If civility and competence bring celebrity--bring it on

Ann said in a comment today

Here's my problem - feel free to laugh if you want:I just don't love either candidate and see faults and problems with both sides. I suppose you could say I'm a concerned apathetic voter. Tell me in simplistic terms why Obama is the best choice...I want to believe! ;-) If McCain uses the internet "once a week,"I'm concerned. If Obama naively steps into Middle East issues, I'm concerned. If we keep going like we are now in America, I'm concerned.

I say, casting Obama as naïve is something his opponents like to say, but it hardly describes the way he approaches foreign policy. Naïve might be applied to the neo-conservatives who said the Iraq War would be a “cakewalk,” that we would be greeted as liberators, and that oil revenues would foot the bill.

Here’s a couple of links with some information that might flesh out your perceptions of him and his approach to foreign policy;

"The Obama Doctrine," The American Prospect, March 2008

“A cast of 300 advises Obama on foreign policy” From The New York Times, July 18, 2008

Obama’s inexperience may concern people, but I think what David Brooks, highly regarded conservative political analys rings true in his New York Times Op-Ed piece, "Calling Dr. Doom," on June 29, 2008,

But Obama is far from a lightweight, as Republicans will learn if he agrees to
do joint town meetings with McCain. McCain’s jabs that Obama is naïve will
backfire. In this climate, a candidate can’t define the other guy, only himself.
When McCain attacks Obama for being naïve, all voters see is McCain being sour
and negative.

More fundamentally, McCain’s problem is that his party is unfit to govern. As research from the Republican pollster David Winston has shown, any policy becomes less popular when people learn that Republicans are supporting it. If the G.O.P. sponsored the sunrise, voters would prefer gloom. Many Republicans are under the illusion that they are in trouble because they’ve betrayed their core principles. The sad truth is that if they’d been more conservative, they’d be even further behind.

Of course, Obama chose not to meet the McCain demand to follow him around to do townhalls, but the point is the same—the GOP has shown it is not fit to govern.

Obama will bring a team in that will look at government as a servant to civil society.

Look at what the Republicans have wrought under their watch in the EPA, the Justice Department, the CDC, the FDA, FEMA, just for starters. Obama, or whatever Democratic nominee they would have chosen will be better than allowing another Republican administration.
I am ready for change. What has convinced me is reading Obama’s books, listening to his speeches, and reading about his actual policy positions.

Read about his campaign and the way he runs it. Sounds like a leader to me.

I’ll write more when I have more time, but this is a start.

It's civility; it's competence. If these two bring celebrity--so be it!

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Who's dealing?
Who gives currency to the "Obama played the race card" with the comment about a face on the dollar bill?

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Progressive fun
Least I fall prey to the accusation of being a humorless liberal, I would like to note that my current favorite commercial is the one for Progressive Insurance where the fellow buys RV, motorcyle, and boat insurance much to his wife's "SURPRISE." I see it everyday and everyday, it leaves me laughing.

Furthermore, I want to put MSNBC on notice that if they broadcast the commercial about catheters one more time, I will not watch another minute of their news programming. So there.

Heaven forbid labor gets a new foothold

WalMart warns employees that if the Democrats win it may be easier for unions to organize and we all know how bad a union would for the largest group of employees in America.

Of all the things that has bothered me most over the past many years of Republican dominated government is the climate in which labor is treated as a liability. Employees of WalMart and other workers need to realize that the leadership of this country has created a tax climate in which the industrialization of America has gone to China, India, Mexico and other places. There is no commitment on the part of this genre of leadership that truly is concerned about the American worker. Contempt for unions and for working people is standard.

Not long ago I was in the home of a political conservative. At the dinner table he said it's too bad that the unions drove all of the good jobs overseas. Is it really the unions?

He said it's too bad the unions in America have ruined the US auto industry. Really? The unions?

Contextual, Pragmatic, Presumptuous? Presidential

Today’s New York Times piece, “Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Apart” pieces together a narrative of his time at the University of Chicago School of Law.

