Category Archives: Faith

Lovers in a Dangerous Time

Eilan Landon Menjivar, by Mark Menjivar

Don’t the hours grow shorter as the days go by
You never get to stop and open your eyes
One day you’re waiting for the sky to fall
The next you’re dazzled by the beauty of it all
When you’re lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
— Bruce Cockburn

Our Sunday sermon was delivered by the always brilliant, invariably funny Dr. Lai Ling Ngan. She chose as her text 1 Kings 17:8-24. It’s the familiar story of the prophet Elijah. Times are bad, with famine and drought on the land. Elijah makes the mistake of telling the king it’s his fault and — naturally — has to flee into the wilderness to save his life. He is fed by ravens (who are, as Dr. Ngan points out, carrion eaters).

Eventually he meets a woman who is about to make a final meal for herself and her son. There is no more food and death will soon follow. Elijah asks her to share her last meal, which she does, and he then creates an endless supply of food for them. But the child dies anyway. Elijah prays to the LORD and raises the child from the dead.

Elijah is usually cited as the hero of the story. But Dr. Ngan points out that the woman is pretty brave, too. She supports her argument by citing Heidi Neumark:

There is no point in romanticizing poverty. There is, however, a point in recognizing the power of those who fight for life and bear witness to a death-defying hope. We could say that Elijah, the male prophet, does this and therefore deserves the spotlight in the lectionary text. After all, he raises someone from the dead. But the widow raises the child — without a husband, without a safety net, without welfare or workfare. She does it in a time of idolatrous national arrogance, famine and drought. Raising the dead requires a single act of trust and prayer from Elijah. Raising a child requires countless acts of trust and many prayers, especially for a single mother.

I have a new grandson, Eilan Landon Menjivar, pictured above. Great little guy. Doesn’t say much. He’s got great parents, Mark and Rachel, who have acted in trust and faith and brought him (and his older brother Asa) into a confused and dangerous world. Bless them. Bless all those who choose to bring children into this Fallen World. I’m not sure I have the faith or the strength to do it now.

And bless those who choose to adopt. Or choose to be Big Brothers/Big Sisters. And bless those who marry and choose not to have kids. Bless ’em all.

I don’t listen to the radio stations or watch the TV shows where  the hosts(generally white males) shout and threaten and villify and demonize people who disagree with them. I don’t read magazines or newspapers or blogs or even e-mails from the extremists who claim to have all of the answers … and who believe in a theology derived from bumper stickers.

But I do try to listen to Asa and Eilan and Claire and Lucy and Luke and John and Helen and all of the really smart little kids I’m fortune to be surrounded by. I wish I could leave them a better world. I’m working on it, but things are looking a bit dicey at the moment.

It’s almost enough to make a guy despair.

Almost…

But then I stumbled on this quote. It is cited in a memoir by one of the survivors of the Civil Rights Movement, Julius Lester, who survived living in the Jim Crow South, the savage beatings in Danbury and St. Augustine, the hoses and dogs in Birmingham, the nightsticks and horses in Selma, the bricks and rocks in Chicago. Julius Lester and all of the heroes of the Movement truly lived in dangerous times. And yet he chooses to open his book Falling Pieces of the Broken Sky with this quote:

The entire Universe will be broken into a thousand pieces in the general ruin …chaos will return and will vanquish the gods and men … the Earth and Sea will be engulfed by the Planets wandering in the Heavens. Of all the generations, it is we who have been designated to merit this fate, to be crushed by the falling pieces of the broken sky. — Seneca

And thus has it ever been. Demi-gods and demogogues, reactionaries and counter-revolutionaries, fundamentalists and self-righteous Puritans — they’ve always been with us. Like the poor, they’ll be with us until the end, be it fire or ice.

And babies will be born in the eye of the storm. New love will emerge in the ruins. Old lovers will stand and re-affirm their faith and love in the maelstrom.

We’ve always been — and there have always been — lovers in a dangerous time.

And bless us all.