Bruce Epperly: On Being a Good Ancestor

These days, now that I am retired from a lifetime of fulltime ministry and seminary teaching and administration, I often respond to someone’s query about my current life with, “The good thing about retirement is that nothing in my schedule is urgent. My writing projects and phone calls can all wait till tomorrow.” Then, I usually pause and continue, “I have no urgency about the micro, the day to day, but I’m feeling very urgent about our nation and the planet and future. This is where I need to act.”

You may feel the same way. Your day-to-day life is lived out on your own terms but the world seems out of control and something needs to be done about it. Perhaps like me, you are appalled by the attacks on democracy, the seeming indifference about global climate change among our nation’s leaders, the ongoing post-presidential prevarication by Donald Trump, the vitriol of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers, and the attempt of some to enforce their version of Christian values on the nation. You feel the call to do something!

At the end of the day, the everyday can’t be healthy if the nation and planet our diseased. Living in the now is superficial and short sighted if we the next generations’ futures are in doubt and we sit idly by, letting fate take its course.

While it is important to rejoice in this day, “the day that God has made,” we must also choose to be good ancestors, whose vision stretches far beyond our lifetimes to embrace children and grandchildren – seven generations and more – whom we will never meet.

Our calling, if we have reached midlife or senior adulthood, is to be good ancestors, living out our faith in ways that change the world for the good. The Jewish mystics asserted that if you save one soul, it’s equivalent to saving the world; if you destroy one soul, it’s as if you’re destroying the world. By this, they meant: 1) each act shapes the future and tips the balance from death to life, 2) what we do now has long-term consequences, and 3) every healing act shares in God’s goal of repairing the world.

Regardless of our spiritual orientation or personality type, we need to work to heal the world. By disposition, I am a contemplative. But I am now committed to being a contemplative activist. My support of DJAN is one facet of my contemplative activism, using my gifts as a writer, theologian, pastor, and spiritual guide to invite others to discover their own gifts to heal the world.

This Thanksgiving, many of us will gather with families. For some of us, this is the first time we’ve traveled for holidays in over a year, and we are grateful. We will gather around tables with children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces, parents, and grandparents, and many other relational configurations. As you rejoice in family time, look around the table, or at those with whom you gather on Zoom, imagine an alternative future for them and future generations to that of climate change, incivility, and rising divisiveness. Share your wisdom. But also make a commitment to accompany the youth you meet, family and friends, to create a better world.

You may choose to ask the Holy One to guide you to discern how best you can be a good ancestor. Ask the Holy One to give you vision and the energy to bring your visions to life. Ask how you can be God’s companion in healing the world, day by day, person by person, protest by protest. And then listen – and respond – to the guidance you receive.

Make a commitment to give the children and youth “the gift that keeps on giving” long after you’ve left the scene – Be a good ancestor!

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Bruce Epperly is a pastor, professor, and author of over sixty books, including “Mystics in Action: Twelve Saints for Today,” “Walking with Francis of Assisi: From Privilege to Activism,” “The Work of Christmas: The Twelve Days of Christmas with Howard Thurman,” and “Prophetic Healing: Howard Thurman’s Vision of Contemplative Activism.” He may be reached at drbruceepperly@gmail.com