But the liberal students did not necessarily find reassurance. “For people who thought they were getting a doctrinal, rah-rah experience, it wasn’t that kind of class,” said D. Daniel Sokol, a former student who now teaches law at the University of Florida at Gainesville. For one thing, Mr. Obama’s courses chronicled the failure of liberal policies and court-led efforts at social change: the Reconstruction-era amendments that were rendered meaningless by a century of resistance, the way the triumph of Brown gave way to fights over busing, the voting rights laws that crowded blacks into as few districts as possible. He was wary of noble theories, students say; instead, they call Mr. Obama a contextualist, willing to look past legal niceties to get results.

After so many years of a partisan leadership so bent on its own ideology that it eviscerates the civil service of our country, leads us to pre-emptive war costing trillions of dollars, damages our leadership in the world by using torture, and wreaks havoc on our economy by empowering a reckless banking system, I am in the tank for a candidate willing to use erudition to pull together policy.


Just as he sees the nuances of the racial issues and the limit of government to address such, he sees healthcare for what it is—a social, ethical, and economic problem needing sweeping reform to make it work for all people and all businesses—large and small.
Imagine, the leader of the free world—curious, intellectual, and in pursuit of racial, social, and economic justice.

Bev Dowdy—in the tank.

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McCain inexplicable and despicable

In response to the McCain attacks of the last few days---please tell me American voters, will not fall for the unsubstantiated accusations regarding the visit to the soldiers in Germany.

Noah Oppenheimer, co-author of the Intellectual Devotional and television producer, in weaving how this plays into political strategy said, "the facts don't matter in this." He explained that it's just a good thing to put into the anti-Obama narrative.

The facts don't matter?

I have many friends who support McCain. My friends, does this interpretation apply--the facts don't matter--just get a story to use against Obama.?

If the facts don't matter, it is explicable and despicable.

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Presumptous presumptive Obama?

I take issue with Dana Millbanks characterization of Obama's presumptiousness. So Obama has a transition team--does McCain? Don't most candidates appoint teams to prepare them to win? What if he were to win and then have a chaotic transition as did Bill Clinton?

Is it arrogance to say to folks that you want to support you by donating enormous sums of money to your campaign that the odds are in your favor to win—but it will be difficult?

Let’s make a football analogy. Wouldn’t any good coach make a remark like that the booster club?

Nonetheless, there's a fine line here to walk, Barack.

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Bev in the tank

On our trip to Michigan this summer, our school aged cousin came up with a charades type guessing game. Can you guess what I am? Yes, in the tank for Obama. It is time to get back to work and think about something beside the election.

Brooks Channels Niebuhr?

David Brooks assessment of Obama's Berlin speech included these two statements:

Last year, he spoke about his affinity for Reinhold Niebuhr, and their shared awareness that history is tragic and ironic and every political choice is tainted in some way.

His Berlin Victory Column treacle would have made Niebuhr sick to his stomach.

I am disappointed in the David Brooks column.

Do you, Christian scholars, students of Niebuhr, agree with Brooks?

Of scholarship and sloth

I am not a scholar, but I went to the Christian scholars conference anyway.

"The Christian Faith, Life of the Mind, and the Public Square," theme for 2008 Christian Scholars Conference hosted by David Lipscomb University, started with a discussion of Richard T. Hughes's premise in How Christian Faith Can Sustain the Life of the Mind. Asserting that Christians can be engaged in a vital “life of the mind,” if they learn to think theologically and beyond the particulcarities of their own traditions, Hughes and his panel grappled with the idea of understanding our own “finitude” while exploring truth.

Senator Bill Frist spoke on his faith and politics.

Among the luminaries presenting were Christian progressives, Shaun Casey, a Visiting Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, and Jim Wallis, the founder and editor of Sojourners magazine.

I enjoyed hearing a presentations by Candice Ortbals-Wiser from Pepperdine and Angela Bratton, Augusta State University on gender issues. It was fun seeing James Wiser too!

Hearing the progressives almost prompted a Michelle Obamaesque remark from me, like—for the first time in my adult life I am proud to be a Campbellite. I am glad I refrained. What I was clearly thinking about was that I’m proud of how Church of Christ people engaged in political discussion at the conference.

