If thou wilt foil thy Foes with joy, then Flit not from this Heavenly boy!
This verse is the last line of an English Renaissance poem by Robert Southwell. It’s part of a Christmas song cycle: a Ceremony of Carols, by Benjamin Britten: The choir sings this carol so fast, that for years I missed this final line:
If thou wilt foil thy Foes with joy, then Flit not from this Heavenly boy!
It shows a militant spirit, fitting if we think about ourselves in a spiritual struggle.
I heard a sermon preached last year over at All Souls, where Joni and I worship most Sundays. It was the Sunday after Donald Trump was elected as our President again. The preacher was their young associate Emily B., and she anticipated that many of the parishioners were sad and disoriented.
So she began her sermon with a lengthy and solemn recital of the Prologue to the Gospel of John — you know it well — “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” These powerful verses recall the cosmic origin story from the Book of Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” John’s prologue continues: “The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, but the world knew him not.”
Over my lifetime of ministry and preaching, I realize that I sometimes mute the dualism I find in the Gospel of John. After all, after each of the days of creation, found so beautifully in our stained glass windows, God call the world “good.” And on the seventh day, God sums it all up as “Very good.”
But over this last year, I’ve shifted back to the insight of the duality in John’s Gospel — He was in the world, and the world was made by him, but the world knew him not.” This hostile world was the context for Christ’s birth. The Roman empire decreed a census of the colonies, including Palestine. This census meant dislocation and a secular pilgrimage, catching up Mary and Joseph in its decrees.
Their improvised shelter in a barn was only a prelude to the life of refugees, fleeing Herod’s mad decree when he sent soldiers to slaughter little boys. The power of the state was brutal and uncaring for the poor. Those who hoped to make their way in that world, conformed. Those opposed to it, died — as Jesus would do when his human life ended upon a cross.
If thou wilt foil thy Foes with joy, then Flit not from this Heavenly boy!
My pride as an American citizen is being tested daily — perhaps you feel the same. The richest man on the planet has pulled back the curtain on worldly power: Elon proclaims: “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” :|| Less than 1% of our national budget used to go to the “soft power” of aid for counties poorer than ours. Sharing our country’s abundant harvests helped make us proud to be Americans — the rich sharing with the poor.
On Day One of this administration, USAID was ended. Food sat in warehouses, medical aid was stopped, workers were fired — and of course people died. But you know all this. We can no longer rely on the state to do our Christianity for us. We have been brought up to see the face of Christ in the poor and downtrodden. The Gospels show us, in the teaching and deeds of Jesus, that God powerfully shows what liberation theologians call a “preferential option for the poor.”
In a unusual way, the “joy of giving” is now linked with showing that Elon is wrong about empathy. Our society, and our world, is stronger when people are fed, when medical aid flows freely to the sick — deadly epidemics are less likely to spread, and the resentment that the poor have toward the rich is greatly reduced.
If thou wilt foil thy Foes with joy, then Flit not from this Heavenly boy!
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Christian peasants in Central America had a saying: “Their tanks will rust; our songs will last.” That’s joyous! The hymnal of Israel, which we call the Book of Psalms, speak of the swords being made into pruning hooks, the wheel of chariots (those tanks of the ancient world) are being stopped.
Joni and I found solid joy in peaceful non-violence at a No Kings protest in El Cerrito, among hundreds of our neighbors just happy to be there together, greeting members of the El Cerrito Police as they walked among us, ensuring our safety. These nation-wide protests are a joyous celebration of peaceful dissent. Let the Speaker of the House claim that we are “antifa, illegals, Hamas.” Our government has, sadly, lied to us before — so we’re used to it by now.
This last year has refocused my hopes even more on the basics of my Christian faith. My modest generosity to those in need of assistance has a keener edge today — my exercise of empathy is (to use a 1960’s term) “counter-cultural!” Seeing Christ in the faces of the poor “subverts the dominant paradigm” of the state.
If thou wilt foil thy Foes with joy, then Flit not from this Heavenly boy!