Happy Valentine’s Day to you, love!
I’m writing to you at the end of the most eventful week. There has been such painful dismantling of systems and structures designed to help us love our neighbors. My heart is broken, and I am holding you and yours in prayer, as the fires of incivility and injustice burn, and as your heart, no doubt, breaks as well.
At the same time, the resistance is resisting. All around the nation, and in our congregation, folks are doing what they can to fix what is broken. Our Voters Reform Group, Reparations Task Force and our Meeting the Moment Task Force are ON IT. Look at this boycott that is coming from the world of reparations. As we think about the upcoming season of Lent, perhaps you’ll join this fast. https://www.targetfast.org/
One of the things that keeps me going in these difficult times is my community. Every Sunday at Middle Church, my heart soars. There is so much love — fierce, just love — being shared. Our groups are meeting, worship is a joy, and we get in the streets as often as we can. Our team is working on the Fierce Urgency of Now Conference, creating a learning environment for the urgent healing work our communities need. Come to NYC or online and be with us!
My community’s love and joy happens in the context of trauma. In December 2020 — as COVID ravaged the globe — a six-alarm fire ravaged our sanctuary. We are in that fire almost every day, traumatized, frustrated, and so sad it is hard to describe. How can someone’s carelessness cause a community such grief and expense? Amid the grief our faces are turned toward repair and toward the future. The first part of our building project is almost finished! It’s simply beautiful. There is not as much space as we had before, but the five-story townhouse at 50 East 7th Street, with the new two-story gathering space where the social hall used to be, will give us room for classes and concerts, for worship and wee care, and for jazz programs and justice work.
One thing we’ve learned over these past four years, family, is just how much our connections matter. We’re going to be super intentional this Lent about reaching out to those of you who are connected to us and inviting you to touch base with us as well. There will be classes, special small groups, and of course Sunday worship — online at 11:45am EST on our YouTube channel as well as at 3:00p at Judson Memorial Church and online. I’m inviting you to come, no pressure. But if you are looking for a place to call home; if you are looking for a place where love is lived out loud, come!!
In “All About Love: New Visions,” bell hooks wrote, “A generous heart is always open, always ready to receive our going and coming. In the midst of such love, we need never fear abandonment. This is the most precious gift true love offers — the experience of knowing we always belong.” Come, loves, to a place in which you can belong.
I’ve attached a Valentine’s Day gift for you. It’s a Fierce Love Journal you can use for this time. If you’ve read my book, great. If not, the prompts will work for you to reflect on how love can sustain you in these days.
I’m so glad you are part of my community! My church and I have been in the wilderness for four years now. You know what we learned? Home is where the love is. Come home to love. ‘
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is senior minister and public theologian at Middle Church in New York. She champions racial equality, economic justice, and LGBTQIA+/gender rights, and has been featured on MSNBC, PBS, NBC, CBS, and NPR. She is the author of several books, including “Fierce Love” and the “Just Love Story Bible”; host of the podcast, “Love Period”; has been published in columns and articles; and has preached on stages, in churches, on the street, and in digital spaces around the globe.