something beautiful

It's been an especially disheartening few months. "How low can we go?," has been a common question floating through my mind as I watch the wolves gathering at the political tables; so quick to panic, to blame, to withhold compassion and reason, making knee jerk decisions based on self-serving half-truths and a limited vision of the future. A scene so quick to rip away the most essential ingredients of this potential awakening from even the most bold and capable of leaders: Hope, Love, Grace, Humility.

Perhaps, as a young religious leader, what has been even more disturbing is how closely our faith communities seem to have followed, mimicking this hopeless landscape. Gathering around the committee table to blame one another for failing to meet traditional meanss of success measured in membership numbers, worship attendance, stewardship campaigns...

Yet, for many of us, in our hearts it has been made known by the Spirit's tide that we have entered an age in which none of these measurements will align our motivations with Christ's call to our communities. A time in which we are called to gather together to push open doors; welcoming among us all people as equals, stepping over denominational lines, and reaching over religious boundaries to appreciate difference and courageously set forth to learn more fully who we are called to be together as faithful people in this world. A time in which we are called to gather together and open our hearts that our mouths might pour out words of advocacy for those among us who have been unjustly treated and systematically stripped of paths upon which more privileged members of us experience that very thing which God has gifted all of us with, mercy.

It is in this call that I have found hope once again that something beautiful is growing in our midst. That beyond the death throws of the hateful voices of fearful exclusiveness and selfish intentions, we are entering an age in which liberation will be wrapped in the beauty of a new accountability for the church and its leaders. Where the life of the church will be measured purely in its active and tangible compassion toward all of humanity.

In this Great Commission of our Contemporary Times, I am no longer bound to the hopelessness provided by our institutions but have been made aware that the salvation of our churches cannot be paid with the price of our souls. Yet, if it is God's will which we pursue in our world having forsaken its own moral voice in favor of greed and judgement, then perhaps it will be the communities of faith which stand as beacons of Hope and Love in a world which has grown dark and cold to all God's suffering people. I pray that nevermore may our hearts be drowned with sadness nor our minds blinded by false hopelessness, but in the midst of hollow shouting matches we must continue to feast on a hope which will outlast those for whom hatred and greed are quickly devoured. In our boundless community of Love, let Hope be to us the body of Jesus which sustains us through all trials and surely God's love will be made known to all those who have surrendered their potentials to the lesser demands of our institutional survival.