May Pastoral Letter

Dear friends,

On Mother’s Day twenty years ago, I came home from the hospital carrying a bundle of joy we named Christian. Ever since, we have been celebrating his birthday and Mother’s Day together. What a joy!

Recently, Brian told me that he saw a Dad at the playground with his two young sons. The boys were playing on the slide and calling, “Daddy, watch!” But, Dad was focused on his phone. They called out again and again to get their Dad’s attention, but soon gave up and slid down the slide, laughing as they went. Dad could have been responding to something important, but still Brian lamented what he saw, admitting that he wanted to say to the Dad, “put down your phone and look up, pay attention, see what joy your sons are having, these days will be gone before you know it.”

We have all had days like that, where we were so focused on a task at hand that we missed the sights and sounds and people around us. We may have missed moments of joy and glimpses of grace. We may have even missed God. It’s true: God is in plain sight, all around us, if we have eyes to see. But how do we have eyes to see?

·      Start the day with a prayer, “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, I want to see you.”

·      Be willing to be surprised by serendipities 

·      Be a “detective of divinity”—search in ordinary places for the extraordinary

·      Slow down, pause, take a breath, be present

·      When you look at other people, look for Jesus in them

Kelly Latimore grew up in a place where everyone looked the same, white like him. In college, he began to take trips to Chicago, where he opened his eyes and saw all of the different people as beautiful reflections of God. He saw God in plain sight all around him. And then he began to paint icons (or as iconographers say, write icons) with the different faces he saw. He painted/wrote an icon called Mama, in which a grieving Mary holds the body of Jesus after the crucifixion. Except it looks different. Look at the image above. What do you see?

It’s a familiar pietà image—except that both figures are Black, and Jesus resembles the late George Floyd, who called out for his mother under a police officer’s knee. Latimore says that people ask, ‘Is it George Floyd or Jesus?’ And he responds, “yes.” To read the Christian Century article about Kelly Latimore and his icons, click here.

With the trial and conviction of police officer Derek Chauvin last week, I have been thinking about the young persons who took video at the scene because they knew what they were seeing was wrong. And the video proved to be convincing for the jury. As I prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day with my son, I am thinking about how George Floyd called out for his mama at the end of his life. I wonder if George Floyd’s life might have been spared if the officers would have seen his humanity, seen him as his mother saw him, even seen him as a child of God?

Notice that in Latimore’s icon, Mary’s eyes fix on the viewer, as if asking, “What do you see? Who bears God’s image?”

Friends, I am grateful for you and for our church because when we forget, we remind one another to slow down, pause, take a breath, and be present, look for Jesus in other people, and to pray, “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, I want to see you.”

Eastertide blessings,

Pastor Donna