On the Turning Away

This morning, like many of you, I awoke to the news of increased tension between the US and North Korea, to reports of neo-Nazis and other alt-right groups marching in Charlottesville, and to all kinds of stories of violence and unrest.  I awoke in a sunlit room with flowers swaying outside the window, a room where the sound of waves lapping at the shore and breezes flapping the curtains nearly lulls me back to sleep, and it was surreal, being in a place of such calm and beauty and yet knowing that even here, evil and violence and wickedness can and will exert their influence and disturb the peace.

As I pondered these things, I decided to play some music, and there in the playlist was one song from Pink Floyd, a song so melancholy and so full of yearning that it fit my mood perfectly.  Go to youtube.com and read the lyrics as you listen to the words that plead for a world in which there is no more turning away from the weak and the weary, a world where the daylight is indeed stirring, a world where, in my "churchy" language, the kingdom of God has come on earth.

The picture above was taken from the dim interior of St. Oran's Chapel, where shadow lay over everything within, yet just outside the heavy wooden door, the daylight streamed over everything in its path.  And I think of how we live on the threshold of those two realities, between the healing light which gives life and yields growth, and the darkness where resentments fester and unhealed wounds explode into bluster and shows of power.  And I think of how Jesus calls us not only to walk in the light, but to BE the light of the world that cannot be hidden.  And I think how hard it is to be those who aren't part of the turning away, to be those who truly mean it when we pray, "I am no longer my own but thine. Put me to what thou wilt; rank me with whom thou wilt.  Put me to doing; put me to suffering." Left to our own devices, we can't pray those words and mean it.  Left to our own devices, we will continue to choose to keep turning away.  But we aren't left to our own devices.  The Holy Spirit surrounds us and fills us and works within us to give us the courage to face evil and injustice wherever we find them, even when it is hard, uncomfortable, or dangerous. Because of that, we can dare to dream and to work for a world in which there is no more turning away.

On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
"Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others' suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away"

It's a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting its shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that we're all alone
In the dream of the proud

On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
Mesmerized as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night

No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away? ~ David Gilmour, Anthony Moore