The Kingdom is Now

But the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair. -Relient K

Today, news stations confirmed that Fred Phelps has died. 

As a native Kansan, a Topeka resident, a Washburn student, an affirming Christian heading into the ministry, a feminist, an activist and an advocate for the oppressed, and a human, I have forced myself to reflect on this event after learning about its imminence on Saturday. I've read articles written by several others who've also found themselves in the middle of a similar need to reflect, along with tenants of my Facebook and Twitter feeds. The expressions of love and forgiveness have struck me the most--I expected more mudslinging and protest threats from people than not. It humbled me to read testimonies calling for an extension of grace and mercy to Phelps.

But I found the calls for forgiveness, especially in the context of picketing and protesting Phelps's funeral, most provocative of all.

While I will always support the concept and practice of forgiveness and think it is one of the most powerful and cleansing experiences of renewal, the call to picket Phelps's funeral with signs saying "We forgive you," coupled with the call to "be the bigger person," strike me as a trite attempt to assert our own righteousness over Phelps. It comes across as a shallow and feeble attempt to let ourselves off the hook for our own practices of hatred. I will never condone Phelps's behaviors or the pain and suffering that these behaviors have caused, but the way I hope to respond to his death goes beyond "not stooping to his level" and "being the bigger person." To me, showing grace to Phelps isn't about making us seem better but making the world better.

Does God really want us to react by "being the bigger person?" Or does God want us to respond with love and forgiveness because that is the kind of world God wants us to create, and because that fulfills the new commandment of "loving your neighbor?" 

I want to be intentional about how I respond to this. To me, today is less about "being the bigger person" and more about living the kind of love and justice that we preach about daily. It's about extending grace and mercy to everyone, not just those who have extended grace and mercy to me. After all, Jesus extended grace and mercy to me, even during the dark times when I've participated in the bullying of others, caused suffering, and failed to employ the kind of justice I desire in the world in my own life. Today is about playing an integral role in this pivotal moment, where change will depend on our choices and our actions. Today is about demonstrating to those younger and more impressionable than us that gentle hands and kind words will shape the kind of world that we want to live in, the kind of world Jesus is working to create.

Today is about growing gardens from the dead ground and letting light flood over darkness.