Four Days Away, Three Days in the Tomb: Finding Hope Beyond the Beltway

Reflections on Ordination, Chaos in DC, and the Enduring Kingdom of God

I’ve been outside the beltway for the past four days. I have been meeting with candidates for ordination in The United Methodist Church I have listened to their theological growth, discerned their readiness for ministry, and witnessed the Spirit at work in their lives. This is holy work. It is not done apart from the presence and guidance of God.

Four days of listening for the movement of God in the life of clergy colleagues.

Four days of seeing growth and effectiveness in the ministry of others.

Four days of discernment and prayer.

Four days away from my wife, children, and church.

Four days of being outside the beltway and the chaos and hurt stemming from Pennsylvania Avenue and Capitol Hill.

For those of us who live near Washington, DC, what others glance over in the back pages of their newspapers is our local news. What others experience as distant political maneuvering disrupts our daily lives.

Federal employee buyouts.

Grants paused.

Abrupt firings or reorganizing of offices.

All a constant reminder that elections have consequences.

Admittedly, the burden of this chaos is not limited to those inside or close to the DC beltway. The consequences of the chaos stemming from Pennsylvania Avenue and Capitol Hill will (if it is not already) reach beyond the Beltway, reaching every state, every community, every vulnerable neighbor. A painful reminder that our connection to one another endures, no matter how high we try to build walls along our borders.

As I prepare to return home, I feel a heaviness. The weight of discernment and prayer will soon be replaced by the anxiety of worry.

Worrying if those in my community will be on the receiving end of promised retribution.

Worry if those my church serves will be caught up in unfair immigration raids that reduce their humanity to a status of “legal” or “illegal.”

Over the last four days of conversations about the Kingdom of God I have been reminded that no matter how hard we try to build kingdoms in our own image, God will get what God wants. God the Father is still creating. God the Son, Christ Jesus, is still resurrected. Death has been defeated. God the Holy Spirit is still moving, circumcising hearts, empowering Christ’s body, and resisting the forces that dehumanize and oppress.

Last week, The Revised Common Lectionary prescribed the first half of Jesus’ return to his hometown synagogue as the Gospel reading. I have not been able to shake Christ’s reading from the prophet Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”