Blog Post by
Rev. Bill Vincent
First Presbyterian Church of Union
and Pacific Presbyterian Church, Missouri
I find myself torn…about the return to normal.
I understand the yearning to get back together, see each other, and enjoy fellowship in one another’s physical presence.
I understand the need for an easing of the economic stress and pressure brought on by the pandemic.
I understand the desire for children to be back in school and learning, not only ‘the three ‘r’s’ but also the social skills of working and living together.
But there is an unspoken part of this return to normal that disturbs me: the implicit normal where certain people continue to be unseen by the rest of us, where others are confined to the margins of society, and where Black lives really don’t matter.
A return to a normal that is not normal at all…or is, but shouldn’t be, for it negates a yearning for God’s sovereignty in our lives, it denies the prayer for “God’s kingdom come, God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” it undermines the hope for God’s true kin-dom.
So I grieve when I discern people’s yearning for a return to that normal.
And, quite honestly, I am torn about what to say and how to say it, yet feel like I need to say something.
And I need to confess.
For I am a white male who grew up in the South. I confess my own white privilege and the history of my blindness to it.
My eyes have been opened – or at least more opened than they were before. For that, I am grateful…even as I am regretful that it has taken so long.
I share this not to try to earn points with anyone, but simply to confess something of my story, with the hope and the prayer that I might continue to learn and grow and change…and be better able to engage my story more sensitively, and more justly, with the story of others.
Still, I wonder: Are we too eager to return to ‘normal’ – to the familiar, the usual, the (for some of us) comfortable – and too resistant to learning vital lessons and making crucial changes?
There is work to be done. Including by me.
And I AM learning and growing. And I realize I still have a long way to go.
And part of that realization is that a return to normal – i.e., a return to what used to be, in all its incivility and injustice and unfairness – is not an option and is not desirable, or at least not faithfully so.
So I offer a prayer, even as I seek to offer myself.
A prayer to God for a ‘return’ that is a ‘going forward’: a ‘going forward’ toward that which is faithful and obedient, courageous and even counter-cultural, grace-filled and loving.
And so, a return to a normal that, in many ways, is not normal at all…but is God’s will.
And yes, O Lord, (as the song says it) “let it begin with me.”
Rev. Bill Vincent
First Presbyterian Church of Union
and Pacific Presbyterian Church, Missouri
22 Comments
Carol Gruber
Well said and uplifting! This touches my heart strings in a positive way!
Bill Vincent
Thank you, Carol. Indeed, may it be a positive way and direction for us all.
Paul Reiter
Thank you Bill for this reminder. There is so much about our lives that does not need to be back in a place of normalcy. I confess that your blog is an invitation and a reminder that we all still have much work to do.
May that Kingdom continue to break in wherever there is opportunity and a voice to proclaim it.
Bill Vincent
Thank you, Paul. And Amen to that!
James Willock
Thank you, Bill, for saying so well what is true for so many of us. May God provoke and needle us and move us toward the “normal” that God desires for all of us.
Bill Vincent
Thank you, James. And Amen!
Susan Andrews
Well said. Thanks for your courage -and your invitation to the rest of us.
Bill Vincent
You’re welcome, Susan. And thank you for your kind words. May we all embrace the invitation, as challenging and grace-filled as it is.
Diane McCullough
Thank you Rev. Vincent for this witness. I hope you will be able to join us (the DRAWP Committee) on July 31st for our DRAWP Visioning Retreat. It’s 9:00 a.m. – noon at 2nd Presbyterian in St. Louis. Details are elsewhere in this newsletter. Hope to meet you there.
Peace and Blessings.
Bill Vincent
Thank you for the invite, Diane. I have it down on my calendar and hope to be there.
Kathryn and Eldon McKie
Thanks, Bill, for insightful analysis and thoughtful leadership to get us to go forward!
Bill Vincent
Thank you, Eldon. Indeed, may God give us the grace to actually go forward!
Liz Rolf Kanerva
Thank you for your reflection, Bill.
Bill Vincent
Thank you, Liz. And thank you for your leadership!
Ellen Gurnon
Amen. And thank you, Bill.
Bill Vincent
Thank you, Ellen. And another Amen.
Barbara G. Willock
And another thank you from a companion on the journey. I, too, am appalled at the amount of time it has taken to get to an extremely modest awareness of my privilege and the distress and dis-ease of so many of my sisters and brothers and siblings and at the same time I am grateful to God for the changes taking place in me and in you and in so many places in our society and join your prayer for a new kin-dom – defined normal.
Shalom
Bill Vincent
Thank you, Barbara. It is nice to know we have companions on this challenging journey of faith!
Paul Bembower
Bill, I think you have put into words a perception of unease and yearning that is very real for me, and perhaps for others as well.
Your confession might be my own, and your prayer pulls me in. It reminds me of the original words to “Spirit of the Living God”: BREAK me, MOLD me FILL me, USE me…
Amen!
Bill Vincent
Thanks for your words, Paul. I note that whether the first word be “BREAK” or “MELT,” it still suggests a challenging, if not wrenching, passage. May God give us the courage to embrace even that challenge for the goodness and grace to come from it.
James Willock
We certainly need to embrace a new “normal” for the sake of God’s good creation.
Shortly after your blog post I discovered a news article through Apple news.
I have excerpted the article as a Word document that I can send to anyone who is interested. It comes from a 2020 KPMG update of a 1972 MIT study on the limits of growth. You can download the study at https://advisory.kpmg.us/articles/2021/limits-to-growth.html.
The main point is that an inclusive and sustainable future is still possible but only if we humans around the world change societal priorities to goals other than growth. The window for us to meaningfully change the future course of the world and the place of human civilization in it is closing fast.
Bill Vincent
Looks interesting. I’ll have to check it out.
Surely the work we do will reflect the priorities we pursue…for the sake of all of God’s good creation!