Daily Lesson for November 1, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Martin Niemoller:

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

Something in me today thought of Martin Niemoller, the German pastor whose struggle to speak out against the Nazis was so tragically expressed in his poem which is prominently featured inside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

I think, of course, about our own struggles to speak in our own times and in our own nation.  I think of a Muslim friend.  I think of a gay parishioner. I think of an unborn baby. I think of an old woman lying in the cold corner of her room in a cinder block nursing home, unable to raise the blanket to warm the bony top of her shoulder and unable to raise her voice to ask anyone else to help.

Who will speak for these, so wonder, if not me?

And then I think of something else -- another word from Niemoller, haunting in its own way. It is the recurring dream he had at the end of his life, before he died at 92 years of age in 1984.

In the dream, Jesus was there and he was with the other one -- Der Fuhrer.  Hitler. It was the great day of judgment. And Hitler stood there before Jesus, who asked him why.  "What drove you to kill so many?  Why were you so cruel?"

The answer, Niemoller said, was what woke him in a cold sweat:

Hitler wept and hung his head. "I didn't know about you," he said. "No one ever told me how much you loved me."

It is a struggle now to speak -- to be a voice for the voiceless.  I know it is imperative that I speak.

Yet the dream haunts me just as it must have Niemoller. And I wonder if the dream might not be for us now?  Has anyone dared to speak a word of love?  Has any one person dared to love someone they are supposed to hate, someone their world or their nation or their political affiliation has given them permission to hate?  Has any one person on the past year of election politics decided not to forward some snide or ugly meme but instead chosen to pray for the other party?  Has anyone ever chosen not to speak lest the truth be spoken in love?

I wonder if we have ever tried. I wonder what what it would be like if we did. I wonder if it might not heal this land.

I wonder if it would heal me.