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Preparing our Hearts for the Work

Pastor Brooke


One of my favorite tv shows, 30 Rock, has a scene where the character of Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) says to her boss (Alec Baldwin), “What a week, huh?” to which he replies, “Lemon, it’s Wednesday.” This is your millennial pastor’s way of communicating through meme form, what a week, huh?

 

Take a deep breath with me. Hold it, 3–2–1, out through the mouth. Okay, we’re breathing, that’s good.

 

This week is heavy, friends, and I want to encourage you to make space to honor your grief. As I said last Sunday regarding the hands that helped bring the miracle at Cana to fruition, there are jars to be filled. But how do we fill jars with God’s goodness and mercy when the divisive cracks in the stone keep us from being whole? I want to preface this by saying that you are under no obligation to devote time to people or to work that seeks to harm you, and those boundaries are necessary. Whatever you do, just do it with love.

 

What has been hardest for me this week is deciphering just how possible it is to reconcile the harm that is being committed by our political and social landscape, and that powerlessness is a thought I hesitate to entertain. So, I picked up a book I’ve been meaning to read, Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor. I turned to a chapter focused on “Preparing our hearts for the work,” as I envisioned it to be the best place to start. The author, Caleb Campbell begins by reminding of the story of Saul turned Paul. In the eighth chapter of the book of Acts, Saul is considered one of the greatest threats to the early church. However, Jesus approaches a man named Ananias with a commission to restore Saul’s heart, followed by the protest of Ananias who believes Saul to be beyond redemption. Nevertheless, Saul is chosen to proclaim the good news. Today, Saul who became Paul is considered one of the greatest evangelists in Christian history, a man who was formerly known as one of the greatest agents of its destruction.

 

God is still speaking.

 

Loving our Christian Nationalist neighbors during this season of life is not going to be an easy task, and we cannot reduce the effect this work will have on our hearts to the simplicity of the conversion story of Paul. It isn’t that simple. But the reality is that any one of us can be called to do this work, and Christian Nationalism cannot exist alongside the ministry of Jesus. Nationalism implies borders, and we are people who dismantle walls and use the debris to build a bigger table. Should you find yourself called to this work, Campbell recommends these practices:

 

●      Check in with your heart

●      Get some rest

●      Recruit a support team

●      Safety and self-care

●      Know when to walk away

 

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, this enemy turned apostle wrote that “we are God’s coworkers, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.” And it is only together that the seeds that we plant will produce a harvest with which all are fed. Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief, friends. You are named, claimed, and called to be an embodiment of love.

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