A Pastoral Letter to a Grieving Church
Dear Beloved Ones, The life of a church, like human life, is unpredictable. Things happen that no one was expecting and the collective body of Christ is left to deal with them. What is that quote about best laid plans? I had planned to begin a series of meditations on the Kingdom of God. It is an important one right now. We have Christian nationalists calling for an American kingdom of God. But they get the kingdom all wrong. An American kingdom of God, or Russian kingdom or Chinese kingdom, can never be the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom defies any qualification of nation or singular people. A particular nation in front of God’s kingdom is an oxymoron, a contradiction that makes the kingdom of God kaput. Anyway, that’s all I’ll say about it this morning. Why? Well, because that question of why? is so predominant these days amid so much grief, grief that this small body is enduring. Unexpected tragedies, deaths and terminal illnesses, a long winter filled with sadness and suf...