The Moment Is Here

Many of my colleagues (I don’t know the numbers, but it’s gotta be several hundred from multiple faiths) are on their way to Minneapolis for protest, witness, and truthtelling on Friday, January 23. It’s going to be bitterly cold, but this is important. This could be a game changer - and it certainly will be an important moment in our current fight for American democracy and freedom.

And not all of us are going. The call to clergy went out last week, and many of us had to make tough decisions. For some, it was practical. For others, it was medical. For still others, it was about knowing their role in the resistance.

Not everyone is called to be the frontline responder. Or maybe at one point they were, but roles have shifted. That’s my experience, as someone who was on the frontlines in the 1980s and 1990s, fighting for the LGBTQ right to exist. Now I’m more of a weaver or storyteller and occasionally a healer or guide.

I often tell the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10) not as one of shame on either sister, but as an example of the many roles we play:

Briefly, in the gospel telling, Jesus and the disciples arrive, tired and in need of food, at the home of their friends Mary and Martha. Martha provides the comforts and nourishment they need, while Mary listens to their stories, their experiences. And while the gospel portrays Jesus as being a little snarky when Martha complains (“Mary has chosen the better part”), I think what’s happening is that Jesus is suggesting to Martha that it’s all needed - not just what she is doing but what Mary is doing too. All of it: listening, storytelling, healing, nourishing.

Everyone has a role to play, and what matters less is how they look but what they provide. Our frontline responders in Minneapolis on Friday will need places to get warm, get fed, be listened to, be prayed for, be prayed with. They’ll also need the infrastructure that provides the resources, does the trainings, knows the law, assists with all manner of aid.

If you wonder what your role is, you can’t do much better than Deepa Iyer’s book Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection. It’s the UUA Common Read this year - unusual that it’s such a practical guide, but wow do we need it. We can’t be mired in the theoretical any longer, or struggling to translate stories of other moments as we try to understand our own. This book is new, fresh, practical, and surprisingly inspiring. Whatever your faith tradition, this book is incredibly helpful.

So a final word: if you are outside of Minneapolis on Friday, please pray - whether that’s formal prayers, or a lit candle, or meditations, or whatever practice suits your faith and your understanding of Mystery the best. And make plans to support those in Minneapolis (a good place to start is by donating to MARCH, the organization coordinating the Friday action).

This is our call.