If I could tell you anything right now about what we are to do with the days we are given, it would be this:
Dwell fully in the land and work for its thriving.
For those of you who embrace Christianity for all its worth, you’ll find these words in Jeremiah 29, just before the words everyone loves to claim about God promising a world saturated in hope.
“This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, to all the exiles I’ve taken from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and make yourselves at home. Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country. Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you’ll thrive in that country and not waste away. Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare. Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.’”
Babylon. A name associated with everything that’s wrong about society.
Fear can’t spell hope. But hope doesn’t need fear’s endorsement.
And you, love, can be a person who spells hope.
Cultivate the space beneath your feet, and grow there the many-flavored fruit that cannot be destroyed by storm or stripping locusts: love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, kindness, goodness, self-control. Then open up the gates and let all who need the fruit come in to harvest.
Love those who are near to you. Love the friends you have and the friends you have not yet met. Love family.
Love those who are far from you. Love the ones you would rather despise, shun, mock, ignore. Love those you believe to be your enemies.
Love them all fully, completely, without condition or reservation.
Looking at it another way, again, for those who wave the banner of Christianity, in the book of Romans, you’ll find these words.
“Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.”
“Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness.”
Let compassion be your vocabulary, let kindness be the coat you wear. Let wisdom be worn like pearls around your neck, and let grace be the ring on your finger that tells the world you are married to miracles often slow and unnoticed—but real, nonetheless.
Let your words be seasoned like a holiday meal, and let your table be a place of welcome for every single person hungry for a welcome.
As my good Vicar says, “Jesus would never invite you into His home and then deny you a place at His table.”
Make peace.
Bake bread.
Take courage.
In a world that delights in fear-mongering, speak hope.
In the words of Sharon McMahon, “Might as well go and have the audacity.”
(We will soon elect the person who will take on the leadership role for our country for the next four years. Study well the policies and principles. Study well the character of the candidates. Study well the design of this great experiment called the United States of America, what the constitution says about how we are to be governed, and what we have learned from our own history about humanity, liberty, equality. Get back to the basics of good journalism: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Don’t let the algorithms offer plates of outrage to your door, and stop down creativity hijacked and used to kill, steal, and destroy those we are called to love. In the words of Mako Fujimura, “We are the only created thing that creates.” In the words of Haejim Fujimura, “God welcomes us as co-creators of beauty and justice.” No matter who sits in leadership, it’s common folk like us who hold the power to dwell fully in the land and work for its thriving.)
Oh, and if you began reading these words thinking you’d receive bread recipes, here are a few for you: