Kelsi Vanada

Dear Friends,

As I’ve talked about in Formation with the Junior Youth (grades 6-8), the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer often leave much to our interpretation.

Take a phrase like “Let love be genuine,” from today’s reading of Romans 12:9-21. Goodness knows people have interpreted that directive in different ways. Love may be the foundation of our faith, but not all Christians agree about how it should look.

All I can tell you is that in recent weeks I looked at the people of Minneapolis and saw genuine love. They are loving one another with “mutual affection” as they seek to protect their neighbors from the cruelty of newly emboldened law enforcement, namely ICE.

They are outdoing one another in showing honor. They are zealous, they are ardent in spirit, they are serving the Lord. They contribute to the needs of the saints, they extend hospitality to strangers. They strive to live in harmony with one another.

They are not haughty but associate with the “lowly.” The same word is sometimes translated as “oppressed”—those who can’t go to the grocery store for fear they will be snatched away from their loved ones by masked men and deported, for example. Those who send their children to school, only to have them sent to detention centers with horrible conditions multiple states away. 

The people of Minneapolis are overcoming evil with good. They seek to live peaceably with all, even putting their bodies on the line. I recently heard this form of democracy praised as “Neighborism.” Not demeaning those who don’t look like you or only being neighborly to those who share your tax bracket or skin color, but caring on a basic level for those you live in proximity to, those who—like you—make up “we the people.”

Thanks be to God for the witness of the saints in Minneapolis, for their genuine love.

In Christ,

—Kelsi