ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
April 24, 2022
I finished Jacqui Lewis’ book, “Fierce Love” – a marvelous, earthy, authentic dive into trying to enflesh something other than a sentimental Hallmark kind of love. She presents a truly fierce sort of love that is the hope for our world. In an interview with Jacqui, she said: “We can build bridges, we can create a deeper understanding by coming from a state of love and kindness.” So the question presented in the quote is simple: What kind of bridges are we building? The fierce love spoken of in the book requires risk. It requires us to go to those deep ravines that everyone assumes to be too great a divide and allow God to help us with the architecture of a love that is radical and redemptive and capable of bridging what we assume to be the impossible separation. The moment we write anyone off or assume someone sits outside the capacity of God’s love is the moment we fail in the only real task given to us. The stories Jesus told intentionally undermined the basic premise of insiders and outsiders, good and bad, holy and sinful. The framework of Us vs Them crumbled before Jesus, and then the church quickly reinstituted the framework in the belief that fear of some “other” is the only way to get people to congregate and give. The church was sort of right. Fear is powerful, but it has no lasting power in the face of love. We’ve tried fear for centuries now. Maybe it is time to truly give love an opportunity.
The opportunities are many! So show me, O God, where my gifts can help enflesh love and build a bridge. I’m sure it isn’t far. Amen.
