The picture today is of Elkhorn Creek, a mostly safe and shallow stream that bends its way through the middle of our farm. From the Elkhorn, my father taught me to be prepared for “bends in the creek.” He taught me: sometimes life changes abruptly. You have to adjust and go with the change. You come around a bend in the creek to find a surprising beautiful scene of twenty turtles sunning on a fallen tree trunk…or dry rocks that let you cross without wading…or a whole community of water moccasins slithering through the creek grasses.
On Friday the US and the Catholic Church in the United States came to a bend in the creek. The Supreme Court ruled for the first time since 1973 to substantially change the law of our land around the issue of abortion. In effect, the ruling returns the issue of laws about abortion to the states.
I remember the bend in the creek when access to abortion became the law of our land. I was a new bride. My husband was due to get out of the Marines soon. When we went to mass in Norfolk, Virginia on a Sunday in late January, 1973, everything was in a state of alarm. I had never heard the word “abortion” before. What was this about? Why the alarm?
I had no idea at that time what that sudden “bend in the creek” would mean for me, for us as a family. I had no idea that our two adopted children would come from two women who chose life, rather than abortion. I had no idea that I would spend a big chunk of my life providing abortion alternatives. I had no idea that that would lead me to become a family therapist, a writer of family skills curricula, or eventually lead to where I have been in recent years: working to preserve dignity of life and respect for God as author and ruler of life among the aged and dying and among immigrants.
There is an elegance about God’s timing for this big bend in the creek. One way to consider the readings for this Sunday is through the lens of their guidance to us about managing profound change.
1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21
The bend in the creek is abrupt and radical for Elijah. In Chapter 18, Elijah called down fire from God on Mount Carmel to prove the efficacy of God to King Ahab and the Hebrew people. He then killed the prophets of Baal. The great drought ended, but Queen Jezebel was after Elijah to kill him. As chapter 19 begins, Elijah waits for the Lord on Mount Horeb. God comes, not in the power of wind or fire, but in a small whispering sound. Then, bluntly, God tells Elijah that his work is done. He is to go anoint Elisha as prophet to follow him. Suddenly, Elijah, just when he has been triumphant, is to be replaced.
Elisha, for his part, is going about his business. He isn’t looking to be prophet. He is tending his land. Now that rain has fallen, crops can grow. The ground must have indeed been hard—twelve yoke of oxen is a lot of “horsepower”. But God chooses Elisha, Elijah anoints him, and he, too, is at the bend in the creek. What does he do? He demonstrates a part of God’s guidance for creek bends: wrap things up quickly, but sufficiently, then GO! Elisha uses the plow for firewood, then kills and roasts the oxen to feed his people. That done, he follows Elijah.
Guidance: When God says go, go. Leave where you’ve been in order.
Galatians 5:1, 13-18
St. Paul wrote Galatians some time between AD 48 and 56. The churches of Galatia, founded on Paul’s first and second missionary journeys, were still struggling with the issue of “Are Christians bound by Jewish law?” The Council of Jerusalem, AD 48, had decided this, but the import of that council had not fully reached these Asia Minor Christian communities. This selection from the final chapter of Galatians is a beautiful expression of how the gift of grace enables Christians to keep a simpler, broader standard for the old Jewish Law: agape love. Paul cautions that the new, Christian standard was not about “freedom to do what you want.” He says, “do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.” Instead, “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Paul’s advice to work from “Love your neighbor as yourself” is advice we all need to consider seriously as we consider: what next? now the court has ruled. We can already see from news and social media that we are entering a time of storm and stress. Because the Catholic Church has stood firmly these last 49 years in opposition to abortion, it is likely to be the target of anger of those who see the abortion issue very differently. We, too, may be attacked.
This bend in the creek is going to move us and our faith to front row center—not just on the evening news, but also neighbor to neighbor, parent to child, friend to friend. We are going to have opportunities to stand up for our faith–or not.
A recent Gallup poll, released this month, shows 81% of Americans are “very sure” God exists. In the 1960s, before Roe v Wade, 98% of Americans were “very sure” God exists.
This radical change from 1 in 50 people doubting God to 1 person in 5 means that the whole abortion issue must be dealt with in some way other than GOD SAID “Thou shall not kill.” While God did say that, it means next to nothing to a culture which is not God centered. Even “Love your neighbor as yourself” is under serious attack from cultural emphasis on the standard for moral decisions being an inherent right to self-determination. Our culture says the best way to love our neighbor is to support whatever moral decision he or she makes. Autonomy rules.
That is the cultural world of 2022. That is part of this bend in the creek. The other part of the bend is that we have an opportunity to change the culture by living fervently and joyfully a Gospel of Life.
Abortion may well return to “law of the land” state by state unless we can help people see that God doesn’t say “Thou shall not kill” without reason. God’s standards are standards that help us flourish as people and as culture. The Gospel of Life is not a narrow-minded path created by old men who don’t value women. The Gospel of Life is a way to be that rests in human freedom made possible by following God’s way. We follow God because God is good and teaches goodness. God’s true freedom is the freedom to master self in order to live with love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
The message here for this Sunday: how do we express the fuller freedom of God’s ways as being better than the appearance of freedom in “ways of the flesh”?
Luke 9:51-62
The context in Luke is the seismic shift that happens after Jesus feeds the 5000, Peter declares “You are the Christ,” and Jesus is transfigured on the mountain—all recorded in earlier verses of Chapter 9. It happens about six months before Holy Week. Jesus “resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.” The first part of Luke 9 was a bend in the creek for Jesus and his disciples. Now his tone changes. He is no longer going about Galilee teaching, healing, and gently inviting. As today’s final verse summarizes, “No one who sets his hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” Jesus begins to get ready for the cross–and resurrection.
I look at the other parts of these verses: Jesus says “no” to revenge on those who are not open to him; Jesus continues teaching those who are open; Jesus says clearly ‘Follow, but don’t expect it to be easy.” I can apply all that to me, to the Church in the US.
All of this says to me, “This bend in the creek shows no turtles sunning on rocks or waterfree passage to the next farm over.
This is tough going. Come. Or not. Jesus calls.
Applications
What do we do? What do I do? Three years ago, I made a very careful study of St. Pope John Paul’s Evangelium Vitae, the Gospel of Life. I believe it holds the positive answers for us.
Who is interested in studying it with me, perhaps every other week on a Friday night, Sunday afternoon, or Sunday night through the summer? The text is available online from the Vatican website or in paper through the US Council of Catholic Bishops.
If you are interested, rather than respond in the comments, send an email to: mary@skillswork.org. We must find ways to speak rich, though demanding, Truth with visible, proactive love.
Prayer:
Lord, I expected this bend in the creek, but, still, now that it is here, I need your guidance to know how to navigate some different waters. Lead me, guide me, Lord. Lead us all, guide us all. Unite and direct us.