I have been very blessed in many of my experiences in the movement; yet, it has not been too much fun to be a political progressive at church since I have been a grown up.

Christopher Dowdy, PhD student in Christians Ethics at Southern Methodist University, and my firstborn child, was on a panel with Dr. Fred Aquino, his mentor from ACU, and Mark Wieber, his dear friend and PhD student in Theology at SMU. The trio presented papers on "regulative epistomology." Chris's presentation involved unpacking the theology of Reinhold Niebuhr.

I listened hard with my layperson's ear and heard that not only does it matter how we justify our beliefs, it matters what we are and what we do in response to those beliefs.

When it comes to politics, justice requires risking action with unforeseen, possibly unwanted consequences. One must approach situations with concurrent courage and humility. Courage, Neibuhr asserts, is firmness, confidence in belief, which in excess can become pride. Its counterpart, humility, a willingness to change for good reason, in excess may become sloth.

Chris spoke of Martin Luther King, Jr. in illustrating a risk taker combining both courage and humility.

I pondered King's fearless resistance to segregation, poverty, and to the Vietnam war.

This lead me to some self-inventory.

An unabashed young liberal, I often ventured my beliefs. By the mid-1970s I had been asked more than once how I could possibly be a Christian and be for the Equal Rights Amendment, be pro-labor union, be a Democrat, or vote for Jimmy Carter. By the nineties, it seemed to me important not to be called a Democrat, thanks primarily to the climate in which the Republican Party was the righteous party and Democrats were, in Anne Coulter’s words, Godless.

I made it a practice to refrain from discussing politics in most social settings, especially with fellow church members. As a high school teacher of politics, I taught that political parties were about winning elections in order to govern. I taught with certainty that no political party represented Christ. I did not espouse my own views or votes on many subjects, though was sure I could make cogent arguments for my positions.

I always held out the possibility that I could be wrong.

In particular, I did not speak my objections in the run up to the war in Iraq. In this case, I was afraid of the criticism I would receive from the Christians who associated the Republicans and Bush with Christianity. In retrospect, it seems shocking that opposing war would be called partisan and sad that I did not take a stand on my view or at least give clear voice to the view of scores of Christian leaders who spoke out against the invasion of Iraq as an unjustified war.

I justified myself because I was a teacher and could argue that teachers should be objective, but really, I was so afraid I might be wrong, I did not even own a strong argument.

The Christian Scholars Conference and my self-inventory left me with two conclusions.

I am not a scholar.

I may actually be a sloth.

I justify reticence on speaking out about issues as a kind of Niebuhrian humility---a tipping of my hat to my own "finitude"-- when in reality, it is sometimes fear. I may be wrong; the others may be right, I say to myself--so why discuss differences?

I used to tell my students that is possible for a whole community of religious people to be wrong about a social issue.

Sometimes there should be a debate.

Engaging requires courage and humility.

Dobson's Dubious Posturing

Today's address by James Dobson cynically strikes at Obama. Since Dr. Dobson says he cannot support McCain he can't. So, his way of keeping his word, but still hoping to help McCain is by attacking Obama. If you haven't already done so, check out website created in response to Dobson's diatribe.

The AP reported today that a "The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Methodist pastor from Texas and longtime supporter of President Bush who has endorsed Obama, said Tuesday he belongs to a group of religious leaders who, working independently of Obama's campaign, launched a Web site to counter Dobson at http://www.jamesdobsondoesntspeakforme.com. The site highlights statements from Obama and Dobson and asks visitors to compare them."

James Dobson doesn't speak for me either.

Outraising and outthinking

A couple of campaign questions

I realize that she is making the argument that in spite of being outspent, she has racked up many votes in states where she has campaigned relentlessly. What I am curious about is why does Hillary Clinton perpetually sound like she accusing Barack Obama of outspending them? Didn’t he raise the money from an amazing broad base of donors? She never says, my opponent has outspent me because he has outraised me.

Today’s New York Post ran an accusatory article, “Obama to A'jad: Atomic Assist; Stiffs UN in Nuke Negotiations.”

