Peacemaking Is Harboring Our Neighbors

Would you harbor me? Would I harbor you?
Would you harbor me? Would I harbor you?

I’m back. The same song is still haunting me a week later. I write a monthly article in my local newspaper in the Faith and Reason column. Last week’s worries are this week’s realities. How will we, as communities, as a country, respond to no SNAP benefits for children, families, and elders/ Protest? Certainly. But, more importantly: Donate. Volunteer. Spread the word.

November is a month of harvest and gathering in, a time when we celebrate and give thanks for the abundance of the fields. With Thanksgiving approaching, our neighbors, many more than we know, will be challenged by food insecurity and, perhaps, hunger. What shelter can we offer, what harbor can we provide for our neighbors in the Susquehanna Valley? What Peace can we make in our community?

As a child, I was taught never to mention money in conversations. It has taken me a very long time to break that habit — which made it very challenging to bring up things like Valley inhabitants’ going hungry and how we might offer shelter and Peace.

The lack of SNAP benefits in November is not a question about what side of the political aisle we are on. It becomes a question of generosity or morality. It becomes a question of what shelter, harbor, and Peace we will offer. As a resident of this Valley, I have witnessed the generosity of this community on numerous occasions. When there are people in need and problems to solve, we work together to find solutions — to offer shelter, harbor, and to work for Peace.

On this issue of food insecurity, I don’t have any particular answers or any specific causes that I’m going to recommend. You, dear friends, live in your communities, attend houses of worship, and belong to organizations that know of individuals and families in need. What forms will the shelter and harbor you offer take on? Money? Food donations? Service? Hospitality? Peacemaking can be spreading the news about what’s effective.

What if November wasn’t simply a great big build up to the winter holidays with lots of presents we really don’t need? What if November was about the possibility of creating Thanksgiving all month long, not simply on November 27^th? And let’s be clear, we don’t know about December either.

Together we could offer shelter by feeding people who might otherwise be hungry. There is not a religious tradition in this world which doesn’t support feeding the hungry. Let the people eat. Help the people eat. Harbor one another, shelter one another, make Peace. Invite your children to join you. In many, cases their instinct is to help, so let them teach us. In other occasions, they are eager to learn how they can be of service.

As I sit contemplating the end of the SNAP subsidies and the resultant desperation that will cause, I’m focused on the harbors we can provide. The Takery, our group of retired and/or aging Sunbury clergy, is gathering to consider what we can do. Wherever you are, your Pantries will be working to fill the gaps until the government of the people decides to come back to Washington and do its work. What kind of harbor will we build? What shelter will we offer?

I do have a harbor to offer. You do too. You are welcome in mine. I’m going to trust I am welcome in yours. Together, let us build harbors that are wide enough and deep enough. Let us offer Peace throughout the month of November, the Thanksgiving holiday, and beyond. Let us harbor one another. Let us feed our Valley. Let us teach the rest of the world how it can be done. Let us offer reasons to be thankful.

Let us remember that offering to harbor people, providing them with food, connects us to all the people who are harbored and harboring . We probably can’t understand the harbor we will gain by offering someone else safe harbor. This is the month of Thanksgiving, how better do we say thank you for all we have received than to offer the Peace of a safe harbor to those who are going without. We are the Peace the people are hungering for.

I will harbor you. Will you harbor me?
I will harbor you. Will you harbor me?

Salaam, Shalom, Peace, and Blessed Be!