Creating Space for Beloved Community
By Dr. Christophe Ringer
CRS Board of Directors
Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics and Society at Chicago Theological Seminary
When I served as a pastor, I was invited to dinner at the home of one of our members.
After a good meal and great fellowship people slowly began to leave. One of the guests made a to go plate that only had dessert on it. She said she was planning to freeze it so she could eat it after Lent. We both laughed out loud. I paused to appreciate just how wonderfully human—and savvy—this was. The struggle is real. In many ways, this to go plate represents how many of us grew up thinking about Lent: the act of giving up something we enjoy for a brief time, then returning to it after forty days (with maybe a little self-satisfaction thrown in as well).
It’s a helpful reminder during this Lenten season that the popular act of giving something up was designed to create room in the heart, mind and soul. Creating room within ourselves is an intentional practice of preparation. Preparation so that we may be transformed by the resurrecting power of God. In the Christian tradition it is affirmed that the power that raised Jesus from the dead also dwells in us (Rom. 6:10-11). And this power serves to make space for new ways of loving one another and being in community together. The season of Lent shares this central insight with struggles for liberation: social transformation is deeply related to personal transformation. Transforming social structures also means transforming ourselves. This means acknowledging that the various “isms” and injustices we struggle against are not merely external to who we are. Their strength lies in that they are lodged in our collective imagination and expressed in our social institutions. They have shaped our own personal histories.
Our own work is always ongoing.
This Lenten season arrives as our nation faces a crossroads of irreconcilable visions of democracy. One vision desires a democracy rooted in white nationalism. Another vision is for a democracy that is multiracial, multiethnic, and affirming of sexual, gender and religious diversity. To fight for this democracy, a democracy where all people can flourish will take all of the courage we have. This means facing our own lingering fears about what such a society might entail. And what it might cost us.
Community Renewal Society (CRS) continues to celebrate ending money bond in Illinois and moving toward real police reform in Chicago. The expected political and social pushback has been swift as is unrelenting. The politics of fear are in full swing. The policies and practices that we know provide the seeds of enduring safety will be portrayed as causing violence.
This spirit of fear is coursing its way through our society taking on flesh in legislation. Under the guise of “critical race theory” or “don’t say gay” bills, histories of oppression and marginalization are denied. Such legislation is designed to protect our nation from the fear of facing itself. As James Baldwin taught us, “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
It’s sobering that fear so often trumps facts. The season of Lent is a time when we challenge this enduring problem head on. I invite us to reflect upon our fears and the possibility of giving them up. This doesn’t mean come Easter Sunday we are suddenly “fearless.” Rather, to give up a fear is literally to offer it up, to bring it into the light of day for yourself—to understand its history and its role in our lives. To turn toward our fears, when we spend so much time turning away from them, is a risk of faith. It is also very difficult and worthy of a season of reflection such as Lent.
May we take time to prayerfully reflect upon the CRS Platform for Renewal during this Lenten season. May we all make room in our hearts so that our fears might be transformed. May our time spent in communion with the sacred bring new life to our communities.
In Solidarity,
Dr. Christophe Ringer
CRS Board of Directors
Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics and Society at Chicago Theological Seminary
LENTEN PRAYERS:
Please continue to watch this site for 2022 Lenten Devotions. As we fast from ashes this year, due to pandemic, please receive these blessings to commemorate this day: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” and “Remember that you are a child of God, forever beloved and held.” Source: University of Chicago Hospital, Department of Spiritual Care.
GLOBAL SOLIDARITY:
We hold our world in prayer and remain in solidarity with people oppressed everywhere, including Ukraine and Palestine.