"Talking without preconditions" would require America to ignore three unanimous Security Council resolutions. Before starting his unconditional talks, would Obama present a new resolution at the Security Council to cancel the three that Ahmadinejad doesn't like? Or would the new US president act in defiance of the United Nations - further weakening the Security Council's authority?”

My question is, would this same writer have been a supporter of Bush’s invasion of Iraq? Since when did the supporters of the invasion become so concerned about the authority of the UN? Isn’t talking in the face of UN Security Council resistance a bit better than invading a country in a preemptive strike without direct talks?

Hope rising, whispering, screaming

"When it seems that hopefulness is the least appropriate response in this situation, let it rise up even more. Whisper your hope when you lie down at night; scream your hope when you wake in the morning. Live your hope as if it is the one and only thing that sustains you in this ravaged world. You will not be disappointed."
Words of the late Mark Palmer -lifted from Kevin Rain's blog, The Kedge.

My sister Kim told me that our cousin Jody Nixon's husband, David, had a new blog, Sustainable Faith. I thought, I could use some of that. If you think you do, check it out. David and his long time associate in ministry, Kevin Rains, facilitate spiritual renewal and formational experiences for pastors and others.

David and Kevin work in Norwood, Ohio at Vineyard Central, a community of home churches.

Cousin Jody and David live on the third floor of the "the whitehouse" at Vineyard Central, a very cool convent meets Ikea retreat house.

We adore Jody and David Nixon and admire the life and family they have built. We see them possessing a sustained faith and offering hope--hope rising, whispering, screaming through the vicissitudes of life.

Historic, Heroic, Healing

He did it.
Barack Obama today gave one of the greatest speeches of our time.
He did what leaders need to do.

Speak truth about race without rancor.

He drew a big picture and put us all in it. He told a big story and made us part of the plot.

He transcended the black rhetoric that has emerged in the last couple of election cycles that makes it sound as if NO real progress has been in race relations.

He gave legitimacy to white frustrations with some affirmative action programs and entitlements.

Yet he stood by the reality that problems in the black community remain as a legacy of slavery and segregation.

He exposed societal ills but balanced them with his oft repeated theme for embracing personal responsibility.

He acknowledged publically what happens privately. People speak differently about race when with folks of their own race.

He asked us to relate to the reality that there are people in our lives whom we love deeply, but whose beliefs and expressions of beliefs we must reject.

He stated clearly that we have a choice about how we deal with race in the presidential race--and as the human race.

Speak, Barack, Speak

I don’t often get weepy listening to political commentary. Actually, I haven’t cried watching TV or a movie since Dances with Wolves. Imagine my shock when I began to weep this morning when my husband played a segment of “Morning Joe” talking with noted conservative and Wall Street Journal columnist, Peggy Noonan.

Discussing the tone of civil conversation and the depths to which it has fallen, Noonan cast a vision. If Obama can maintain his demeanor, there stands the possibility for a new day in civil discourse.

Noonan’s remarks are reminiscent of the David Brooks New York Times column last spring, “Run, Barack, Run” in which Brooks asserted, “The next Democratic nominee should either be Barack Obama or should have the stature that would come from defeating Barack Obama.” Brooks continued, “This style is surely the antidote to the politics of the past several years.”

Noonan said she thinks the manner of our public conversation came about during the Vietnam War and took deep root during the busing and abortion clashes of the 70s. I agree. I would add, the arrival of the 80s, the end of the fairness doctrine and the emergence of talk radio cemented divisive, mean-spirited, small political talk. Thus, the span of my adult life.

Noonan sees the rhetoric of the Republicans and the Democrats on par with the "Jets and the Sharks. Both sides killing each other, not to make things better, but to gain power."

Can't we all rise above the swiftboating, above the lapel pin harangue?

Admit it--no grown up believes that discourse alone will keep us secure, prosperous, and just.

Yet, on the way to security, prosperity, and justice-keep your cool, Barack Obama. Stay above the fray. Fight the real battles. Parry the silly.

Keep raising the level of discourse.

Make a path for peace.

