Good morning…
On Sunday, we began this 4th of July week with my husband Steve preaching at the little Log Cabin Community Church, just around the corner from our home. What are the two things I remember most about the welcoming, down-to-earth service?
First, the worship leader, she quietly prayed for “the vulnerable and the voiceless.” So many in our world embody these two words right now.
Second, in his captivating sermon Steve shared this Fredrick Buechner quote:
“Here’s the world.
Beautiful and terrible things will happen.
Do not be afraid.”
Vulnerable and voiceless. Beautiful and terrible. All week I have pondered, “How might we learn to live truly unafraid?”
Then, yesterday words from Kate Bowler’s weekly email offered us a hopeful answer.
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What if real freedom isn’t about independence at all? What if it’s about interdependence—the sacred web of casseroles and inside jokes and group texts that say “home” in all the ways language can’t? As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
So here is a little prayer to help us practice inter-dependence this week (and all the weeks):
May we all risk being known, practicing intimacy with the way we listen and share and ask each other questions (even when we might not like the answers).
May we learn how to love when it makes no sense, and be loved when our humanity feels like a liability.
May we find ourselves reminded that we belong to one another. Neighbors. Strangers. Friends. All wrapped up together in this web of beautiful, terrible inter-dependence.
Amen.
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Vulnerable and voiceless. Beautiful and terrible. We’re all wrapped up together in this web of inter-dependent belonging. If one part is suffering, then all the members suffer alongside it. If one member is honored, then all the members celebrate alongside it (1 Corinthians 12:26, VOICE).
Now, Henri Nouwen’s meditation, just sent a moment ago, solidifies our learning.
“God is not in the distant heavens or in the hidden depths of the future, but here and now,” writes Nouwen. “God has pitched a tent among us. Even more than that, God has made a home in us so that we can make God’s home our home.”
As we suffer and we celebrate with God and with each other, together we are empowered to live in this gorgeous and grotesque world, at home and unafraid.
…Sue…
P.S. Choose to become a beacon of hope in our Atlanta community. Remember to vote for PAWkids once today and each day until July 13th. For our friends in Grove Park to be awarded the $30,000 grant, please vote here: https://thesamehouse.org/actions/pawkids/
