16 Rejoice always;
17 pray without ceasing.
Rejoice always, and pray without ceasing. I don't take "rejoice always" to be an excuse to "party on," nor do I take "pray without ceasing" to be justification for pious posturing. For me, those two verses are a reminder of the need to always see the joy in life and never forget the struggle of life. That is not easy to do, and for me, religion helps. Church helps remind me there is something beyond, something bigger, but that our work is here. I don't want to float off into the spiritual, to ponder in the clouds, but instead prefer to root myself in the religion -- in relationships, in the work on the ground.
It is that work to which we must return. If we are to do that work well, it's important to remember that just as we humans are not special, neither are we Christians. There are lots of other people engaged in that work in this world. Much of my own life has been spent in secular organizations committed to social justice and ecological sustainability, and those people are as much a part of my life as the people here at St. Andrew's. To claim that religion can help is not to claim that religion is all we need.
One of those secular people who has been especially important to me is Abe Osheroff, a radical activist who spent his 92 years struggling to contribute to a better world. Abe made his living as a carpenter but his life was defined by his politics. As Abe closed in on the end of that life, he spoke to me about his anguish, his sense of loneliness, his struggle to cope with the pain of knowing too much (http://thirdcoastactivist.org/osheroff.html). Abe was culturally Jewish and philosophically agnostic; he had little use for scripture or most preachers. But of all the people I have known, I can think of no one who more fully lived the command to rejoice always and pray without ceasing.
One of Abe's gifts was the ability to cut through pompousness and state clearly what was at stake. The documentary film I produced about Abe's life and philosophy (http://www.abeosheroffmovie.com/) ends with a simple statement that he repeated often: "Solidarity is love in action."
Solidarity is a defining term for the secular left, while love is a word repeated endlessly in church. For Abe, who could be as critical of the failures of the left as of the hypocrisy of religion, knew that if solidarity is to be lived, it requires both. Abe knew that love without action is empty, and that action without love is dangerous.
We all know people who profess to love the world but who retreat into the passivity made possible by affluence and privilege. We ask of them, what do they truly love?
We also all know people who act out of what they claim to be a commitment to justice but in that action can hurt others without thought. We ask of them, to what are they truly committed?
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