About

I used to think that Christ’s reconciling love was fairly surface-level, in that I thought it meant that the hard work of reconciliation (between human beings, between us and God) had already taken place and did not require much of me beyond a “Be Kind” attitude toward those around me. Now, though, I understand something deeper of the Christian work of reconciliation: where I once imagined that reconciliation necessarily meant restoration or unity, I know now that reconciliation is a practice of reckoning love.  

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As I begin my ministry as an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church, I feel more and more called to this work of reckoning love. There is a quote by Irenaeus of Lyon which sits, beautifully rendered in calligraphy, above my desk: “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.” As a young person growing up in a wealthy, predominantly white, suburban American community, I thought that being “fully alive” would be a whole lot of fun. I thought that it meant a great job, a partner, a beautiful apartment, dreams realized and come to fruition as shinily as possible. This is, of course, not the case—as I learn more and more each day, the particular gift and burden of being a human fully alive is that it actually quite tricky, sometimes exquisitely painful, and that it requires a sacrifice of ease in relationship, with oneself, with community, with God. To be fully alive is to commit to honoring that creaturely life is far more complicated and costly than we can imagine as children, and to tell this truth as honestly as possible while also insisting that the changes and chances which weary us are themselves enriching and generative, if we only are able to look at them straight-on. To be fully alive is to reckon. 

 

And reckoning is, I am discovering, essential to the work of reconciliation. In a world where it is abundantly clear that unity is a rare commodity, a reconciliation that reckons means an ongoing commitment to remain with one another even as we disagree, even as we experience conflict, even as we cause each other pain. We reckon with our humanity, in relationship, with generosity and the belief that Christ’s redemption is for all (even those with whom we do not agree). This is the work of reconciliation, and the work to which I am called.