So let us not grow weary in doing what is right...

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Colleagues in Christ,

I have struggled mightily with what to say to you in light of the recent events in Charlottesville. The overt public display of hatred for one’s neighbor by the neo-nazis and white supremacists who gathered last weekend—and the resulting violence—is disorienting enough. As people of faith and leaders in the church, we can at least react to that with a decisive “No!” or by marching in counter-protest.

More difficult and disorienting to address are the deeper issues and truths that such events expose: our own participation in perpetuating a culture and social climate where racism and discrimination can flourish; the privilege many of us enjoy due to our skin color, gender, economic/social status or sexual orientation; our own inclination to engage the world in terms of “us/them”.

One of the gifts of our Lutheran way of being Christian is that we don’t pretend to have easy answers; we are willing to step into the messy reality of our world, trusting in God’s cross-shaped promise to be present as we grapple with how to faithfully respond to the pain and suffering of our neighbor.

With that in mind, I offer these words of thanks and encouragement as you seek to serve faithfully and to respond as a leader in Christ’s Church:

Thank you for leadership at a time when our witness to God’s unconditional love in Jesus Christ matters more than ever.

Thank you for your prophetic voice, for your willingness to name the faces of sin in our society: racism, discrimination, privilege, hatred, marginalization…

Thank you for your honesty in naming our own complicity in the very sin we call out.

Thank you for standing with our neighbors who are most vulnerable, whose safety and well-being is threatened every day.

Thank you for your commitment to serve as an agent of God’s healing and reconciliation among people who are deeply divided.

Thank you for your faithfulness in shepherding those seeking to live as God’s both/and people in this either/or world.

Thank you for your willingness to struggle with the question of when to listen, when to speak, and when to act as a public leader in the church.

Thank you for not offering easy answers but offering instead to help folks wrestle with the deeper and more complex issues at work.

Thank you for proclaiming the power of forgiveness, the centrality of God’s grace for all people, and the victory of love over hate.

My encouragement to you echoes the words of the Apostle Paul to the faithful in Galatia: So let us not grow weary in doing what is right...

Remember that we are in this venture called ministry for the long haul. Be sure to care for yourself and tend to your body, mind, heart, and soul; lean on one another—none of us can do this alone. I invite you to share with me your insights and feedback on how you are navigating this time of ministry in your particular context. I look forward to conversation and dialogue with you at our upcoming Theological Conference.

Above all: I pray that, according to the riches of divine glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through the Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)


Yours in Faith,
Bishop James W. Gonia


Comments

Pr. Ron Roschke said…
Thank you, Bishop. These words are deeply needed in an extremely critical time.
9:08 PM
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