A Message from Father Miller

Dear Sisters and Brothers in The Body,

I am writing to invite us all to take part in a conflict resolution gathering with Canon Arlette Joseph this coming Monday, August 16, at 6:00 pm in the Parish Hall.

In John’s Gospel Jesus speaks of our being in the world but not of it. In times of polarization our culture (perhaps all cultures) teaches ways to avoid both the polarization and its accompanying tension, part of being in the world in a sense. But the polarization and its tension has been so acute over the last year that it pretty much cannot be evaded.

We at Good Shepherd have been touched by the polarization that surrounds us. I must own my part in this. In both Good Friday and this past Easter sermons I made reference to the love of God that goes beyond Death which we celebrate in Easter Morning’s Resurrection. As people touched by this Easter Morning’s “beyond Death’s power” love, I suggested that we are called to stand against Death’s lingering power in our times. I made specific reference to efforts on the part of state legislatures to pass laws that would curtail access to the voting franchise of the Post Civil War 15th Amendment. With the end of Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era this amendment’s provisions were denied, not to be reinstated until the 1965 Voting Rights Act. I equated the effort to deny the franchise (and the violence associated with it) to the present efforts in so many states.

A group of members chose to write Diocesan Council urging that body which represents us to take a position against these voter suppression efforts. This letter was shared during announcements in a Zoom service First Sunday after Easter service, if I recall correctly. Subsequently other members drafted and sent to Council a letter taking an opposing position. The world with all its polarization and tension was with us.

In closing let me disclose three things. My grandfather, for whom I am named was born before Emancipation and doubtless benefited from the 15th Amendment.

Second, it was my generation of students, largely though not exclusively, from historically black colleges that provided a significant portion of the momentum that led to the Voting Rights Act of ‘65.

Third, there is the passage from the end of the 8th chapter to the Romans -- it’s one I’ve tried to preach from of late. I am convinced, Paul says, that there is nothing in this world or the world to come, in life or in Death that can separate us from the love in Jesus. Those who are touched by the Love at work for us all in The Cross and on Easter Morning are obligated at least to see if this love has any meaning for us and perhaps for others. Does this love which we affirm in so many funeral services for “those whom we love but see no longer” have meaning for us in a world touched by polarization that has touched us? Does this love go beyond our differences as it goes beyond, overcomes Death?

This is the work that Canon Joseph will be assisting us in this coming Monday at 6:00. No matter what happens, Paul says the love endures.

I hope to see us all.

Peace,

Isaac Miller