Invitation to a Discussion

Dear RPF Friends,

To state the obvious, we are living through significant social turmoil. We at RPF disagree, we have found ourselves on different “sides” of the great Red—Blue Policy Divide. As a result I’m careful what I say from the pulpit; I’m preaching God’s word after all, not my own. But the issues consuming our society have become less and less about policy and more and more about what is right and what is wrong; less and less about how to build a fair, just society and more and more about fear as the driving force in an increasingly terrifying misuse of power. Reacting to the latest events in the catastrophic cycle of outrage goes only so far. What we’ve been doing, hasn’t been working. This crisis, this set of circumstances requires Christian believers to move outside the melee and into the presence of God; to step off the shifting sands of a culture flailing about and onto the firm foundation of God’s excellent Word. (Must I say this applies to “both sides?” Isn’t that obvious by now?) Doing that requires us to be re-formed in that Word. It requires us to seek God first, humbly, always willing to recognize our error, seeing the events of the day through God’s eyes, and letting our stands and actions derive from that relationship. 

We’ve said that a conversation among us can contribute to a clear vision of what our God is doing, where our God needs us to stand, and how our God wants us to respond. To that end, I will from time to time send out a “Pastor’s Pondering” email. It may contain my thoughts, or it may be another voice that I think we need to hear. I won’t do it on any schedule, just when I think Spirit has something to say. 

I’ll post these “Ponderings” on the RPF Website blog page. I hope you will comment there. Here’s the link: https://www.rockvillepresbyterian.org/rpf-blog

If you have some thought to share, something you think might contribute to the conversation, send it to me. I’m not going to promise to publish everything sent to me on the blog, but if I don’t, I’ll let you know why. Mostly, you’ll find, I want different voices.

Anyway, the following was written by Ilia Delio, a Roman Catholic Nun and theologian at Villanova. It’s fairly deep; you won’t find this being talked about on CNN. I’ve read one or two other articles by her in the past. This one articulates a vision so resonant with my own that I thought some of you might be interested to see that someone else “out there” thinks about God and God’s work in the world, much the way I do.

Professor Delio does not simply rage against the injustice of Renee Good’s killing, (she wrote before Alex Pretti died), instead she sees her death in the context of what God seems to be doing.