As you may have read last week, we have almost made it through the first two weeks of Steele Street School. It has been such a gift to have these children in our church building. Their vibrance radiates from the playground to the Reading Room and everywhere else they have been spending time. We took great care during our planning to construct spaces where the children are able to express themselves creatively, relate to one another, have fun, and of course, be safe. Since so much of my time the past few weeks has been either with these kids, or communicating with parents or volunteers, and various pieces of planning it’s been even harder to receive the news of the realities experienced by children attempting to migrate into the United States from Latin America. As we have been trying to be present with the kids and their families in our community, the lack of care and love that our country is showing these children and their families has been heavy on my heart.
Over the past two weeks I have also been writing my July 7th sermon on Psalm 30. In this psalm, the writer reflects on a time in life where all hope seemed lost and how God has miraculously made a way out of no way, liberating the individual. One scholar I read noted that one of the things this psalm teaches those who hear it is that true restoration cannot overlook or bypass suffering. And so those of us who hold this text as sacred must look into the face of suffering and experience it for what it is in order for true restoration to take place. And so it’s been impossible not see to hear this word in the context of the current migrant crisis.
Being that our Parish community is largely made up of white U.S. citizens, it can be difficult to try and understand the hardships faced by those trying to come into this country. In fact we can never truly understand that experience if it isn’t our reality and so we must listen as best we can. And it can be hard to turn on the news when we are simply met with so much suffering. But, that does not mean we don’t do it. We are not as powerless as we often feel in these moments when the chaos seems consuming. As citizens we do have power. We have the ability to contact our state and federal representatives. At the bottom of this blog is a link to the ACLU website that makes it easy to contact your elected officials. Monetary power is also another ability many of us have. You can donate to The Young Center, Kins in Need of Defense, and other organizations providing legal support for children who are detained. You can donate airline miles to Miles 4 Migrants to help separated families reunite. You can look into the stories of these children– the limited amount of information we currently have is simply horrific. But what we cannot do is turn our backs on this injustice.
https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/call-senators-defund-dhs?redirect=node/68167
Recent Comments