Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Anna Dorn is a writer and contributor to The Medium Newsletter. I don’t know her but the headline to her entry this week caught my eye: “Joy is the radical belief that the world is worthy of love.” (Oh, ho! There’s a thought.) She goes on to write:

For a long time, I saw my reluctance to participate in politics as a personal flaw. But German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt might have seen it differently… [P]hilosophy professor Roger Berkowitz draws from Arendt’s work to argue that joy — not outrage, not vigilance — might be the most radical response to political collapse. By “joy” he doesn’t mean cheerful activism or mindful news consumption. He means the kind of joy that shows up in music, in raising children, in watching a lover’s face. He explains that joy is “not naïve optimism,” but “rooted in the radical belief that the world, even as it is, is worthy of love.” And in dark times, that belief can be a way of staying human.

Joy as radical belief, accessed in music, in laughter, in loving eyes–knowing (certainty?) that originates in what Henry James called “the verges of the mind”–not really thought or reason and certainly not proof. Oh, my.

In John 14:27a, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” Is that peace like joy? Does the peace Jesus offers reside in that kind of radical belief, evidence notwithstanding, in some sense beyond belief? The sort of thing that only the Holy Spirit can teach? (John 14:26) What does this ask of us, followers of Jesus?

They say questions are better than answers because they last longer. I’ll be with these for a while and perhaps you will, too. Sometimes we read the Bible and sometimes it reads us. And sometimes it chases us around the room.

Join us for church on Sunday, Streamers and Gatherers, where we will continue the conversation. And sing and pray and worship together–where we work these kinds of questions out in community. Rev. Thomas is taking time away but I look forward to seeing and being seen with you.

Grace upon grace,

Rev. Liz

PS Anna Dorn says important things about speaking up, too. Find her post here.