ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 14, 2026
I have been sitting with the events of last week, and though as a person of faith, I should probably have something to say on the topic, I have been without words or a fully formed thought on the matter. Or maybe I have too many thoughts racing through my head, and it is hard to pull out a single well-formulated faith-opinion on what occurred. Am I heartbroken? More than I can describe. Am I feeling as if the violent chaos should have been the anticipated outcome of putting untrained agents on the streets without a clear understanding of their parameters and the specific legal limits attached to their task? Yes, as any person needs to know the legal constraints of the job. Boundaries are not only for the safety of the public but also the safety of the agents.
Yet putting all that aside, I have been struck by a plethora of people saying, “We are a nation of laws, and without laws, we won’t exist.” We do have a foundational document called the Constitution, and it is the basis of our legal system. But I hope it is more than a document that serves as the genesis of laws that tell us what we can and cannot do. I hope there is an even more important idea woven into the document, more of a dream that calls us to what President Lincoln described as our “better angels.” In the time of Jesus, many within the religious leadership could only perceive the legal components of the Scriptures. In an era when the Roman Empire was an occupying force, adhering to religious rules was believed to contribute to maintaining identity. The Jewish people were defined by their adherence to specific practices, which provided them with a sense of communal distinctiveness.
But whether it was the Hebrew Scriptures or the story of Jesus found in the Christian Scriptures, I believe there is more to be found than just the justification of laws that rule our common life together. Woven into the stories of the faithful is a dream where no one is considered “an outsider” or “the other.” It is a vision where humility and self-giving give rise to a very different understanding of community, justice, and peace. There is, in my opinion, a clear purpose woven into the fabric of the metanarrative, and that purpose took on flesh and lived among us so we might better understand what purpose looks like in the complicated realities of daily life. And yes, it is a vision that our pioneer believed was worthy of his life, but only in a freely chosen nonviolent and self-giving way.
Now let me be clear—I am not suggesting the Constitution and the Scriptures have the same intention or objective. But today, like the time of Jesus, there are those who believe that a literal and superficial reading of visionary documents is required, yet such an approach squeezes out every ounce of beauty and life woven into those documents. In Christianity, we call this fundamentalism, the upholding of Biblical inerrancy. Yet a set of Do’s & Don’ts rarely allows anyone to experience the transformative power of the Good News. And though national laws, like those that uphold civil rights and just-living, provide a glimpse into the dream of our nation’s founders, we must reach higher for a hallowed vision, just as those of us who follow Jesus must reach both deeper and higher if our following is to actually portray the convictions of Jesus.
When suffering and the brokenness of our social structure give rise to fear and anxiety, we turn to you, Jesus, our Living Word, for your story has the power to shape us as those who seek to share the Gospel, not loving with words or speech but with action and truth (1st John 3:18). For the way your message came to life, we look to you, Merciful God, for a new Pentecost where the Holy Spirit falls on all people, and the young see visions and the older among us dream dreams. And together, we will live as the prophets, unafraid to embody your vision and hope. Amen.
