“Because grace happens and my people are as desperate for grace as anyone, although they don’t always . . .” Al stopped in mid-sentence. He brought his hands together and bent his head in Carla’s direction. “Gee, thanks Pastor Carla, I think that really is why I do it. Here I thought I was just doing it for the money.”
Carla chuckled. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s not easy being a pastor these days. I may get the media attention for my activities, but I know that you have to fight many quiet battles that no one ever knows about. I also know that you often pay a heavy price for your work.”
“Being a pastor is a strange experience,” Al said. “I told you what I thought the response would be to your presentation tomorrow.”
“I believe your conclusion was that they would sympathize as long as they didn’t have to do anything about it.”
“We live in an extremely anxious time, Carla.” Al paused, reached down into the briefcase at his feet, and pulled out a Bible. He flipped it open and read, “And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome.” Al added, “I don’t think humanity has ever forgiven God for that act.”
“I’m lost,” said Carla. “Where in the world are you going with that?”
“Whether it’s the Red Sea before the escaping slaves or the stormy sea on Lake Galilee, what do those churning waters always symbolize in the Bible?”
“Ah,” said Carla, “that I do remember from seminary. The Hebrews were a people of the land. For them, waters, especially churning waters, symbolized chaos. I remember Dr. Simington pointing out that the opening description of creation was of pure chaos before God spoke and began to draw order out of it.”
“That’s right,” said Al, “and no one likes to live in chaos. We resent it when something stirs up our lives and threatens to burst our thinly veiled bubble of order and security.”
“So what does that have to do with the dome?” Then Carla struck her forehead. “Oh, wait, I get it. Even though God built a protection from our being overwhelmed by chaos, God still left a measure of chaos in our lives. God separated the waters above the dome from the waters under the dome. I never saw that before.”
“People continue to be frightened by change in their lives. When you ask them to challenge the order of society and question the justice of our system, you are asking them to risk chaos,” said Al. “I’ve always remembered one of our ethics professors saying that when we are frightened enough, we will choose order over justice.”
“That explains why so many people tolerate living under dictators,” Carla said. “We see our society falling apart and the dictator promise us order. People like me ask them to risk more chaos.”
SMcCutchan