Lean Into Love

I am in Cuernavaca, Mexico, with the Spanish Language/Liberation Theology Immersion group from the Mountain Sky Conference. As our day comes to a close, I am holding the clergy and laity of our annual conference in my prayers as we prepare ourselves for Sunday worship. My heart and prayers are also filled with so many others this night.

I am praying for those who gathered for their Sabbath today at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, only to have their worship cut short by violence: The Image of God shattered by bullets propelled by anti-semitism.

I am praying for Matthew Shepard, a young gay man murdered within our conference boundary twenty years ago, whose remains found their final resting place in the Washington, DC National Cathedral, and for LGBTQ persons around the world who face violence every day. I am praying for our Transgender siblings, whose very existence was threatened to be erased by the US government this week.

I am praying for those recovering from natural disasters, in the US and around the world.

I am praying for migrants around the world, who are fleeing the violence, persecution, and the threat of death in their own countries to find sanctuary in another.

I am praying for black and brown people, especially those who are young men, who, simply because of the pigmentation of their skin, are met with hostility and suspicion—and all too frequently violence and arrest--as they move within their communities.  

I am praying for those who have survived sexual assault and domestic violence and whose wounds still bleed even when we can’t see the scars.

I am praying for those whose lives are chained to addictions, and for the trauma these addictions have inflicted on those who love them.

I am praying for The United Methodist Church, as we continue to struggle with how to welcome every child of God into the life and ministry of the Church so that the Body of Christ can be whole.

I am praying.

I am praying and it makes my heart heavy as I encounter the brokenness of the world.

Earlier this week, we in the Immersion group were invited to join a celebration of the life and canonization of Oscar Romero. Romero was the archbishop of San Salvador who died a martyr while celebrating the Eucharist, felled by a single bullet by an assassin.

One of the readings during the celebration was from the Gospel of Luke:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4: 18-19)

When Jesus read these words from the prophet Isaiah, he declared to all the central focus of his ministry: the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the forgotten. Jesus lived a Love that kept him close to those society pushed down and pushed out. This Love kept him in solidarity with the oppressed, offering them liberation. Even when his commitment to the oppressed led him to the cross, Love could not be stopped--Love burst him free from the grave so that all could receive the power found in God's Love. Nothing, nothing in all of creation, can prevent liberation and new life from being born through Love's labors.

Romero increasingly claimed these words of Jesus. As he opened his heart to the poor and those who were being oppressed by government forces, he began to speak out from the pulpit about the injustices and gave the people new hope through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He spoke out against the lies of the government, denounced the killings of those who spoke out against the government's policies by death squads, set up legal aid for victims of violence, and when those rising up against the government began resorting to violence, he called for non-violent resistance.

Even though wealthy Catholics, government officials, and even colleagues began vilifying him, resulting in harassment and public opposition, he refused to break solidarity with the poor. As his life became increasingly threatened, Romero knew that being murdered was a possibility. He said literally days before his death:

“As a Christian I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will be reborn in the Salvadoran people."

At the Celebration for the Life and Canonization 

of Oscar Romero

And there we were, members of the Mountain Sky Spanish Language/Liberation Theology Immersion, learning the truth of his words: Romero lives on in the lives of the poor throughout Latin America, who know through scripture of a God who always sides with the oppressed, who seeks a world of justice and compassion, who will not let Love die.

As we carry the world’s brokenness in our hearts and prayers, may we too decide to lean more fully into Love’s demands, to care for those who have been told they are unworthy; to seek the healing of those who suffer; to side with the oppressed and seek justice; to respond with all that we have to those who are in need.

And when it seems as if hatred, oppression, and injustice seem to have the upper hand, may we step even closer into Love’s demands—as Jesus showed us--for God demands nothing less of us.

As you gather for worship tomorrow, I invite you to pray this prayer that we prayed with those who gathered to celebrate Oscar Romero:

Our Father, who are in the flowers, in the song of the birds, in the beating heart. You are present in love, compassion, patience, and the gesture of forgiveness.

Our Father, be in me, in my family, in my friends. Be in the one I love, in that which hurts me, in the one who seeks the truth.

Hallowed be your Name. May it be adored and glorified, by all that is beautiful, good, fair, honest, of good name and merciful. 

Bring to us your kingdom of peace and justice, faith, light, love. Be the center of my life, my home, my family, my word, my studies.

Thy will be done, though my prayers sometimes feed my pride and my ego more than my real needs.

Forgive me all my offenses, my mistakes, my faults. My sin and offenses against you, against myself and against those around me, forgive me when my heart becomes cold.

Forgive me, as I with your help, forgive those who offend me, even when my heart has been hurt.

Do not let me fall into the temptations of mistakes, of vices, of criticism, judgement, gossip, envy, pride, destruction, and selfishness.

And deliver me from all evil, from all violence, from all misfortune and from every disease. Free me from all pain, from all sadness, anguish and disappointment.

But, even if such difficulties may be necessary in my life, may I have the strength and courage to say, Thank you, Father, Lord King of the Universe for this lesson!

So be it!