God is STRONG Love!
I’m thinking of walls today. The walls we put up between ourselves and the folks with whom we disagree; the walls erected to carve out space in Gaza; the walls meant to keep Palestinians in their place. I’m thinking of the walls erected to cage Jews during the Third Reich before they were murdered; the walls of city structures in front of which enslaved Africans were auctioned. I’m thinking of the walls created to make artificial borders in the Americas, borders that divided lands at the whim of European explorers who “discovered” lands inhabited by Indigenous people.
I’ve been to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, weeping my prayers for peace. I’ve been to the wall in Ciudad Juárez, and wept for liberation. Walls can keep us safe, and walls can represent injustice — injusticia — el falto o ausencia de justicia. I write to invite you to learn about the wall, at the Immigration Forum, A Call to Action, presented by our Hablamos team on May 15, May 29, and June 12. I write to invite you to read and share my blog on Palestine/Israel and the conflict there. Find it on my Instagram. Let’s be students of what justice looks like, and what it looks like when justice fails (falto) or is absent (ausencia). Why? Because all of these people — the Palestinians and the Jews; the ones on both sides of the Rio Grande — they are our people; they are God’s people.
You, too, beloved, belong to God, whose name is Love. Come Sunday, and be blessed by worship that continues to celebrate AAPI heritage. Gloria Moy will preach, and Jocelyn Lieu invites us to be in this movement for love and justice together. Come and bring your heart — broken, but healing; your dreams — deferred but vivid; and your faith — which likely sits alongside some doubt. Be comforted, loves, that doubt actually makes our faith stronger. The wrestling, the struggling, the doubting grows our faith muscle. Don’t be afraid to express the doubt, to dig into it, to be, as my therapist would say, on its side. The truth of that all will set you free for move love!
These are hot-mess times, the kinds of times that can inspire doubt. I have doubts, but I am absolutely confident that good people all over the globe are putting love in the world, love that is stronger than hate.
God is Love, God is strong love, and so are you!
Big hug, much love,
Jacqui