More Than A Photo Op--December 29, 2022

More Than A Photo Op--December 29, 2022

"And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth." [John 1:14]

I know there are a million reasons to take shots at politicians and elected leaders, but I really just can't stand the pernicious habit of public officials just dropping in for a photo op in the wake of disaster, and then hightailing it out of the wreckage once the cameras are off or the social media attention has died down.  It's a bipartisan failing--I've seen presidents, representatives, governors, senators, and mid-level officials of both parties doing it.  And they all seem to think that somehow "they" are different--that they really won't be seen as just making a quick appearance, rather than doing something useful.

By now it just seems so obvious, so nakedly a public relations stunt, that you'd think our elected leaders would give it up.  But because we keep falling for it--or at least giving our eyeballs to our screens when it happens--that every time there's a hurricane, tornado, blizzard, or some other disaster, you can expect a flurry of photos and video segments soon to follow where elected leaders roll up their shirt-sleeves for a brief moment, long enough for the cameras to catch them appearing to be useful for a moment.  And to be really honest, the demagogues have been doing it for so long that I'm not really disappointed in them anymore [it just seems like a habit they refuse to break, honestly]; I'm disappointed in us that we keep falling for the same old playbook.

By contrast--by wonderful, amazing contrast--the Gospel says that God is no demagogue, and God doesn't do photo ops.  When God seeks to help, to deliver, or to save, God does it from beside us, not by helicoptering in and out only long enough for the cameras to click.  John's way of saying it is that in Jesus, God "became flesh and lived among us."  The sheer audacity of a sentence like that should bring us up short.  It's like saying, "The Mississippi River poured itself all into a single water bottle and went into the desert to quench the thirst of weary travelers."  John is saying that God doesn't just drop in occasionally with freshly rolled sleeves to toss a couple of rolls of paper towels at the crowd while cameras flash, but has taken on the fullness of our human life in Jesus. God comes as one in the crowd whose home just got blown over by the hurricane, or whose pipes just froze in the winter storm.  God comes into our lived experience for us... as one of us. 

So when we say that God knows what it is to be hungry, it's not in the abstract sense, as if up in heaven God can diagram a human digestive system and tell the angels that when there's no food in the stomach, the nervous systems signals to the brain to feel hunger.  It means that God has experienced hunger in the hunger of Jesus.  God--the same God whose existence is the perfect bliss of loving and being loved in the Three Persons of the Trinity--knows what it is to be lonely... abandoned... forgotten... and chased out of town to seek refuge in another country.  God--the same One who keeps sending angels to tell others not to be afraid--knows what it feels like to be petrified by fear, enough to plead to the heavens, "Let this cup pass away from me..."  God--the Ruler of all creation--knows what it is to be at the mercy of rulers like Pontius Pilate and Herod, who themselves often resort to the ancient version of the photo op to drop in on their subjects when it suits them.  This is the wonder we call "the Incarnation."  And for whatever else it means within our faith, it means that God chooses to address the hurts of human existence primarily through solidarity and kindness from "beside" us, rather than displays of power from "above."

Maybe we are so used to being cynical when someone in power appears for a photo op to look helpful that it doesn't even register to us how very different God's way is.  But it makes all the difference in the world.  People who have lived through genuine disasters know the difference between attention-seeking politicians doing PR stunts and relief agencies who actually help to rebuild because they are rooted in the communities where they offer help.  In neighborhoods and communities where it's the local residents who help one another, nobody pauses for a picture in the paper because they are just doing what needs to be done, and they don't need to run for re-election.  They are simply helping their neighbors.  When an outfit like The Happy Givers in Puerto Rico [and seriously, if you don't know their work, they are worth learning about], or in my tradition, the efforts of Lutheran World Relief, show up in the face of war, displacement, or disaster, they are usually there before the news crews have found their perfect camera angles, and they are there long after the news cycle has moved on to the next craze.  When our local affiliate of Family Promise helps a family get into permanent housing, or when the local fire department organizes to help someone who has lost everything in a fire, nobody is just showing up in order to get attention, but because it is simply what love does.  That's how God loves--with the genuine kindness that comes from beside us, rather than the patronizing condescension of someone who is only there for long enough to get recognition and then get whisked away to somewhere comfortable and luxurious in a helicopter.

Today, it is worth us remembering that for every attention-hungry politician running for re-election who is just showing up for the news coverage, there are indeed good organizations and good neighbors who help to mend things from beside, rather than from "above," and they don't particularly care about who gets credit for what.  It is also worth remembering the way we are loved by God, too--who comes to us not by helicopter or pre-recorded video message, but in the flesh and in the neighborhood.

May we be transformed by such love today, and may we be made aware of just how genuinely we have been loved by no less than the Creator of the universe.

Lord God, we give you thanks for love that comes from beside us to stay rather than dropping down from on high for a moment.  Enable us to love like you--without needing attention, and with the kindness of our shared human neighborhood.