I've been waiting for this for a long, long time.

"The wisdom that comes from God is first utterly pure, then peace-loving, gentle, approachable, full of tolerant thoughts and kindly actions, with no breath of favouritism or hint of hypocrisy. And the wise are peace-makers who go on quietly sowing for a harvest of righteousness - in other people and in themselves." James 3:17-18
J B PHILLIPS Translation of the NEW TESTAMENT

Dad in Dakar-Mom at Meadowcreek

In case there might be a single soul lurking about this blog, here's an update on the Dowdys. Ken will land in Dakar, Senegal about the time I get up to head for Meadowcreek High School in Norcross, Georgia.

By the time I am in second period he will be in Johannesburg, South Africa. As a Church Advisor for World Vision, he accompanies church leaders on this Pastor's Vision Trip. In the next next few days they will visit villages in Swaziland where World Vision's website reports WV "currently has more than 12 projects in the country including ones that focus on child development, agricultural improvement, clean water, food aid, microenterprise development, and HIV/AIDS prevention and care."

He took the photo above on his trip in August to Malawi. The girl in the purple skirt carries her sister on her back. Their mother had died from AIDS weeks earlier.

Someone asked how I felt about Ken being gone for so long on these trips.

I wish I was with him, but I am so happy for him to able to participate in a work so close to the heart of God.

His travels are exotic, but then, so are mine. When I wind my way into halls of Meadowcreek, I meet students from Mexico, Honduras, Ghana, Egypt, Ghana, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Bosnia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and middle Georgia. He sometimes wishes he was with me.

Ducks, Cards, and Carnage

Lauren Mitchell Dowdy and Chris in Boston with glasses.

Beige, with orange letters and graphics, the 4 x 6 card featured a little orange mother duck followed by two tiny ducklings underscored by letters in an arial font about 11 pt. wishing me "happy mother's day."

Chris wrote, "Only a son of yours would send you a mother's day card with the word 'carnage' in it."

In his own special hand he penciled the Mother's Day Proclamation written in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe.

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

I cannot say I like the word carnage, but I loved the cardage.

The passing of Jerry Falwell

May the passing of Jerry Falwell be accompanied by much peace for his family and loved ones who will surely miss him. May his good works and his good teaching remain as a lasting legacy for his spiritual family.

Meanwhile, for the public, may there be fewer partisan remarks from pulpits.

May the next election avoid the offensive rhetoric of the Republican Party and Christianity in partnership.

As we move farther from the Falwell-Reagan era, may the language of genuine compassion ring through the public policy talk of disciples of Christ.

May the passing of Jerry Falwell be accompanied by a season of action for those who love Christ and reject right wing politics as the path to peace and justice.

When ills befall our neighbors may we be less like Job's friends and more like Jesus who acknowledged that God makes his sun to shine on the good and the bad alike.

May be we remember and speak the language of John.

"For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."

John speaks of the light of Jesus exposing evil deeds and a reckoning for disbelief, but not because of our judgement--but because of His love.

May those who don't share our faith only be able to criticize us for the good we do in society and not for judgmentalism and war-mongering.

May the invisible power of love, the increased establishment of justice, and peace on earth be the benchmarks of Christians in politics.

from Blacksburg to Baghdad

Aching from seeing the reports from Blacksburg, Virginia, I tried momentarily to imagine being part of the community. Such unspeakable sadness, I could hardly fathom. Grief blanketed our nation last week. My husband Ken and I saw flags flying at half-mast from the Mississippi Delta all the way to Abilene, Texas over the weekend. Each wind blown emblem spoke of the heartache and horror of Virginia Tech.

How appropriate, how fitting, to mourn as a nation.

I couldn’t help thinking at the same time I have yet to hear even one conversation about the horrific events experienced by the university community in Iraq this winter and spring.

I remember hearing an NPR report one day in which an Iraqi leader said the university system is in near collapse due to the violence.

Enter, a good friend here in Memphis, my favorite Egyptologist, Lionel Jacob Shock. While enjoying coffee last night with Jacob and his beautiful wife, Lola, we commiserated on the sad situation in Iraq. Jacob sent the report below to me today.

