A Theme for Such a Time as This: David Brooks’ “How to Know a Person” and a Call to the Deep Well of Repair
Each year during summer—as we spend time praying and planning and playing and dreaming and vacationing and having good conversations—we wonder as a staff and with our ministry teams together what God might be calling us to as we move forward into a new season.
I love this time in mid-July to read and reflect with others, as well as take time to ask good questions:
Where have we been as the Body of Christ? Where are we going?
What have we learned recently and how might we deepen that learning further? Who could we partner with? Go deeper with?
Are there particular skills or practices or teachers that might help us navigate this time?
Can we pinpoint ourselves on the long arch of God’s love and justice as modern disciples in a complex world?
How do we build on the scaffold of knowing and being known, of seeing and being seen in community across age, race, gender, income and geography?
These questions crisscross my mind as we face together the heightened tension and temperature of a divisive presidential election, the continued reality of political violence, of loneliness and the epidemic of isolation, of the unforeseen effects of social media and polarizing algorithms, of our response to white Christian nationalism and a false white Gospel (see the work of Jim Wallis), of a world that remains confoundingly at war (often seemingly with itself/ourselves/God’s creation).
It’s hard to know exactly where to begin. Where to start. Even with our own personhood and detangling who we really are as beloved and confused children of God.
Toward A Collective Spirit of Repair
Enter David Brooks, again. Many know Brooks’ long trajectory of social and spiritual commentary, looking at the multifaceted fabric of our nation through historical and moral dimensions. He invites great questions and a defiant humanism, acknowledging the challenges that we face without looking away from our role in human connection and intentionally curious collaboration.
In his newest book about the art of seeing others and being seen deeply, Brooks admits that he has not always been a great relationship developer. He’s often been the quiet and cerebral observer, the one in the corner, soaking it all up, but not particularly very social or overly friendly. Writing is solitary work.
He writes: “seeing other people in all their fullness doesn’t just happen. It’s a craft, a set of skills, a way of life.”
Among other crafts that will speak to such a time as this (as ELCA Lutherans), Brooks lifts up a model of accompaniment: tenderness, generosity, active curiosity, affection.
Brooks invites a kind of acute perceptivity, that is needed more than ever in a polarized world.
Not to be numb by the suffering or strangeness, but to go on seeing.
He even encourages us to look at the Bible through that same lens of seeing and attentiveness.
Who gets seen and who doesn’t? Who is named and who isn’t? What spiritual insight might lead to repair and reunion together?
Ultimately, to see through the eyes of Jesus, to see through the eyes and heart of God. The eyes and heart of love.
As we look ahead and all that is before us, all that we are learning and how we are leading as a church, Brooks (per usual) sees the opportunity for us to pay attention to the fullness of each other rather than sound bites and pat answers.
And to see ourselves fully too. The full Imago Dei in all of us.
Which isn’t easy, but takes art and heart and humility.
Seeking to know and be known,
Pastor Peter
Deeper Dive – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt0MuaqsaT8
New York Times commentator and best-selling author David Brooks delivered the 3rd annual Scoper Lecture in Christian Thought in Old Cabell Hall on April 21, 2024 at the University of Virginia: the anchor event of an in person and livestreamed community-wide, intergenerational experience.
Following his lecture, “Know Better: Deepening the Bonds of Communal Life,” Brooks was joined onstage for a conversation with Melody Barnes, executive director of UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy. Music by Porter’s Gate.
