A variation of the phrase “Last night a vicious attack …” began many of my congregational letters in 2016. I was in the habit of writing a pastoral letter after most every act of terrorism this past year. It began in late 2015 with the Paris attack and continued into 2016 with Brussels and the Pulse massacre in Orlando, Fla. The tragedies in Turkey and the Ivory Coast were followed with a blog post or prayer on social media. On and on the phrase “Last night a vicious attack …” echoed through the months.
And then it became too much. In some ways, it all became too normal.
So when the crazed driver plowed through the Berlin Christmas Market this December, my pen was silent. It’s not that I wasn’t heartbroken. I certainly was. A dozen people were killed and dozens more injured during a festival of love and joy named after the Christ child.
Now I find myself wondering what letters will be written in 2017—and what letters will be silent because it will all become normal for 2017. Again.
Rick Steves, that lovable Lutheran travel writer, wrote a social media post on Dec. 19 in response to the Berlin attack. He encouraged us all to continue to travel to Europe, noting that “we owe it to [the] victims to not be terrorized by this event—and to not let our fears get the best of us.”
As we head into 2017, I agree that we shouldn’t be terrorized. But we should all be scandalized in the coming year. Because accompanying the video of the Berlin attack on everyday shoppers are a host of new videos shot in other everyday situations of people displaying outright racist and prejudice behavior, signs of the ever-growing normalization of terror and fear of the other.
And this must scandalize everyone who claims to follow Christ.
The Scriptures use the Greek skandalon, where we get our English “scandal,” in a number of places. You’d probably recognize what is arguably the most well-known occurrence in Matthew 16:23, a Scripture that we’ll hear in this year’s lectionary cycle. Jesus calls Peter “Satan,” saying he is a “stumbling block (skandalon)” in attempting to trip Jesus up from following his path to the cross.
Following Christ in this world means knowing scandal when you see it and acting accordingly.
So when I say that I will be scandalized this year, I mean this: I won’t be terrorized this year, but I will be tripped up. I will be scandalized by every act of hatred and prejudice, by every display, public or private, of the dehumanization of others. I will strongly denounce every act and word I witness, speaking a proclamation of God’s love and peace into the festering social spaces where we test the limits of respectability. And in doing so, I believe I’ll be getting behind Christ instead of hiding behind silence.
Another travel writer of sorts, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, wrote what I’m talking about in this way: “Everything beyond a certain distance is dark, and yet everything is full of being around us. This is the darkness, heavy with promises and threats, which the Christian will have to illuminate and animate with the divine presence” (The Divine Milieu, trans. Bernard Wall; Harper Row Publishers, 1960).
2017 is still in the shadows, heavy with threat and promise, and we have some responsibility toward this unwritten future. Join me in a New Year’s resolution: I will not be terrorized by evil acts, domestic or foreign, but I will be scandalized by every attempt to normalize prejudice and dehumanizing behavior. I will be tripped up in my journey this year, illuminating the sin of hatred, and proclaiming God’s desire for justice and peace in this world.
I resolve to be scandalized this year, and I invite you to join me. Because it will be too much if this all becomes too normal.
