‘It’s all a muddle’ – Stephen Blackpool, in Charles Dickens Hard Times
How naïve we were.
Many of us thought, or at least hoped, that after January 20th, things would return to ‘normal.’ The Q Anon conspiracy would vanish. The Proud and Boogaloo Boys? They’d put down their guns and take up needlepoint. The tens of millions who drank the Trumpian Kool-Aid? They’d all join hands with the other side and sing Kumbaya. The 197 members of Congress who voted to overturn an election would apologize. The ringleaders, in both Congress and the former Administration, who actively worked to incite an insurrection would be held accountable. Trump would be convicted of impeachment charges in the Senate. White Evangelical ‘Christians’ who had made the devils bargain, exchanging their values for power, would fall on their faces and cry out to God for forgiveness. White Supremacists would have an epiphany. And the cult of Donald Trump would come to an abrupt and sudden end.
Ok, maybe we didn’t think all that would happen. But we at least hoped that major progress would be quickly made.
Instead, almost the exact opposite is happening. Q Anon is thriving, within the very halls that its adherents and allies attacked a mere matter of weeks ago. Militia groups are arming (so much for needlepoint). Trump fans are, well, still Trump fans. Republicans in Congress are siding with those who lied about the election (not all mind you, just 90% of them). The ringleaders have not only not been held accountable, but it looks like they will all get off scot free. Trump will, barring a miracle, not be convicted by the Senate. The aforementioned white Evangelicals are doubling down on the devil’s bargain. White supremacy is going strong. And the cult of Trump is nursing its wounds and planning a comeback for its master ‘in some form.’
The truth is that the country is mess. Evil lingers still. It will be back. One of America’s two major parties is choosing the path of insane conspiracy theories, lies, hate, and authoritarian tactics. [1] It feels as if we stand on the edge of a dark abyss, and it is only a matter of time before we are pulled in. It seems as if we are captives to our times, and there is little we can do about it as we watch dark events unfold.
What are people of goodwill to do? What, most particularly, are followers of Jesus to do?
The answer is simple. Live. We are to live, knowing that we are not captives to our times. We are the keepers of a better future. We know that no matter what happens in the coming years, in the end, Julian of Norwich will be proven correct: ‘all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.’ I have been struck as of late by the words by the late Francis Schaffer, a theologian who wrote extensively about the ongoing suffering and evil of our world, and the responsibility of the Christian who lives within it. We are not to just resign ourselves as captives to our times, or to lay down and die in the face of the evil around us, any more than we are to join such evil. We are to live in the midst of said evil differently, in the direction of what we know the future will be, in the direction of a world made new by the love and grace of God at the return of Jesus. Schaffer wrote:
‘Wars will continue until the Prince of Peace comes, but we must pursue harmony now. Hunger and poverty will remain until the Bread of Life returns, but we must still care for those in need now. Sin will permeate this earth until the Spotless Lamb arrives, but we must preach forgiveness now. Our actions today should be driven by our knowledge of what is to come.’
He is so right. Yes, the world is a mess. But we have been called to live as ‘citizens of heaven’ (Philippians 2:27), ‘strangers and exiles on earth’ (Hebrews 11:13) waiting for the better world that Christ will one day bring. We are not captives of our times; we are liberated to live the in the light of the future that will be. Even when the world around us is a total mess.
Stephen Blackpool is one of my favorite Dickensian characters. He is a mere ‘hand,’ a cog in a vast industrial machine, with little power or influence in a society ruled by misguided men. ‘It’s all a muddle,’ he says, over and again, as he tries to figure things out. He laments that there is nothing he can think of to make things better. But at one point he grasps that carrying on in the way of the world will never work. He says:
‘I cannot, with my little learning and my common way, tell you what will make all this better…but I can tell you what won’t. The strong hand will never do it. Victory and triumph will never do it. Believing your side is unnaturally and always forever right, and the other side unnaturally always and forever wrong…will never do it till the Sun turns to ice.’[2]
Stephen is on to something. The world is a muddle. In our day as well as his. Behaving like the world will never make anything better. Power politics will never do it. Winning at all costs, selling your values for power, will never do it. Demonizing those you disagree with, to the point of violence, as so many do today, will never do it. All of this is the way of empire. The way of hate. The way of vengeance.
But living as children of light in a world of darkness, now that’s something. Living as signposts that point to a better day that is to come, that might make a difference. Living as those who believe in justice. Living as peacemakers. Living as truth tellers. Living as those who love while those around us rage. Those things just might make all the difference in the world.
The world may be a mess, and maybe we can’t arrange all the improvements we would like. Probably not. But we can live as signposts pointing to coming day. A day that, as followers of Jesus, we know is coming soon.
Under Christ’s Mercy,
Brent
[1] I should add that even if the government stays ‘blue,’ that doesn’t rid us of evil. Blue or Red (or yellow or purple for that matter), empires are empires. They are inherently power seeking and corrupt (though under present circumstances, I’d prefer Blue over Red any day of the week).
[2] Stephen speaks with a heavy accent. With apologies to Mr. Dickens, I’ve cleaned it up to make it easier to understand. I still love the original.