A message from the pastor

The aim of the whole as of the part is to remove those living in this life from a state of misery and lead them to a state of happiness.

Dante Alighieri

Dear Friends in Christ,

Just over 700 years ago a man invented a language to examine the things that injure us, separate us, strengthen us, and sustain our faith. The language is Italian, and Dante looked at politics, poverty, avarice, comfort, the Church, his neighbors, and himself (as well as a few human behaviors like love, sex, children, hope, and faith) in order to apprehend something about Christianity and something about community, and plenty about poetry. As you know, most of his examination (The Divine Comedy) is focused on problems, pressures, pains, or, hell and purgatory. The least amount is focused on heaven. Go figure. But he does get to heaven…

This October our world has plenty of problems, pressures, and pains. By the time you read this, and by the time the month ends, the list may be longer. Some now predict that war in Ukraine will last as much as another decade. The horrors of Israel and Palestine are said to require “a few more years.” The Sudan is barely mentioned, and M (monkey) Pox is now followed by the Marburg virus in Africa. Progressive Christianity is well-eclipsed by Christian Nationalism (which ain’t Christian, to be fair) in our United States. We have five weeks until an already divisive election in our country. I haven’t even mentioned mental health challenges or, well, fill in your concern here ____________ (gun-related deaths being the number one killer of those 1 – 17). Sigh.

Should we just stop talking about these things in worship or Christian communities? Could we just focus on what is going well, and celebrate how we share these things? Can church be “time out,” for song and prayer, scripture and healing?

Dante says all of the above are central to our faith, and our striving for what is going well, our celebrations and “time out” for scripture and song are built upon our journey through purgatory, or, real life.

Dante is reflecting the core Christian claim that “the word became flesh,” that “God was in Christ,” that somehow Jesus of Nazareth was the child of God, as well as Son of Man — or in a better translation: the truly human one. Incarnation is the three dollar word for all this. For God so loves the world… you know how that goes.

So if we look back 700 years or several thousand our constant call is to look at politics and poverty, comfort, our neighbors, and a plethora of human behaviors and discover how faith makes the journey from hell to heaven different from what it would be if we didn’t have faith and community and a loving God. And, we do. And we have each other.

Forgive me for going from Dante to Shakespeare, but I’m about to: the Bard says “The weight of this sad time we must obey; speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.”

My hope and pledge is that our parish is a place where we can bring our feelings, our thoughts, our experience of purgatory, and our perception of heaven all together. For our children, on a children’s level. For our leaders, as a call to serve. And for all of us as place to navigate this world God so loves, together. Go re-read the opening quote at the top. For Dante and for us the point is to live, to transcend misery, and to find happiness. Or what scripture more often calls joy.

Come what may this October, our history, God’s divinity, and Jesus’ tenacity for hope make us better. And we shall move from misery to happiness, as Christian history reveals.

Our call is to make more history, together, in God’s way.

See you in church,