Days set apart

In Russia not many people celebrate Halloween; fewer still know of Reformation Day or of the western church's celebration of All Saints on November 1st. 

Yet the calendar is full of holidays during the fall, and I've been thinking about them this week. These days are not filled with joyous celebration, but are "holy-days" in the sense that they are "set apart." 1 They are set apart for remembrance.  

The content of that set-apartness, though, varies widely among individuals in this society still recovering from a traumatic past. For some the most important day is no longer celebrated in an official way, though it was the most important of days in Soviet times - November 7th, the day of "The Great October 2 Socialist Revolution."

For others November 4th  is an important day, at least insofar as it is a day off of work; "The Day of the People's Unity" was established in the mid-2000s as an alternative to "The Great October..." The idea behind this holiday is to recall events from the distant past when the Russian people resisted outside invaders. In current practice, however, the day tends to be an excuse for nationalists to get together in rallies and marches.

For a smaller, though no less significant group of people, the true holy day of the autumn is "The Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions." On October 30th every year time is set aside to remember those who suffered as a result of political repression in the time of communism, especially in the years of the height of the Stalinist terror, 1937-1938. 

The Resurrection Cathedral

In many cities throughout the country the day was marked by prayer services in Orthodox churches and a public gathering at memorials. In Novosibirsk a priest at the Resurrection Cathedral began the liturgy with a few words of comfort for those in attendance; those present (mostly elderly) held candles and flowers as lists of names were handed to the deacon who chanted them out as the choir echoed "Lord, have mercy."

Last Sunday we in our Lutheran congregation also recalled the victims of political repression. The text for the day could have hardly been more appropriate - Jeremiah 29:  

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare...  For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (NRSV)

The story of exile is familiar to those in our congregation, as much from the pages of their family albums as from the pages of Scripture. If my calculations are correct the parents and grandparents of those in our congregation (Germans from Russia) would have read these words as they gathered secretly in homes in 1948, 1956 and 1964. What might they been thinking? Were they, like the ancient Judeans, searching for meaning in it all? 

It would have been hard to find meaning in Stalin's madness. Perhaps it would have been harder still to listen to the prophet's encouragement to "seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf." And most difficult of all might have been believing in the promise offered to the exiles: "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you."

More than 70 years have passed. Germans from Russia still are unsure about their homeland - is it Germany? The Germany their ancestors left two centuries ago no longer exists. Is it the Volga or the Black Sea? Decades of war, misuse and neglect have changed those lands dramatically...and even where the land has been restored, no one is inviting former residents to return. Is it Siberia? If it is, the prophet has words of comfort. He promises that the Lord has a plan; he uses images from Paradise (the garden, the directive to multiply) to help the people of faith to see that God is giving them an opportunity for a new start. 

Part of our ministry here is to encourage German Russians to see that God has accompanied them here, and that God will accompany the next generation of believers as well. If we can encourage them to grow in that trust, it is my hope that we can be a force for the "welfare of the city," that we might cultivate new life here, thus witnessing to our neighbors of God's goodness, even in and through our trials, in days set apart and every day. 

1. reflecting what is said to be at the heart of the Old Testament understanding of holiness.
2. "October" because pre-revolutionary Russia had not switched from the Julian calendar, which is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.