Our theme this year is synodality. Its root meaning is to “walk together.” We are learning how to become a synodal community who walks together across difference, discovering our sameness.

This month our journey takes a difficult turn. We are walking to Gehenna.

On March 8, 2017, 41 girls were burned alive at a government orphanage in Guatemala City. What was supposed to be a safe home for the girls turned out to be a place of unspeakable violence. It had long been rumored

This month we join the disciples on their return trip to Galilee.

After the resurrection, an angelic guide tells the disciples that Jesus “is going ahead of them to Galilee” (Mark 16:8). It’s a curious detail. Why are the disciples being invited to walk back to Galilee?

This month I want to share a story about a courageous soul who is growing my heart and expanding my vision of what’s possible. I write this with the full consent and the help of my friend Onics, who can now add “author” to his amazing resume.

On November 3, 2021, Onics landed at Seatac Airport. It was his first plane ride and it was a doozy: 25 hours from Nairobi to Seatac.

In his book After Whiteness, Willie James Jennings suggests that the goal of theological formation is “belonging.” He adds “…and not  just any kind of belonging, but a profoundly creaturely belonging that performs the returning of the creature to the creator…”

Not once in all of the resurrection narratives does the crucified risen one return with thunderbolts. The lynched and murdered one does not come back and rub our nose in the murderous mess we made. The resurrection accounts begin with some variation of, “Do not be afraid” and “Peace be with you.” The absence of vengeance is ginormous and demands attention. There’s not even the slightest hint of resentment. None! Zip! Zero! It’s hard to overstate how really, really weird this is.

I am not a doom and gloom futurist, but it seems clear to me that either we learn to journey together across differences, or our differences will consume us.