on the past and the present, and then to recognize how history rarely offers anything new. In Sociology, there are a couple of opposing theories (I am very much a novice on these matters): 1. Social Evolutionism, a belief that society is evolving and making progress; or 2. Social Cycle Theory, a belief that we continue to repeat the same general behaviors and duplicate the same basic mistakes. Neither of the theories excludes the possibility of the other occurring, just not in any significant way. I believe there are positive characteristics to both, yet to see life-giving patterns emerge and reoccur requires knowledge of the past and a keen awareness of the present. To bring about progress toward something new also requires us to know what has worked in the past, and even more so, what has failed in the past. One of the shameful practices of a politician is to repackage a failed idea of the past, but doing so with an exciting new name and a lot of dynamic marketing. Too few people have the capacity to say, "Haven’t we tried this before under another name, and wasn’t the outcome detrimental to society?" Religions have done the same thing, including Christianity. In a time when people discourage the reading of anything discomforting while also banning books and films that portray even a hint of an unorthodox idea, we need to encourage people to go deeper. If your faith can only remain strong when there is no challenge to it, then it might be time to find yourself a different faith. As they say often, "Knowledge is power," and that knowledge includes history and an understanding of the social movements that brought about these important events in history. It is the historians who are often shaking their heads when someone says, "How did we not see that coming?

Eternal God, stretching the span of time—past, present, and future—we confess our cringeworthy capacity to recklessly repeat the monumental failures of previous generations. We act surprised at how we did not have any idea such a thing could happen, while the lessons of history and the sacred wisdom of scripture suggest otherwise. Forgive us; teach us; prod us to ask the tough and uncomfortable questions of the very history seeking to repeat itself. We need your help, O God. Amen.