January Journal, Septuagesima

American Christian Fiction Writers has published my post, “Singing the Song of Truth,” how Christian storytellers sing the song of truth, so that the love of God will lighten the darkness of our world. 

As the Western world seeks to reform and rewrite civilization without a rule book or a lawgiver or a common acceptance of the common good, Jews and Christians stand alone in their effort to give life to our dying culture.

For without our loving God, there is no good, no recognized allegiance that keeps the peace, ensures freedom, respects the sanctity of life, rewards excellence, honors the aged, values the family, and tells the truth about who and what man is and is meant to be.

January is a cold month, yet a month of renewal for many. It usually slides into February which is often the home of Ash Wednesday, penitence, and prayer. And so it is significant we remember two holocausts in January – the Holocaust of the Unborn, on January 22 (1973, Roe v. Wade) and the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on January 27, the day of the liberation of Auschwitz (1945, remembering the six million murdered in concentration camps). It might be a month to remember Stalin and Mao and the one hundred million murdered by their regimes.

But most of all, these days remind us of our brutality toward one another. They remind us that this can happen again should we not pay attention. George Orwell wrote two of his novels as dystopian warnings. They are post World War II novels, Animal Farm, 1945 (against Communism) and 1984 (against a tyrannical state). Also affected by the horrors of the second World War, C.S. Lewis wrote his space trilogy, in which the third volume, the dystopian That Hideous Strength, warns against government and science with power not grounded in a Judeo-Christian ethos. P.D. James’ dystopian The Children of Men (1992) warns us against a world that deplores life, family, and children, and we see what happens when a generation (or two or three) are not replaced, as has come to pass in America and other Western countries. With a population implosion, at the end of the day those in power will be those who honored children and large families. It may be all about demographics.

January is a month in which we reflect on our lives. Atheists (and agnostics) reflect on their fitness and changes that will make them more attractive or live longer. Christians may be tempted to do the same, given the culture, but by Ash Wednesday we realize our reflections are different. For we are called to examine our hearts and souls, which, it is true, live within the physical body. But we embrace a moral accounting of our lives. We look to the Ten Commandments and Christ’s Summary of that Law –

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love they neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mark 12:28-34, BCP 69)

We look to the lists of vices and virtues that the Church has distilled from Holy Scripture over the last two thousand years. We hold ourselves accountable, to God, no less.

We are told to examine our consciences, confess, and repent. And we are told to do this often, daily, weekly. Judeo-Christian culture has lauded goodness, care of the poor, family life, protection of the weak, and life itself. Of course everyone comes up short. But we must admit we do and strive to do better, repent. All of these values are today at risk, even basic self-reflection.

And so, in these three weeks before Ash Wednesday, we seek how to run the race of life, how to be good, how to love. St. Paul this morning reminded us to run the race as an athlete would run, but for an incorruptible crown, by being temperate and disciplined. And Our Lord tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard, that all will be called, ending the passage with the perplexing words, “many be called, but few chosen,” to my mind meaning salvation is for all, but not all will choose to accept Christ as their Lord. Free will allows each of us to reject God or accept him. He will choose those who choose him. That is what love means and that is what love does. And we worship a God of love who loves us so.

And so we pivot into February and pray for our nation, that she return to equal justice under the law, that she return to fair elections, that she return to the freedom she has cherished and protected in the past. But we know how the Story of mankind ends, so fear not, as my bishop of blessed memory often reminded me. Fear not.

In the meantime, we sing the song of truth so that the love of God will lighten the darkness of our world.