Julian, RuPaul, Rowling and the Stones

Julian of Norwich, RuPaul, J.K. Rowling and The Rolling Stones.  This perhaps unlikely combination of theologians came together this morning in such a fantastic way I needed to write about it.  These days, even the folks who typically have their stuff together are finding their stuff unraveling.  We're living in an anxious, stormy and violent world and I don't know about you, but I most certainly am not one of those people who typically have their stuff together!  So, to me, the storms these days seem deadly and unending.  But this morning, sitting in my tossed-about little boat of a life amongst my unraveledness, these four theologians have converged upon me with some old wisdom shown to me in a way that I could see anew.  

It started with someone posting a quote from Jesus speaking to Julian of Norwich in a vision.  Jesus said to her, "It was necessary that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well".  I read 'sin' as a word that covers every kind of storm, brokenness, pain and even death itself.  It is Jesus reminding Julian (and me by way of Julian) that there is no storm, brokenness or even death that doesn't end up right where God wants it to end up, which is in joy and light and life.  The trick, of course that I can never seem to remember, is to keep your eye, not on the chaos of the waves in the storm, but on Christ.  When you do that, even the biggest storms can't dampen the joy of what you KNOW is coming in the end.  

But I at least, seem to do that task like Peter walking on water.  The chaos of the sea was kept firmly under his feet when he kept his eye on Jesus and the promise of what was to come.  But when he got distracted by the chaos of the ocean of stuff between him and Jesus he ended up all wet.  I too always seem to get distracted by the chaos and end up all wet.  But that's not the end of that story!  Even after Peter got distracted and wet, sunk in all the chaos of the ocean of stuff, he still got pulled out in the end.  You see, Jesus always pulls us out in the end, no matter how deep the stuff is we sink into.  So, in the end all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. 

That was good, but then Kelly came downstairs and told me about the ending of RuPaul's All Stars.  RuPaul is a drag queen.  Actually RuPaul is the queen of all drag queens and she has a television program where other drag queens compete in an elimination type show.  Anyway, Katia, one of the contestants, was having her end of show talk with RuPaul when they started talking about the voices in our heads that tell us we aren't good enough or we shouldn't try because we'll fail or we're not really lovable, talented or worthy and Katia piped up immediately and said, "yes her name is Debra!"  

That's brilliant, I thought!  She named her demon!  Just as J.K. Rowling reminded us by way of Professor Dumbledore, "The fear of a name simply increases the fear of the thing itself."  Now, with a name, Katia could go toe to toe with Debra because Debra wasn't just some nebulous psychological construct but something real that could be argued with and overcome.  

That revelation then reminded me of something I had read earlier in the morning about Julian of Norwich when I looked back into the context of her visions.  She had another vision you see, after the one that gave that famous quote.  It was a vision where the devil attacked her, trying to undo the hope-filled visions of Christ she had before.  Now, in the past I've not been a big fan of seeing the devil as a personified entity, but this morning it occurred to me that maybe the personification of the devil isn't necessarily something that makes the darkness stronger.  Maybe it's a way to give a name to that darkness so we can get some firmer footing for the fight!  

Could it be that those ancients who talked about the devil and even drew pictures of a demon with red flesh, wings and horns didn't always do it to scare us?  Could it be that some did it to give us a solid, named, target to aim at?  What if those voices in our heads that tell us to live in fear, our country is doomed, that we aren't good enough and we shouldn't even try... what if those voices that Katia called Debra on that show and J.K. Rowling called Voldemort in her books... what if those same forces were called the Devil by similar people of wisdom from the past like Julian?  What if they gave the Devil his name, not to scare us, but to help us remember that nothing with a name, whether it's Debra or Voldemort or even the Devil has any power over us in the end?   

And that led, of course, to the Rolling Stones.  In their song Sympathy for the Devil, Mick sings:

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails 
Just call me Lucifer
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint

Knowing that the name of the Devil is Lucifer isn't supposed to scare us.  It's supposed to be a gift that allows us to fight back those thoughts of fear, chaos and worthlessness and give some needed restraint to that raging ocean of stuff out there these days that seems to be so powerfully dark, chaotic and hopeless in our lives.   

One of my favorite icons is the icon of the Resurrection that has the devil chained up in hell and the doors of hell blown off their hinges by the resurrected Christ.  I think in the past, I foolishly dismissed the power of actually showing the devil chained up and defeated and stuck in that hole.  But the truth is that while the hate, fear, sexism, racism, anger, violence and horror of our world feels terrible right now, the way things will turn out in the end for us all is already known!  God's got this.  God's got me.  God's got you.  God's got us and all will be well, and all will be well and all manner of things will be well and neither Debra nor Voldemort nor the Devil himself has any power to change that because that bugger is tied up in that hole under Jesus' feet!  The visual image of that fact and knowing the name of that sucker chained up down there, makes it just a little easier for me to remember the promise that all will indeed be well.  The name and the image make it easier in the midst of all the terrible storms of this fall to smile with hopefulness in the midst of a world that all too often these days has felt like it's been unraveling around me.  I hope that makes it a bit easier for you to smile as well, because the truth is that all manner of things WILL indeed be well!