The Sound of Winter Ice Cracking
What does the Lord require of you
but to do justice
and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8
Friends, Yesterday the Rev. Anna Broadbent-Evelyn preached a powerful sermon on the text from Micah above, connecting us with the season of winter, the healing power of the jingle dress as the sound of winter's ice cracking, insight into the Hebrew word for 'humble' and the Greek word for 'meek.' You can listen to her sermon here.
Below, I'm sharing with you two resources as you navigate the coming week.
First, a video letter from more than 150 Episcopal bishops addressing the crisis of constitutionality and violence happening in Minnesota and across the country. Thanks to Karen Murdock for sharing this link!
Second, a list of readings compiled by Sky Woodhull that help put the government's actions today in historical context.
Oh Jesus, have mercy.
With love,
Susan+
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1) A Video Letter to our Fellow Americans
2) ICE Tactics in Historical Context
The tactics employed by ICE and the Border Patrol on display in the Twin Cities are by no means unique. They are all too reminiscent of tactics employed by the Nazis in Germany with the rise of Adolf Hitler. Following is a list of books that provide historical perspective for what we see today.
In The Garden of Beasts: Erik Larson, 2011
Berlin, 1933, as Hitler consolidated power, as documented by U.S. Ambassador William Dodd and his daughter Martha Dodd.
Hitler’s Banker: Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht: John Weitz, 1997
Hjalmar Schacht, anti-Nazi, was chief architect of the Nazi economy.
Strongmen: Mussolini to The Present: Ruth Ben-Ghiat, 2021
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor of History at New York University, explores the use of propaganda, corruption, and violence to stay in power.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century: Timothy Snyder, 2017
Historical perspective and a guide to resistance with ideas for how to preserve our freedoms.
Winter of The World: Ken Follet, 2012
This work of fiction is book 2 of Follet’s Century Trilogy. He places the reader in the midst of the rise of the Third Reich through the experience of families in the U.S., Germany , the Soviet Union, England and Wales.
[ Photo credit: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/06/15/jingle-dress-tradition-native-american-dance ]
Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly
Friends, On Sunday, I preached about Jesus's response to John the Baptist being arrested. You can listen to the sermon here.
I'm taking some time for retreat today, and I'm excited to share some reflections from the Rev. Kathy Monson Lutes about last weekend's events. Read on below!
With love,
Susan+
From the Rev. Kathy Monson Lutes
The reality is that we in Minnesota are living under occupation. We have witnessed Immigration and Customs Enforcement removing people from homes, work, and school based on door-knocking in random neighborhoods and swarming schools, health care facilities, Mexican restaurants, child care centers or gas station parking lots all in hopes of finding someone, anyone, to detain. And murdering protectors in the midst of it. Again, this is the reality.
As people of faith, we must step into the breach with faith, love, and most of all hope, to do what the gospel compels us to do - welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, protect those who are at risk. I don’t have to convince any of you of that. Sunday’s (Feb 1) Old Testament reading is from Micah, a passage with which you are so very familiar. “What the Lord really needs of us is to do justice, and to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.” In the midst of the chaos I am observing, I have also witnessed incredible acts of justice, kindness and mercy, walking humbly with God.
Friday morning Susan and I, with a wonderful handful of people from Grace, were at the airport to raise our voices demanding that Delta (and others) stop being complicit in removing people from our state to detention centers God knows where. That action was about disrupting the flow of money and commerce. It was about disrupting the flow of money into for profit detention facilities. We cheered, and we prayed, and sang as 100 of our colleagues were bused off to jail after kneeling in the cold for at least an hour.
Then, with at least 50,000 of our closest friends, many of you among them, we gathered downtown, we watched out for each other, we shared hand and foot warmers, we sang, and were kind to one another as we became Minnesota fierce. Susan and her partner Brian went to US Bank downtown, one of the leading financial institutions in Minnesota, to ask that they lead the way in standing up to injustice.
You have been delivering food from Casa Maria and Minnehaha Food Shelf, you have been bringing food to your neighbors, who are afraid to leave their homes for work and for school. You have been the hands and feet of Jesus in the way of embodied, fierce love.
And then, Saturday, another of our neighbors was killed by ICE. The grief was palpable. And what did we see? You, gathering together in neighborhoods and breweries and being community, increasing the light, rising up, with hope. This occupation is not over, and we will continue to love fiercely, and walk the way of Jesus, together.
Kathy+
[ photo credit ]