Day 945: Monday, October 17, 2022

"As I have loved you, so must you have a special, preferential, favored love for the widow, orphan, and stranger."

There are two hundred references in Scripture that ask us to take special care of the poor. I'm guessing, then, it's important. It is this preferential care and love for the poor that sets the stage for the original program. It doesn't draw lines—it erases them.

It rises above the polarizing temperature of our times. It doesn't shake its finger at anybody but instead helps us all put our finger on it. We could ask ourselves, I suppose, if God is conservative or liberal, but I think that's the wrong question.

Instead, we should ask:

Is God expansive or tiny?

Is God spacious or shallow?

Is God inclusive or exclusive?

What are the chances that God holds the same tiny point of view as I do?

Well, zero. The Choir aims to challenge the politics of fear and the stances that limit our sense of God.

It believes that a love-driven set of priorities will ignite our own goodness and reveal our innate nobility, which God so longs to show us.

It invites us to inch the world closer to what God might have had in mind for it. And the poor are our trustworthy guides in this.

The original covenantal relationship in the Hebrew Bible (the original program) went like this:

"As I have loved you, so must you have a special, preferential, favored love for the widow, orphan, and stranger."

God knows that these folks know what it's like to be cut off. And because they know this particular suffering, God finds them trustworthy to lead and guide the rest of us to the birth of a new inclusion, to the exquisite mutuality of kinship:

God's dream come true.

Announcement from Rev. Lindsey Bell-Kerr (they/them)

I Hope to see you this Tuesday, October 18th at the VIDAS fundraiser at Mitote. (Flyer below).

We've been invited to participate in a call for police accountability on Saturday, October 22nd at 1pm at the Board of Supervisors (575 Administration Dr.) Please save the date - I'll send a flyer as soon as I have it.

Here's the link to the article about the history about Black Santa Rosans that Reverend Bev mentioned.

And lastly, I'm excited that we'll be holding a follow up to the September 17th dismantling racism workshop - hopefully in January at First Presbyterian. (Thanks for checking on availability, Emily!)

Let me know if you have any questions.

Lindsey Bell-Kerr

Pastor, Christ Church United Methodist

Board Member, VIDAS (Vital Immigrant Defense Advocacy & Services)

Here's the flyer: