Monday, November 20, 2006

Weapons of the Spirit


Years ago I read a book that made an impact upon my life. It is called "Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed" by Phillip Hallie. It is the story of the village of Le Chambon in France and, in particular, the story of this Protestant communities courageous actions in providing hospitality to Jews during World War II.

Much of the story, as it is told, centers around a pastor, Andre Trocme and his wife, Magda Trocme, who lived in Le Chambon. Trocme was a pacifist who urged his congregation to resist the Vichy government and their German patrons with "weapons of the spirit." He told the police who came with buses to take away the Jews, "We do not know what a Jew is. We know only men."

I was reminded of the story of Le Chambon while reading a book by Garrett Keizer entitled "Help: The Original Human Dilemma." In it he recalls: "Magda Trocme said, 'If we had been an organization, it could not have worked.'...There was no formal organization in the village dedicated to the work of saving Jews. (After the war some villagers who participated were surprised to find that certain of their neighbors had been engaged in the same work.) An organization would have been easier to infiltrate than the village and easier to incapacitate by seizing its leaders....What Magda Trocme's statement belies is the fact that there was a much deeper organization at work in the village, that is, the organic structure of the community itself. Simone Weil once noted that a phenomenon like Hitler would be inconceivable without 'the existence of millions of uprooted men.'"

That's enough quoting for this entry in my blog. It is enough to make me think, to challenge myself, about whether the work we are doing, in our lives, in our church, is helping not only ourselves, but others to take deeper root. This weekend I read the tales of my friend Chad in Lockerbie-Central UMC and their listening to the stories of the homeless and finding their church revitalized in the storytelling. Tonight I traveled to friend Danny'in Lebanon, Otterbein UMC, to discover that their are doing ministry -- one person at a time - one family at a time. Earlier today I took a walk with De'Amon and he told me the story of a woman he met at the food pantry at Broadway today. He also told me that he was going back to visit Russell, who he met in his home visits last week, and who is a professional jazz sax player. And I wonder again -- what causes deep roots to take hold and grow deeper and stronger?

Is that the cause of so much of the trouble within our own country and world these days -- a sense of rootlessness?

What does it mean for us to be a people? When we are at home and comfortable within ourselves, when we are not fearful - then the stranger is one to be welcomed into our home - we are entertaining angels unawares. Otherwise, everyone is a terrorist, a potential enemy, thief, and criminal.

How is it that we can take root, even deeper as a people? We cannot do it by a program. But perhaps by "weapons of the spirit." That still begs the question -- from where do such weapons arise. I guess my answer is that they are there in the stories that each of us share -- if we will pull ourselves away from the screens in our lives, long enough to listen. Those...those are the true weapons of the Spirit. Why? Because they show us that we belong to one another. They show that we are of one soil -- and one Spirit. And nothing is more powerful to set us free.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8:52 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

The earliest I could get a job was when I was 15 years old, and nfl jerseys store I wanted a job as a teenager. While I wouldn't classify christian louboutin shoes my family as poor, we weren't exactly wealthy, either. I wanted a job so I NFL Jerseys could have my own source of income without having to bother my parents for Nike Free Run money. It was independence. By having my own job, I'd be able to Nike Roshe Run start saving money Nike Air Max 2015 Shoes for a car when I got my license at 16 and just have some spending cash to do with christian louboutin uk as I pleased. That's why, louboutin outlet no more than a week after my 15th Nike Air Max 90 birthday, I got a job at a drug store down the street cheap nfl jerseys from my house. wholesale nfl jerseys I worked 15-25 hours per week, taking shifts after school and on weekends. Well, it wasn't long after I started the job that something came

7:23 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home