My facebook feed has been inundated for the past 24 hours with pictures and articles about Michael Sharp, an EMU alum and U.N. worker who was murdered along with two others in Congo. His body was found on March 27 and was publicly identified yesterday. I didn't know him but I know people who did, and the grief I see every time I get on social media is palpable.
What to say? The heart aches. Every time I see Michael's father quoted in an article on a facebook post my throat tightens. His father is a professer at Hesston; he was quoted in a Mennonite World Review article two weeks ago, soon after Michael was kidnapped, saying, "I have said on more than one occasion that we peacemakers should be willing to risk our lives as those who join the military do. Now it's no longer theory."
A beautiful, noble, frightening statement that packs some serious power as Michael's face looks out at me from my screen.
I have this quote from theologian Ched Myers hanging next to my bed:
I call this "apocalyptic double vision": to see the world enslaved and to envision the world liberated.What is; what could be. I remember conversations in theology classes at EMU. Already, but not yet. I remember conversations with my professors, my classmates, my friends, talking and wondering about the responsibility each of us bears to help bring the fullness of God's peace into the Earth. I imagine Michael having those conversations six, seven, eight years before me; I imagine him carrying those convictions into his work with the U.N.
This Lenten season it is so much easier to see the world enslaved than to envision it liberated. Lord, have mercy.
Help us to see the world as it is and will be.
Help us to see the love at the ground of all being.
Help us to not lose heart.
