Opinion

Shocking as it is, we must be confronted with the humanity of the crises around us. We cannot cover Jesus on the cross any more than we can drape our war dead in American flags in hopes that it will all seem more respectable.

Common ground could happen in our world. But we have to be the ones to make it happen.

Let’s start with a little perspective: we write and read this column from the vantage point of being the most insanely wealthy people in the history of the human race.

When the world is hard, we have to look harder. We are detectives searching for clues. Hope does not shout, but if we listen carefully we hear whispers. Hopeful things are happening, but we have to pay attention.

God’s Word seems abundantly clear. Any nation that is above critique is beyond God’s help. So, take a breath, fellow citizens. Not everyone who disagrees with you is unpatriotic. And beware, lest you become guilty of thoughtless allegiance to immoral and unjust policies.

Struggling to find the right balance between naming darkness and preaching hope is the substance of our work in this moment: as leaders, as people of faith, as participants in the work of healing the world.

We live in a world that is ripe with fear. And fear is such an easy response and reaction. And fear might very well be valid. But what if we choose love?

You can read David Gushee’s “Still Christian: Following Jesus Out of American Evangelicalism” in an evening or afternoon.  You can and you should.

Might churches claim and enact a kind of gospel triage, responding with immediacy and intentionality to the external/internal struggles of persons impacted by gun violence?

Where are the churches willing to model vulnerability? I’ll tell you what they look like. They have given up on Christendom. They have given up on the notion that they hold some place of privilege in our culture.

Can we feel that there are human beings, very close to us, created in God’s image, who are being buried? If we cannot, perhaps we need to be silent and attentive in order to listen to their stories of suffering due to spiritual, social, economic, and/ or physical conditions that are foreign to us.

Amy and I had a fight last week. Well, let’s call it a disagreement. Since we share all pastoral responsibilities at our church, we try to be careful to distinguish between professional and personal issues. I think this was both….