Carrying this vision of God’s will for the world—God’s mission in the world—with me into Wednesday morning, I was blown away by an utterly remarkable 22-year-old Los Angeles poet’s stunning clarity of God’s vision. National Poet Laureate Amanda Gormon spoke about God’s call for restoration with beautiful words conveying both the grace and grit necessary for engaging with God’s will for us:
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we're to live up to our own time
Then victory won't lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we've made
That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it's the past we step into
and how we repair it
-Amanda Gormon, excerpted from “The Hill We Climb”
And then yesterday afternoon the ray of hope I had been feeling burst open into a sun-shower when I heard about even more people—including many parishioners—who have started the Covid-19 vaccination process. Filled with delight and hope and joy, I let out a sigh that we really are at the beginning of the end of this pandemic. I allowed myself to began to imagine how we might re-emerge together from this time of crisis in ways that better meet God’s call for true harmony.
Yes, I am tired. And you likely are tired, too. So tired. But the work of continuing to rebuild the unity and peace of the Garden of Eden is so provocative and enticing that it will propel us onward if we allow it to kindle a fire in our hearts.
I see Jesus as the Way forward: the Way to do this work; the Way to live our lives; the Way of Love and peace, justice and unity, harmony and faith. May the Way of Love lead us and renew us with fortitude and perseverance to keep going: to keep dreaming of new and better ways to effect God’s mission for us all. We are tired, but by the grace of God, we are also so full of hope.
Love and blessings and many prayers,
Mtr. Regan+
