There are expectations of the church, divine and earthly. Our human experiences tend to not reconcile with the expectations. Divine or earthly. That inability to reconcile our expectations and our experience is the root of all evil. But, fear not, there is a doable solution at hand. That doable solution is bound by these edicts: Do something else. Do something simple. Do something direct. Do something measurable.
We, the church, are the dictated solution to the maladies of our time, and success is measured by way of dirty hands. Our dirty hands are the nexus of divine power. Divine dirty work performed by divine dirty hands. And the entirety of that divine dirty work is defined by one word: Peace.
Peace is the root of all good. Peace is the source of food for the hungry. Peace is the source of clothes for the naked. Peace is the source of care of our brothers and sisters. Peace begats change. But know this, peace is hard — hard to establish and harder to maintain.
These are fearful and troubling times. The rocks of our society are crying out because there has been too much blood spilled. Know this, there is God’s work to be done. For us, the church, this is an old fight. We’ve fought for so long with the knowledge that God is on our side and that losing is an impossibility that we’ve effectively taken ourselves out of harm’s way, turned our weapons of peace into comfortable chairs in the shade and turned it all over to God. We may as well cut off our hands.
I do not propose we do something that is too hard to do. I do not call for us to stand in harm’s way. I do not call for racism to end now. I do not call for an increase in church attendance. I will not call for us to be more inclusive of people who are only different from us because they have chosen to love unconditionally. I call us to do one of the smallest things a human being can do to another human being that carries the greatest positive impact on us and them: wave. Just wave.
Wave at people you see. Wave at people you know and people you don’t know. I suggest you begin in your church. Focus on the people who exist outside your pew clique. Just wave while you’re masked and socially distant. I promise the simple act of just waving will facilitate almost any desired change. Just wave; its meaning is universal — I see you and I acknowledge your humanity. Just wave because it feels good to do it. And that good feeling is not dependent on your wave being reciprocated. And it feels twice as good when the recipient of your wave waves back.
Fear not. Just wave and watch change begin to happen. I promise.
Charles Lee Holmes is an elder and functional irritant in the Presbytery of the James in central Virginia.
