Theology

Dear Church,

As I write this letter, I find myself in a place of lament. I lament the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and many black lives taken by the grasp of white supremacy. I lament the numerous blacks lives that are being taken by this pandemic. 

Have you ever been asked that weird ice-breaker question: if you could have a superpower what would it be? My answer would be super-weakness. Let me explain. I have always wondered why Superhero movies are so popular lately. To be honest I was over the fad back when the first X-Men movie came out. So I did a bit of research. Out of the many theories out there, I came to this conclusion: superheroes are a metaphor of our lives and they personify our ultimate hopes.

I have long found Celtic Christianity and prayer to be a source of sustenance.  Its tradition of integrating worship and work, prayer and practice, neighbour love and ordinary labour always meets me where I am and nudges me closer to the kingdom.

Like many around the globe, my ministry, my family, and I have had to make changes to our way of life in light of COVID-19. This spring, Restorations had been looking forward to completing the renovations of our home where we hope to launch our residential program for survivors of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation later this year. COVID-19 has brought disappointments – like turning away a large group of volunteers from local CRC churches who had been eagerly waiting to help paint the house.

In the middle of a pandemic of their own, the characters in Albert Camus’ The Plague are weary. The quarantine, disease, and death are enough to exhaust anyone. But -- of course -- the painful things that existed before illness struck are also still present: broken relationships, aching memories, questions of meaning and suffering, and deep injustice. 

The theme of this year’s annual advocacy summit for Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) is Equal in God’s Eyes: Human Rights and Dignity for all in Israel/Palestine. For some, this statement will seem obvious. Of course, all of God’s human creation is created equally and in the image of God. We recall the words of the Hebrew Scriptures in the book of Genesis,

“So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (1:27).

I was recently invited to join an online prayer group of ministers and elders and was asked to offer a prayer of comfort during our time together in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course I said yes--my Midwest U.S. upbringing would not allow me to decline such an offer--but my heart started racing and my mouth became dry even as I was accepting this invitation.

This world is not perfect. 

It is not peace-full. It is not unbroken. It is not wholly good.

This world witnesses hardship, oppression, death, injustice; and it walks on. Relentless. Unapologetic.

It is a remarkable challenge to simply live here; to get by. And that’s on a normal day; let alone during a global pandemic with little clarity around where we are headed.

This is Holy Week, and today is called Maundy Thursday. The name is derived from mandatum, the Latin word from which we get our word ‘mandate’, or command – and commemorates Jesus' new command in John 13:34 – a new command I give you, that you love each other.

Over the past two weeks rhetoric has heated up with regards to race.  I heard one woman question whether COVID-19 was passed through Chinese food.  I’ve heard from Chinese friends that they’ve been targeted with derogatory remarks (and in other cases physical attacks).  Most disturbing, I’ve heard that the Christian community is not immune to spreading these sentiments.  As we discuss this let’s start with the basic fact that there is