Dear friends:
During the last few weeks, I’ve engaged in many vigorous conversations about the needs of our world. None of these conversations have been easy, but the most difficult have broached the topic of de-construction... deconstructing our legal, economic and political systems. Just the mention of de-construction frightens those who benefit from society as presently constructed and brings hope to those who do not.
Unfortunately, the truth of our society is that much of it is built on an unjust foundation, with prejudice and racism baked in. And, whether we think that foundation needs to be deconstructed, reconstructed, or simply refined, it all promises to be painstaking work.
It’s also true that it’s easier to destroy things than to build them. The world has never lacked for demolition experts. As we seek to correct what is wrong, we will be wise to do so in a way that allows for a just and equitable reconstruction of all that can be right.
Our scripture passage this week adopts a de-construction/re-construction motif about God’s dream for the human experiment. In the first three chapters of Ephesians, the author recounts how God has "broken down the dividing wall of hostility" and knit together "one new humanity." Then, in our passage, he offers explicit instruction about how to build a world based on God’s dream for human life.
We’ll dive into scripture pretty deeply this weekend. If you want to prepare well, you might read the whole book of Ephesians (one of my favorite books of the Bible!). It requires less than 30 minutes. On Sunday,
we’ll focus specifically on these verses.
We launched our first Zoom 9:30 worship livestream last weekend and it was surprisingly enjoyable. If you want to join us this week,
click here for the link
. Or, you can join our regular livestream
by clicking here
.
With gratitude for you all.
