Doing God’s will is hard. Put politics and religion together, sometimes it can be harder still to discern the way.
In the news this week, away from these shores, the Russian Orthodox Church announced it will no longer take part in structures chaired by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. As one Russian Bishop put it, "Essentially this is a breakdown of relations. To take an example from secular life, the decision is roughly equivalent to cutting diplomatic ties…"
Why all the fuss?
Because part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church wants to become its own national body, not linked through Moscow, which it has been. The Russian Orthodox Church wants no one meddling in its affairs and it sees the reaching out by the Ecumenical Patriarch to that church as part of that effort.
Discerning God’s will for our lives is not easy. Churches have a hard time with it, just as we do. In fact, we spend most of our lives trying to make sure we are indeed on the right path, following God’s will and truth for our lives.
Which makes me think of the words from Abraham Lincoln’s 1858 Senatorial Speech: “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
That is our challenge. To make sure we are on God’s side, and not serving some idol we have erected to our certitude. To see the needs that are before us and to hear God’s call to us…
It was one of the worst industrial disasters in American history. On March 25, 1911, a fire destroyed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in NYC. Crowds watched in horror as the fire raced through the building, killing 146 workers, many of them jumping to their deaths from the eighth, ninth and tenth floors. Triangle was a sweatshop, employing young immigrant women who worked in a cramped space at lines of sewing machines; they worked 12 hours a day for a mere $15 a week.
One of the onlookers that day was Frances Perkins, a 31-year-old wife and mother from an upper-class family, who had been lobbing with vigor for better working hours and conditions for laborers. She was having tea with friends nearby when the fire broke out and Mrs. Perkins and company ran to the scene. The fire and its aftershocks left a deep mark on Frances Perkins and it played a pivotal role in her life, galvanizing her advocacy for workers. Frances Perkins was an active member of her Episcopal church.
As David Brooks writes in his book The Road to Character:
"Up until that point [Frances Perkins] had lobbied for worker rights and on behalf of the poor, but she had been on a conventional trajectory, toward a conventional marriage, perhaps, and a life of genteel good works. After the fire, what had been a career turned into a vocation. Moral indignation set her on a different course. Her own desires and her own self became less central and the cause itself became more central to the structure of her life."
Indeed, Frances would use politics to fulfill the work of faith that she felt we needed to have in our country and that she believed God led her to do.
“Frances Perkins became Labor Secretary from 1933 to 1945 under Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet. As Secretary of Labor, she was the prime mover of the New Deal, championing a social safety net to the elderly, minimum wage, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), unemployment insurance, a shorter work week, and worker safety regulations. It is said that she wrote the Social Security Act in the rectory of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Washington, DC.
She has been called Roosevelt’s moral conscience. Donn Mitchell, suggests she was the “most overtly religious and theologically articulate member of the New Deal team.” Throughout her 12 years as Secretary she took a monthly retreat with the Episcopal order of All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor, with whom she was a lay associate member.
“I came to Washington to serve God, FDR, and millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen,” she said. Her theology of generosity informed her professional life and, in turn, transformed the lives of millions of Americans.
“When friends once questioned why it was important to help the poor, Frances responded that it was what Jesus would want them to do.” - Heidi Shott
I think Frances Perkins understood what God wanted her to do. She heard the call and she followed it…
Then they came to Capernaum; and when Jesus was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
A child was one who was without status in the society of Jesus day, no protections; they were vulnerable, powerless and so often ignored. Jesus makes the point that if we want to be first, then we shall serve, if we want to follow God’s will, then we are to find those vulnerable in our society, widows and orphans, people suffering and separated from one another, and to welcome them, love them, just as Jesus did, for that is following and welcoming God’s will into our lives.
Frances Perkins heard the call of God in the plight of the powerless: the poor and abused workers. She took on her cross in the spirit of Jesus' humble servanthood and used politics to help others. Christ calls us to take up our own crosses in the everyday joys and sorrows we live in our homes, churches, schools and communities.
To put aside our own self-importance to bring dignity, comfort and hope to another, to work to bring forth and affirm the gifts of others, to seek reconciliation before all else is to be the servant leader who welcomes God into their midst by welcoming the most vulnerable.
May we in our own way follow the will of God today and like Frances Perkins who in faithfulness to her baptism sought to build a society in which all may live in health and decency: may we contend tirelessly for justice and for the protection of all in our own time, that we may be faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Amen.