Keep in mind how sickened and saddened we, a country of over 300 million have been by this gross attack on innocent college students.

Now, imagine the pain experienced in Iraq, population around 27 million.

One of my students said the other day in reference to the suffering of the citizens in Iraq, “Well, what did they expect since they attacked us? It’s war you know.”

Maybe we need to mourn a bit for the universities in Iraq.

from UN's Human Right's Report for Iraq, January-March 2007

Education sector and the targeting of academic professionals
20. Conditions in the education sector continued to deteriorate due to threats to lecturers and students, deadly attacks on educational institutions, and the individual targeting of teaching professionals. … Officials of the Ministryof Higher Education told UNAMI that 200 academics have been killed ... The apparently sectarian-motivated assassinations, kidnappings and threats to academics and teachers continued at an alarming level throughout the three months. UNAMI recorded at least seven assassinations of academic professionals, and a number of attacks on or in the vicinity of academic institutions, causing substantial casualties among the student population … Violence continued to severely undermine the right of Iraqi children and youths to adequate education and intellectual development.

22. In one incident … 150 staff and visitors, including post-graduate students … were seized en masse by unknown gunmen and taken to an undisclosed location … the fate of an estimated fifty-six [of these] Ministry of Higher Education employees, all allegedly Sunni Muslims, remained unknown. … some of those abducted and subsequently released alleged that the operation was carried out with the knowledge of personnel manning at least one Ministry of Interior check point.

23. Two attacks on al-Mustansiriya University in January and February … The first attack on 16 January involved two coordinated car bombs detonated in the vicinity of the main building of the University. Over 70 people, mostly students, were reportedly killed and some 140 others wounded in the attack. The second, a large-scale suicide attack targeting the University’s College of Economics and Administration on 25 February, killed 41 students.

26. Other academics and teachers did not escape their assassins … an Iraqi professor at Mosul University’s Faculty of Law, was shot dead by unknown gunmen on his way home at the al-Kafa’at quarter on 11 January … deputy head of the Association of Salahuddin Scholars … was gunned down at his home in Samarra’ on 13 January … a professor at Baghdad University, was shot dead in Baghdad’s al-Amiriyya district on 17 January… a professor at al-Mustansiriya University’s Faculty of Economy and Administration, was gunned down in the al-A’dhamiya district of Baghdad on 23 January … acting dean of al-Nahrain University’s Law College
survived an assassination attempt.

27. …three professors from al-Nahrain … were abducted … A law student … was also abducted in the same incident, … Several hours later, their bodies were brought to the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad by police from al-Shu’la police station. … Several days later, the dean of al-Nahrain University’s Law Faculty resigned in protest at the Iraqi authorities’ failure to provide adequate protection to university professors.

Justin, Sarah, and Celebration

A blessing for Sarah Reider and Justin Banker engaged to be married on June 2, 2007.

“For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the Church.” Ephesians 6:11

how does God, the Creator of the universe convey his love
to our hearts and minds?

it’s a mystery

to help us grasp His love for us

to bring us into his saving grace
he came and walked among us

he lived
he loved

he experienced the bounds of family life and friendship
from motherly love to betrayal and death

in an act of overwhelming historic consequence,
he died once and for all and then was raised from the dead

to help us remember this love and to participate in it,
he told us to partake of the bread and the wine

when Sarah and Justin partake of the Lord’s Supper
they celebrate his love,
partake in his grace,
and say to the world they believe in him and hope for his return

how does God, the Creator of the universe convey to our hearts and minds the nature of his love?

it’s a mystery

He says when a man and woman marry
become one flesh
they radiate the love
the hope
the desire for community
that he longs to have with his church

they live
they love
from profound joy to unspeakable pain
they experience the bounds of family life and friendship

when Sarah and Justin marry
they celebrate his love,
partake in his grace,
and say to world they believe in him and hope for his return

O, LORD we pray that each remembrance of Sarah and Justin’s wedding day will spark again not only their love for one another, but an even deeper grasp of your love for them and for your bride, the Church.