Down The Rabbit Hole

…we are each other’s

Harvest:

We are each other’s

Business:

We are each other’s

Magnitude and bond.

~Gwendolyn Brooks, “Paul Robeson,” 1970

 

These concluding words of Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem, “Paul Robeson,” hit me like a ton of bricks. Of course, we are each other’s harvest. WE collectively are what we communally and individually reap because of what we have planted and cultivated in our communities. I discovered these words while reading, “No One is Self-Made: Build Your Village to Flourish in Business and Life” by Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon, founder of The Village Retail, a shopping emporium and community that emerged from a grassroots movement to support local Black entrepreneurs called the Village Market – a model wherein Dr. Hallmon “intentionally took steps away from capitalism, which [she] believes furthers inequities and isolation, and instead wove inclusive values and equitable economic practices into [her] model.”

The poem and context opened a community-centric rabbit hole God was leading me down that day. The journey began during my devotion,

 “And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right,

for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap,

if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint.”

(Galatians 6:9 AMPC)

I initially interpreted these words as an indictment and felt convicted as I was meditating on our threadbare social fabric and chaotic society. Praying for the state of our country and communities, this word, which often comforted and inspired, felt like another reminder that I, my neighbors, and my church had failed to plant well and deserved this bitter harvest. In retrospect, I realize I was doing exactly what Scripture was admonishing me not to do. I was becoming jaded and cynical; growing weary, resigned to the despair many of us are feeling as we watch our democracy morph into something we don’t recognize.

Enter Trevor Noah, the South African comedian and social critic, via his podcast conversation with Robert Putman, author of the seminal “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.” Another breadcrumb, taking me deeper into the idea that harvesting isn’t just about what we reap today but what we sow for tomorrow. While this season is tough, our faith reminds us that we must continue to plant, water, and cultivate, and the compelling idea that Trevor and Bob unpack is using the power of social connectedness to do it.

Turns out that life expectancy and fulfillment correlates to the number of groups we’re a part of and how closely tied those groups are. Bob asserts that it’s also the key to saving our democracy. Could it be that the Kingdom value of sowing and reaping in community has real-world implications beyond our churches? I think so! Bob directs us to consider sowing in three distinct ways:

• Go Young – focus on young people
• Go Local – social revolutions and movements start from the ground up
• Go Moral – re-install the idea that we have an obligation to each other

We must not stay in the rabbit hole. As clergy, congregants, and believers in Jesus Christ, we have a responsibility and mandate to keep sowing, to keep acting nobly, to keep doing right. Not because we need another program, not because we want to save our church, but because Jesus Christ is salvation in a world of chaos and crisis.

We are reaping what our narcissistic insularity has wrought, but this is not the end of our story – we are each other’s harvest, business, magnitude, and bond. Let us not grow weary, our future depends on it!

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In your ministry context…

1. Where are you feeling especially weary and frustrated and what Scriptures can you use to invite God into the rabbit hole with you?
2. Where are the places in your community that are doing “connectedness” well that you can learn from? What’s stopping you from taking a field trip to observe and learn?
3. Which area is the best place to start for you and/or your congregation: going young, going local, or going moral?