The following was posted on the Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward’s Facebook page on Sunday. It is reposted here with permission.
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Reflecting on a Sunday morning in the cool mountain air…
I am filled with something I seldom have experienced as vividly, though I have long believed it’s always happening: This something is way larger than we can see or imagine, something above and beyond human knowing and human actions on the parts of either the just or the unjust.
The timing of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death has made me stop and ponder. What is this mighty woman’s life — and death in this moment — effecting? Surely she is part of something unfolding in our midst right now in history. Help us see what is going on!
Now, you might wonder, because I do: Am I just plain tired? Have I gone over the top, around the bend like Q-anon and other conspiracy fanatics and crazies? I believe not. Of course I’m tired, aren’t we all, in this stressful period, but this is no hateful or loony or fear-based concoction designed to confuse the public or attract followers to no good end.
I believe with all my heart and — do I dare say it — I perceive with a third-eye: Something is happening, something we can’t fully apprehend — and this something is being shaped by the Spirit many of us know as G-d, Love, Justice-love….
I believe with the fullness of my heart, mind and soul that the Universal Spirit of Justice-Love, known by many names and transcendent of any one religion, is weaving Her way above, beneath, around, and through this present moment, not just here in the U.S. but around the world and surely throughout the cosmos.
And so I ask: What are our best roles in this stunning moment — as God works Her purpose out a bit more dramatically for most of us than we’re used to noticing?
Do we raise our voices? Yes, we do. Or do we wait in silence? Yes, that too.
Do we march? Yes, many of us must, and some of us can’t. Or do we sit quietly together, trying to be still so that we can know more clearly what to do? If we are wise, that’s exactly what we do.
Do we publicly express our anger at injustice? For sure, we do. Or do we gather to pray or meditate and become more mindful of the stillness of the Spirit? Indeed we do.
Do we insist that justice be made now, not later? Always, we must. Or do we wait as justice slowly creeps in through the cracks of our lives, laws, societies? If we are savvy, that’s just what we do.
In this moment, we are being called to embody what Dorothee Soelle named “revolutionary patience” — and because we are also nonviolent “warriors for peace,” we are being called to the streets, phone banks, letter-writing, social media posting, personal conversations, organizing in many forms, getting out the Vote!
We are being called to live all the above, usually in small measure and seldom at once, because our most effective spiritual and political work is lived in the balance, and because there are many of us — We, not just I — called to share this way of living in the world.
How do we help each other keep our courage to live in the balance? To generate sacred energies with one another in this way? To embrace our “we-ness” as the crucible for my “I-ness”?
These are questions stirring in me this Sunday morning. Perhaps they are in you too?
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Carter Heyward was Howard Chandler Robbins Professor of Theology at Episcopal Divinity School until her retirement in 2006. Her theology views that God’s power is there waiting for us to embody, and this embodiment occurs most fully when we are genuine with each other. Heyward refers to this as “relationality,” or “godding,” a term she coined. She refers to the “shape of God as justice.”
Carter Heyward is a member of the “Philadelphia Eleven.” They are the first Eleven women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church in 1974, paving the way for women like me to pursue the call to ordained ministry. Heyward founded the Free Rein Center for Therapeutic Horseback Riding and Education in Brevard, NC, where she works as an instructor.
