arc of history

 

Like many, I have been watching global political events unfolding over recent weeks. We are witnessing a major change in approach—at least official approach—by the US, with consequences that run far wider. I have a friend who often says that people are alright, wherever they are from; it is the politicians who are the problem. Respectfully, I disagree, for several reasons: firstly, politicians are people, not some other category of being; moreover, many politicians are good people, working hard for the communities they represent; and politics can be a helpful way to share resources for the common good.

But politics, and politicians, cannot address our most fundamental problem, which is that at the deepest level we are alienated from, and fearful of, the Other, those who are not accepted/acceptable within our family or group or tribe. Some Christian traditions call this original sin; some Christian traditions call it the original wound. Politics cannot bridge that divide; indeed, politics reflects and can deepen the divide.

Christians believe that the arc of history is irrevocably moving towards the bridging of that divide, the healing of that wound, in the person of Jesus; and that, whatever the times we find ourselves in look and feel like, in Jesus now is always the auspicious moment in history to be reconciled with God and our neighbour. To discover that we are acceptable/accepted.

That same trajectory passes through me and carries me, an arc that originates in God and will return to God. An arc that moves through time, which, like me, is itself one of God’s creatures, and is held within God—specifically, Christians believe, in Jesus. A path that, viewed close up, as I trace it, often appears—and is experienced as—tangled, heading in the wrong direction, or even blocked. This is real, but not the ultimate reality. When tempted to despair, at ourselves or on account of the actions of those Others we fear—including where we, or they, attempt to co-opt that arc, to co-opt Jesus, to the purposes of division—we need to zoom out, to see the bigger picture.

These are dark times, and there are those who take advantage of the darkness to harm others for their own gain. This is also the time we have been given, the fitting time to choose for Life, for Light, for Love. For peace, with guaranteed security. Accept no substitutes.