Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Create a space.

At some point over the Christmas break, when I was back in Alabama, it hit me that I'm at the half way mark of seminary.  Unsurprisingly, for the past three semesters, more people than I can remember by name ask me the same question - "how does someone your age end up in seminary?"  Aside from my biographical information, and my "calling" that hounded me for years and finally won, it seems quite simple.

I feel called to create a space.

Yes, we have our churches, and those churches have pews, and those pews are spaces.  Spaces for people.  People who worship, and people who sit, and people who speak, and people who are able to love.  We shouldn't need more spaces.  In many areas, there are churches on every corner.  But what happens when we are violated within that space?  What happens when we dare to enter a place of people called to worship and no room is made for us?  The spaces we seek for solace can lead us into suffering.

Still, take heart!  We can create a space.  In the crevass of our brokenness, in the void between our lips when we open our mouths to speak, spaces are illuminated.  When we speak, we create a space.  The power and poverty of language is seen in what we do with it.  It is no surprise that the God of biblical narratives speaks things into being.  Because when we speak we create, and we see that, and it is good.  Creation is as much a part of our nature as breathing.

In the wake of theological violations that we engage in our communities, whether we witness them or whether we feel them, we are called to make spaces.

Spaces aren't always new.  Our spaces can be redeemed.  I'm not necessarily called to create a new sort of Christianity - I'm called to believe, and have faith, and participate in the act of our brokenness being redeemed.  Because redemption has happened before, and it happens now, and it will happen again.