A reflection by Rev Dr Geoff Broughton, December 2015
Parker J Palmer, an educator and Quaker, has been one of the most reliable spiritual guides in my life since I first met him nearly 20 years ago in San Francisco. In one of his recent books, Healing the Heart of Democracy, he writes about the importance of learning how to stand and act in ‘the tragic gap’ — if we want to hang in for the long haul with birthing a better world.
On one side of that gap, writes Palmer, ‘are the harsh and discouraging realities around us’. As we reflect on 2015 there is so much that is broken, hurting and sin-filled in our world: too much domestic violence in our homes, too much unspeakable violence in Syria and neighbouring countries, and too much greedy violence against the air, water, soil on which we all rely. The peace and joy of Jesus Christ must reach into these harsh and discouraging realities. ‘We’re surrounded by violence, but we’ve seen people make peace.’ As we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace we remember his call to be peace-makers in his world.
On the other side, Palmer continues, ‘is the better world we know to be possible — not merely because we wish it were so, but because we have seen it with our own eyes’.
The other week when I spoke at the ‘Carols of Compassion’ I recalled that we are witnesses to the compassion of Jesus Christ even as we have seen compassion-less politics and policies towards refugees and those seeking asylum. I salute Love Makes A Way and all those who have stood in that tragic gap. Palmer also notes ‘we’re surrounded by greed, but we’ve seen great acts of generosity’ and we give thanks for those who have spoken and acted against the powers of mining, gambling and exploitive work practices in the past 12 months like our colleagues in Common Grace. We praise all those who have stood in the ‘tragic gaps’ of our world including many of you.
At Christmas time we celebrate the coming of ‘God with us’ Jesus Christ. Jesus, King of kings who was born in ‘straw poverty’; Jesus, who hung on the cross between heaven and earth; Jesus, who stands in the tragic gap between our world as it is and our world as God intends it to be. Will we join him?