Chapter 3 - A Spirituality of Public Life: The Stranger as Spiritual Guide

By Jean McCarthy

Rector, St. Mark’s Church, Des Moines

Former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold wrote:  “We are baptized into solidarity with those we do not know.”  Parker Palmer explores what that solidarity means – to us personally, to our church, and to the world in The Company of Strangers.   The very recent tragedies at Sandy Hook School and the Aurora, CO movie theatre, as well as a government that seems paralyzed with partisan fighting has brought the urgency of our public conversations, the common good, and how to find our way through the weeds of these thorny issues in our public life.

Palmer names these things as opportunity “for a time like this” when we face the crises around us and see the necessity for a better way of being in this world.  A time like this requires discerning the movement of God in these crises.  A good crisis should never be wasted. 

Perhaps it could be a challenge to us to incorporate these insights into our five-year strategic plan for the Diocese of Iowa.  Who is the stranger for us for a time like this?  And how often do we not see the stranger in our midst?  

Palmer says that when we meet the stranger, we are engaged in public life.  The stranger shakes our everyday perceptions and expectations – and opens us to hear God’s Word, it calls us into newness.    Faith is not about going back to what the world (and often us) imagine to be a safe and secure place, and church is not a fortress to protect us from the world.  We are a pilgrim people, learning together on the journey.  Palmer says that we need the stranger and the stranger needs us.  We set each other free, see with new eyes, from a different perspective  Our public life is the place where God meets us and we find each other.

As a rector, I think about how we are a church in “a time like this”.  We often talk about hospitality at St. Mark’s.  Our American culture understands hospitality as civility, politeness and manners.  We certainly can use more of that, but the ancient meaning of hospitality is much more suited to our public life as a church, because if has to do with life and transformation into God’s life.  Those who live in the desert know that hospitality means life itself:  We cannot survive alone in the desert.  We are tied together not by proving ourselves or “getting with the right program”, but in our humanity.  In our humanity, we gift each other with newness, a fresh way of seeing, that exposes our fears and weaknesses, as well as our gifts and strengths.  It all hinges on a culture of respect and dignity for all persons, our Baptismal covenant.  It is not easy, but it is holy.   

What would church life look like if we learn to see past our differences to find the gift of diversity?  Can we appreciate the stranger (as Palmer defines it) without needing the stranger to become a version of ourselves?  We need respect, not friendship or intimacy.  The spirituality of public life is to call each other into holiness, to create a culture of compassion and love.  Palmer says that authentic public life is the bedrock of the Christian’s call.  Jesus lived this authentic public life.  He was not looking for friends or allies.  The spirituality of public life is to call each other into holiness, to create a culture of compassion and love.  Sounds like the stuff of a vestry retreat – especially in a church that mourns the loss of old-time members and has many strangers from very different places coming in the doors.  Our challenge is to see the humanity that joins us together and the diversity that gifts us.  Change is not always easy, but it is of God.

The public life at St. Mark’s of our Lenten Bible Study took this chapter this week and began to have a conversation about the imagery of the four Servant Songs in Isaiah.  In many ways we are all strangers to each other in this public life of bible study.  In that sharing of our private lives, we each contribute to and help shape our public life.  God is found in the midst of this, and we grow in faith and as a community.  It has already led us in this first week of Lent to new insights and ministry from the public discussion of immigration and the more lament over violence in our culture. 

Lent moves outside the church walls and enters our public life as a nation and as a world.  Never waste a good crisis.  I thank the bishop and diocesan staff for creating this forum and opportunity to meet the stranger in each other and challenge is to find our God and each other in the weeds of the world.  I look forward to unfolding more of the richness of this book in our sharing.

Shalom, Jean