Antics in the Senate, and words riddled with calls to mutuality!

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper (1942)
[public domain]

[update: in the light of Donald Trump's acquittal today on charges of impeachment, please note that I have not intentionally ignored this story and have instead, for this piece, opted to focus upon the State of the Union address. I take the President's trial (and acquittal) to be extremely serious matters - both in their own right, and in process: the context of the leverage that they may inadvertently provide via the precedents that may have been set here.]

Today, I find myself reflecting upon the events of America, over the past 24 hours - and I write here with a posture of political non-partisanship.

Being election year - both here in New Zealand and in America - life becomes interesting in its own special way.

Yesterday, President Trump delivered his 'State of the Union' address in the Senate yesterday, to anyone who cared to listen. His speech has been scrutinized and criticized for its factual correctness - and quite rightly, as we should hope for anybody in his position, as President. And of course, holes have been found.

That, however, is not my point of writing. At the close of the President's speech, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi - disrespectfully and provocatively (to you and I, mediated via the media) - rose to her feet with everyone and, quite visibly, tore up what was taken to be a copy of the President's address.

My point, irrespective of political flavor, is that Nancy Pelosi's actions serve only to normalize further the angst and blatant, unsubtle visual and verbal shows of bitterness that seems to have insidiously crept from mainstream society into politics - or may the predominant flow be the reverse?

While yes, we do have plenty to celebrate that is good, isn't this 'insidious creeping' of not-niceness a mode with which our individual and collective brokenness seems ever more capable of operating? 

Yet, whether bitterness has crept from politics into society, or reverse, or symbiotically, is almost irrelevant, given that politics and society and yes, in fact, all of life - is held, bound within our realm of humanity: both beauty and brokenness.

Certainly, in some ways, 'Western' society (whatever that looks like nowadays, in a post-post-modern context) is improving for the groups of people like yourself, that are likely to be reading this. But as history demonstrates in stark reality - we are, actually, incapable of sorting ourselves out and delivering a thriving, healthy planet of human life, across its kaleidoscope of diversity and beauty.

Sure, we can celebrate pin-points of light and flourishing and celebrate these aspirationally, as it is so, so right to do, as we hunger for a better way, but the whole point is that we each silently acknowledge to ourselves that there must be a better way than what we see before us; something beyond.

As I thought about these things, I was reminded of the words of the Lord's Prayer:

give us today our daily bread // forgive us our trespasses // as we forgive those who trespass against us // lead us not into temptation:

• our daily bread: don't let us take our core sustenance for granted, God

• forgive us our trespasses: how big is/are the log(s) in my own eye(s) - could I even muster the courage to explore my capacity for self-delusion?

• we forgive those who trespass against us: exercising our (often difficult) choice to forgive the other

• lead us not into temptation: recognizing our agencies to deal to our personal appetite and propensity for (not exclusively, yet crucially) the broken things of this world

It seems no accident that these words of Christ, from the scripture of the Christian church, carry ourselves forward together, in a relatedness that is profound, and evidently, often challenging to practice in the world.

These words allow the space for us to carry ourselves in dignity, as a planet of individuals in community. As a prayer, Christ's words are riddled with mutuality: the we, standing before the Divine:

• our daily bread
• forgive us our trespasses
• we forgive those who trespass against us
• lead us not into temptation

So: here we are, whether we like or desire to acknowledge it, or not, imago dei - each of us, ultimately uniquely and beautifully, the handiwork of God.

Ultimately: each of us, in this life together, living handiwork of the living Divine.

Incapable in our capacity for true human enlightenment - and resultant failure across history, and this very week - the path of my imago dei remains: stepping forward on the pilgrim path in Father, Son and Spirit, the journey of the truest truths of the universe.