We Need a Revolution

As this devotional is appearing on your screen, the new PBS doc “The American Revolution” has started airing over six consecutive nights. I’ve been looking forward to it for two reasons: first, because I’m a sucker for those particular films and the way they serve up history with captivating writing and evocative visual images (no grainy photos in this one, but lots of paintings, reenactments, and maps). And second, because I want someone to explain how once upon a time we got out of a “worse” jam than the one we’re in now and to unlock for me what our future holds–hopefully the restoration of rights, civility, basic dignity, and care for every person.

I’ll try to break down my big takeaway from the Ken Burns interviews I’ve watched in the past week. So here you have it: we’ve been worse off before, and we got out of it through the efforts of some famous and many nameless people, who’ve come to be regarded as heroes for knowing what was right and sticking to their… muskets. I won’t go as far as to say how lucky we are to be alive right now (check the Hamilton reference). There IS violence on our shores. All still doesn’t mean ALL. As freedom and democracy take new hits on the daily and corruption is on full display, it’s hard to imagine how this gets any worse, and what it’s going to take to make it better.

When discussing his new documentary, Burns is clear that it was not timed to premier during the 250th year of the country’s founding. He does not make comparisons to our current political climate, even though every interviewer presses him to do so. And he wants viewers to know that his thumb is not on the scale for any political party. But you’ve got to know that he thinks the past is pointing us to a way out of the mess we’re in now, so long as we know what side right is on and that we’re willing to be the nameless heroes who land on that side.

The promo for the film says,

“To believe in America is to believe in possibility.”

What a hopeful thought.  May it be so.

Holy One,

Thank you for the privilege and possibilities of doing your work in the world.

Amen

Eli is a song leader at church. She finds the idea of a revolution pretty terrifying, but feels so lucky to have fallen in with a group of revolutionaries like her fellow Peace Church members.