Dear Friends,

Like many of you, my heart is breaking for those who have lost their lives to the earthquake in Turkey and those who now struggle to survive in the rubble that remains. I grieve also for those who have lost their lives to war, gun violence, opioid addiction, and for those who suffer from hunger, economic insecurity, or any form of life-denying oppression. As I wonder and I pray “what can I do? I find wisdom in Moses’ parting sermon to the people of Israel that we will read from the book of Deuteronomy this Sunday in Church. 

“See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.

Now choose life, so that you and your children may live."

These ancient words ricochet down to us today three millennia after they were written. And two words, in particular, capture my attention: Choose life.

In her book There Was No Path So I Trod One (1996, 2013), Edwina Gateley's poem “Called to Say Yes” reminds us that our calling is to say no to death in all its many forms. We can do better. And we do better by saying yes to life.

We are called to say yes.

That the kingdom might break through to renew and to transform

Our dark and groping world.

We stutter and we stammer to the lone God who calls

And pleads a New Jerusalem in the bloodied Sinai Straights.

We are called to say yes

That honeysuckle may twine and twist its smelling leaves

Over the graves of nuclear arms. We are called to say yes

That children might play on the soil of Vietnam where the tanks

Belched blood and death.

We are called to say yes that black may sing with white

And pledge peace and healing for the hatred of the past.

We are called to say yes so that nations might gather

And dance one great movement for the joy of humankind.

We are called to say yes so that rich and poor embrace

And become equal in their poverty through the silent tears that fall.

We are called to say yes that the whisper of our God

Might be heard through our sirens and the screams of our bombs.

We are called to say yes to a God who still holds fast

To the vision of the Kingdom for a trembling world of pain.

We are called to say yes to this God who reaches out

And asks us to share his crazy dream of love.

In Christ,

Amelie+