Dear Peachtree Road Family,

 

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I am writing this pastoral letter to you today because there is so much turmoil in our world, and many are struggling with how to respond. I want to take this opportunity to offer a word of encouragement to you.

 

At this moment in our history, we Americans are not at peace with ourselves. The presenting issue today is immigration; however, I suspect it is merely a symptom of our dis-ease. The root cause of our turmoil lurks beneath the surface. Divisions are deep, trust is shallow, and fear is rampant. The evidence can be viewed on our screens daily. 

 

Are you angry about what you are seeing? As we have learned during our church’s mental health emphasis, anger is a secondary emotion. You know what I mean by “secondary.” For example, orange is a secondary color. It is the combination of red and yellow, which are primary colors. In a similar way, anger is the combination of hurt and fear. Hurt and fear are primary emotions, and they come together to produce anger. From a mental health standpoint, when you are feeling angry, I think it is helpful to pause and ask yourself, “What hurt am I feeling? What am I afraid will happen?” Once you identify the root cause of your anger, you can begin to express it in a constructive way. The good news about anger is the expression of it can lead to constructive dialogue and the bridging of divisions.

 

However, anger is not what I am seeing in folks these days. What I am seeing is contempt – a very different emotion. Contempt is the feeling that another person is beneath you or worthless or subscribes to a philosophy that is not worthy of your consideration. Contempt (not anger, not disagreement, and not even incivility) is what is tearing our country apart right now. You see it in politics, religion, and especially on social media. The worst part is contempt has no interest in resolving conflicts. As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to be on guard and not let our anger become contempt.

 

With that in mind, I want to suggest two courses of action you, as a member of Peachtree Road UMC, can take:

 

First, lean more fully into your faith. Last fall, we devoted a season to the consideration of the teaching of the Old Testament prophet Micah:

 

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” – Micah 6:8

 

We observed that when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we enter into a relationship with him in which he literally begins to live in us. We think his thoughts, speak his words, and do what he did. And what did he do? Well, he ushered in a day in which the poor get good news; people held captive by anxiety, depression, and addiction find release; the blind begin to see; and prisoners are forgiven and set free. (Luke 4:18) It is a world in which everyone has enough, and all live in harmony with one another. I encourage you to pray for that day and to work for that day. 

 

We saw this lived out well in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. People came together to seek changes to the laws of the land to enable us to “form a more perfect union.” In those days, the protesters met in churches to pray, to be trained before going out into the streets, to remember that they were God’s children, and to reflect that nature. As a result, the civil disobedience was civil, and the peaceful resistance was peaceful. They advocated without dehumanizing, sought justice without assuming the worst about every law enforcement officer or politician, and named what needed to change without letting their anger degenerate into contempt. Those leading the Civil Rights Movement deliberately appealed to the conscience of a nation. The way they protested and worked for justice was a powerful witness to their faith. This is the faith we have inherited. Let us lean into it more fully.

 

The second action you can take is to do everything you can to de-escalate the tension folks are experiencing. Our nation is at a crossroads in our history, and tensions are high. I am not a politician, and practical solutions to some of our social challenges are not for me to decide. However, how we respond to one another is very much within the guidance of the church. I had a professor in theology school who had an expression that continues to echo in my mind: “Excess breeds excess. Balance breeds balance.” We have seen the excesses acted out on the streets of Minneapolis the last few weeks as encounters have escalated from demeaning language and gestures to actions that cross the line to physical confrontations that have ended in the tragic loss of life. We are better than this! When you find yourself in an encounter with someone who is becoming more and more emotional, seek to bring the temperature down! Balance breeds balance.

 

We have been talking a good deal at Peachtree Road the last few years about three practices that help cross the difference divides: 

 

 

Let us exercise these three practices in our encounters with one another and employ civility.

 

Above all, I encourage you to pray daily for our nation and for our church. When we pray, we bring God into the equation. When that happens, I believe God stirs within us a sense of empathy for one another that leads to compassion and the offering of grace. I believe this is a time for the church to speak up and show courage in the midst of conflict. And I believe God is calling us to reflect the light of Christ and show this divided, complex world how to live in harmony with one another. I encourage us all to live into these words. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you would like to talk. I am praying for you.

 

Grace and peace,