Good Troubler and Nuclear Waste and February 18

“Our Elijah has fallen” is what Philip Melanchthon is said to have said standing in his Wittenberg (Germany) classroom on February 18, 1546 when told that Martin Luther had died that day while out of town in Eisleben. Elijah, of course, was Israel’s 9th century BCE prophet who was King Ahab’s, and everybody’s, nemesis, bringing the justice of God hard and heavy to the breaking point so that that same justice would raise up a new person and persons to a new life. Elijah was some Good Trouble.

Elijah brought both Law and Gospel. So did Luther.

You remember that recently died U.S. Congressperson John Lewis was known for bringing “good trouble” and inviting us to join him in bringing Good Trouble.

Stir the waters! Our new U.S. Would-Be King President is appreciated by his supporters for changing things up by being the proverbial bull in a china shop. Right, like it’s good to have broken china like the employees of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration fired and then reinstated 24 hours later “but wait – we can’t tell them they have their jobs back because we don’t have their contact information anymore because we fired them!”

No, “good trouble” doesn’t mean simply bringing chaos for the sake of change. Good Trouble turns up the concretized soil that has imprisoned the rich humus below and simultaneously plants the seed of justice for all.

The more I study Luther and his way of understanding, nay, experiencing God as Law and Gospel, the more I get Melanchthon’s mournful cry and the more I see and know GodSelf as the Good Trouble Who Changes Everything.

Friends, bring on some Good Trouble today!