Letter from Lindy Aug 30

Pilgrims,
Our gospel text [Matthew 16: 21-28 (seb)] is a hard one...for many reasons. Not only in what it asks of followers of Jesus, but also of the way in which it has been weaponized against another faith tradition and its religious leaders and people. We, Christians, must do the heavy lifting to both undo the damage of such distorted misinterpretations and dig deeply of what Jesus is asking of his disciples, his beloved community.
 
After his sobering foretelling, to his rebuke, to his caution of the cost of discipleship, Jesus reminds us just what is at stake and just what we must do, "Prepare your hearts. Prepare your spirit. Prepare in all the ways you need to prepare so that you are ready when faced with the choice to save yourself or keep following Christ."
 
After yet another horrifying shooting. Of a black father. In the back. Seven times. In front of 3 of his children. By yet another police officer. A white 17 year old vigilante gunning down protestors in the wake. What is the way of following Christ? I do hold in wonder that professional sports leagues, from the NBA to the WNBA, MLB and NSL have given us a glimpse of how to use our respective platforms to demand that we cannot act like life is normal when it isn't. No amount of convention theatrics can make it so, even as they deny and demonize.
 
My prayer, as we move together in our contemplative practice toward peace, is that we hold these hard realities before us  to create our hope-filled art and live into the following words of Martin Luther King Jr.'s,
 
“In these days of world-wide confusion, when the forces of evil have risen to gigantic and ominous proportions, there is a dire need for [people] who will gird their courage and do battle with all their hearts, souls and minds. We need Christians who will say as John Bunyan said to his jailor when, after he had spent twelve years in jail, he was promised freedom if he would agree to quit preaching:“I am determined, Almighty God being my help and shield, yet to suffer, if frail life shall continue so long, even till the moss grow over my eyebrows, rather than to violate my faith and make a continual butchery of my conscience.” Pastor Lindy