The messiah rose from the dead
And he wants to talk to you
And he has a message for you
To take
Far and far away
Into every human heart
You can reach
A few years ago I met a man in San Francisco who wore clerical garb of unusual hues: I was told he was a bishop of the Mar Thoma church from Kerala south India 🇮🇳 founded by the same Thomas who was known for his doubts — and his certainty. His explosive confession “my Lord and my God” was an early bombshell set off in the playground of first century religion. There was no room for idle speculation. You couldn’t hide anymore. You didn’t need proof. He was real. Loving you; showing you the proof you no longer needed. And so, Thomas, you knelt to the truth.
In recent weeks I have been thinking about the toll of war and civil strife. With others I have listened to the Rev. Dr. Gary Mason of Rethinking Conflict, the peace-making consultancy built around personal experiences in Northern Ireland.
And less directly, several lectures, videos, and even songs, about the separation of East and West, especially in Germany, after the second world war, the building of the Berlin Wall and its eventual and hand-hastened collapse. Can the forces of violence be overcome by hope?
The Wind of Change, a song by the Skorpions performed on Potsdamer Platz in central Berlin a year and a week after the fall of the Berlin Wall, sung to that hope. [https://youtu.be/XjFsZj1aHow]
The arc of justice bends very slowly but still we hope if we all lean on it and hang on we can together feel it shift.
https://www.rethinkingconflict.com/
https://www.cartercenter.org/peace/democracy/index.html
https://arizonadrn.org/
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