Being Brave Together

Peter and I have been reading and rediscovering some of the Frog and Toad stories this week, from the children’s books by Arnold Lobel. Last night we read the story, ‘Dragons and Giants,’ from the book Frog and Toad Together. In the story Frog and Toad read a book of fairy tales and wonder aloud if they are brave. They decide to climb a mountain together to find out, and they encounter a snake and a rock slide and a hawk on the mountain. And as they encounter each one and run away, they shout, ‘I am not afraid.’ In the last scene of the story, they run home. Toad jumps into bed and hides under the covers and Frog jumps into the closet, and the story ends with: “They stayed there for a long time, just feeling brave together.” Peter burst out laughing, ‘But they’re not!’ 

 

And today that image of them both hiding, and that phrase ‘feeling brave together’ are on my mind. Partly, I suppose, because there’s plenty to be afraid about, plenty of things I’d like to hide from. Concerns about loved ones getting sick, getting sick ourselves, long term economic effects of the pandemic, entrenched racism and violence, foreign interference in our elections – the list could go on and on – there’s a lot of snakes and rock slides and hawks on this mountain. And yet Frog and Toad are in it together, encouraging each other and sometimes hiding near each other, learning how to be brave together.

One of the chapters we discussed in our book study of Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren this week was about the church and relationships in the church – how faith is not a private, individual matter, but something we’re in together, with Christian friends and especially with our local congregation. And often this is lovely and sometimes this is painful. She writes of our relationships within the church and our worship together: “We tell each other over and over, back and forth, the truth of who we are and who God is.”

The truth of who we are is that we are beautiful, made in God’s own image and beloved of God. We see this in each other at Boston Square, we tell this to each other as we worship together and fellowship with each other. We celebrate each other’s gifts and achievements. We honor each other, we express gratitude to each other.

And the truth of who we are is that we are broken – we are often afraid, we hurt each other, we participate in racism and injustice, we are impatient, we are wounded. And we tell that truth too: as we confess our sin in worship, and as we sometimes have hard conversations with each other. We’re in this together, and we tell each other the truth of who we are.

And we tell the truth about God – who is loving, kind, and brave, who bore the weight of our brokenness, and who is bigger and stronger than any of the snakes, rock slides or hawks we might want to run from or to hide from. Who loves us and delights in us, and chooses us, beautiful and broken, to bear Jesus’ love to the world.

As we tell the truth to each other, about who we are and who God is, we learn to be brave together. To live with integrity, to resist evil, to admit our failures and change our ways. We are in this together, and God is in it with us, working to make all things new.