SACRED RESISTANCE: CONTOURS AND COMMITMENTS

Sacred resistance is a way of being and acting in the world that is engaged with and for the world God loves.

Sacred resistance is fueled and guided by a loving God who is the source and sustainer of all life, a God who is always working for good in the world, a God who has been revealed as God-with-us, a God who invites us to share the divine life of creative, mending, saving love.

Sacred resistance is anything — any word, deed, or stance — that actively counters the forces of hatred, cruelty, selfishness, greed, dehumanization, desolation, and disintegration in God's beloved world.

Sacred resistance is nonviolent and seeks the common good.

Sacred resistance "reads the signs of the times" through the lens of biblically and relationally grounded faith to discern how to be actively engaged with the world and to be vigilant against whatever threatens the world's life.

Sacred resistance takes shape in personal attitudes and in communal protest, in spiritual practices and in political advocacy, in how we spend our time and for whom we will risk our safety.

Sacred resistance will look different in different contexts because its practitioners will engage the specific situation or reality present at any given time.

Sacred resistance is the domain of no one human sect, faction, party, race, class, or even creed but is primarily the domain of a radically free God who calls us to cross boundaries to share and care for life with and for others.

Sacred resistance is what is needed for the living of these days. And "these days" are whatever days we find ourselves living.

Light and Love

"You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your [God] in heaven."

(Matt 5:14-16)

We are light in the world, called to be a shining reflection of the God in whose image we are created. In days when violence and injustice threaten to overwhelm, when the onslaught of terror and grief leaves scant room in our newsfeed for anything else, when we are painfully aware of our smallness and how much we don't know, when what we learn reveals seemingly insurmountable challenges stretching out before us, it is easy to feel that our little light makes little difference. We might experience the flame of our faith, hope, and even love grow weak and dim, challenged as it is by so deep a shadow. This is understandable. Negative voices and energies easily hitch a ride on the shadows of grief, rage, injury, vulnerability, and disappointment.

But in the midst of the shadow, the words of Jesus resound all the more: "You are the light of the world!" Heeding these words of Jesus is an act of sacred resistance. In so doing, you resist the temptation to give in to cynicism or to self-protective wall-building or to violent retaliation. To claim that you are light in the world is to receive the good news that you are made to shine, that you have a place and a purpose in the world and for the world, and that your light matters. It is an affirmation that you are a beloved part of God's family, enfolded into God's life and activity. Jesus himself is described as the light of the world, his life "the light of all people" (John 1:4). We are recipients of that light. We are made in the image of Christ. We are to be light for others in the way Christ is a light for others.

Now if that all seems a bit too lofty for a life like yours, then your first exercise in sacred resistance is to take Isaiah 43:1-7 into your daily prayer for at least a week (a month would be even better). Hear these words as God's voice speaking directly to you. Listen for what God wants to say to you. Then after at least a week with Isaiah, do the same with Matthew 5:14-16. Hear the voice of Christ speaking these words to you. If you are so led, listen to what God wants to say to you in the longer passage contained in Matthew 5:1-16.

Among the personal messages you will receive, this part of the text is clear: you are precious, beloved, formed and made by God for glory. You are created to share in the life and light of Christ!

There will be those who will reject the notion that sacred resistance begins in prayer or in one person's journey to acknowledge and accept the love of God. What do those things have to do with the heart-rending realities of brutality, hatred, and injustice in our communities and world? What possible difference do they make?

I suggest that sacred resistance begins in the heart of God. It is, in fact, God's consistent stance toward the world. Out of an overflowing love desiring to be shared, God creates the world and all that is. Out of love, God seeks relationship with humankind. Out of love, God provides everything we need to live in peace, joy, and wholeness. And when we, God's children, turn away and our love fails, God's love remains steadfast. God resists abandoning us!

God could have chosen to let us go. Across the ages, God's prophets are rejected, ignored, or killed. God's people make promise after promise, only to get distracted and wander off into the emptiness of self-made idols and the conflict inevitably resulting as the fruit of injustice. God loves us and wants to be close to us. We pay lip service to God and want to be close to our stuff. It's an old story that gets repeated through the ages. But the twist in the tale every time? God consistently resists leaving us alone! God chooses to stay with us, to never give up on us, to keep calling us to live into the image that is our birthright. God loves us with an everlasting, stubborn love. That love is the model and the fuel for sacred resistance.

It is one thing to believe that God loves the world. It is quite another to allow God's love to penetrate our own heart and life such that it grounds our thoughts, perceptions, and actions.

When you are able to stay connected to the love of God who holds you, calls you by name, forgives you, and empowers you to shine, you will be better equipped to act in the world with sacred resistance. Because you will know firsthand what sacred resistance is really about: it's about love, love that looks upon each person with a desire for their well-being, love that looks upon human community with a desire for healing and peace with justice, love that looks into all creation with a desire for mending and reverence, love that is compassionate and merciful, love that is stubborn and sacrificial. This is how God loves the world. This is how God loves you. This is how God created you to love.

"You are the light of the world," Jesus says. As long as you take those words seriously, even when you feel dimmed by weariness and worn down with grief, God's love...