All Shall Be Well

Today as I reflected on all the faces and places ridden with human tragedy that I've visited over the last 4 years I asked again that nagging question, "Why in the world have I been drawn to places like Auschwitz, Rwanda, Hiroshima, Vietnam and now Cambodia's Toul Sleng Museum?" These are not places on many people’s “must see” lists I know. Do you know of anyone else? I’d like to meet them!

This quest has a beginning and I'm more aware of it today than ever. It began during my final year of seminary. That year I encountered a little work by Julian of Norwich called, "The Showings". One of Julian's famous quotes is, "All shall be well, all manner of things." When the quest began I definitely never expected it would take me to places all over the world. I’m deeply grateful; however, that is exactly what happened!

Julian depicts the ultimate beauty and goodness in humanity within a compassionate and life giving Christ. Her hope for and confidence in the goodness of humanity captured me in unspeakable ways. In Julian’s writings I first began to think differently about what it means to be human. We are not human because of our sinfulness—the teachings I so often encountered in Sunday school. This kind of theology results from a Biblical narrative overlooking creations relationship to the Christ event! Instead our humanity is found within the person and therefore Kingdom of Christ Jesus. As we live and breathe in this communal fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ we are becoming what we were always created to be—human. When we live out our true humanity something beautiful happens. I've seen this beauty come to live so vividly in so may real human beings over the last 4 years in Korea and elsewhere around the world.

There are, however, so many times in history-- far, near and yet to be that reveal anemic at best human life. Julian knew of this and experienced it personally. Yet mysteriously, and I'm OK with mystery!, it didn’t darken her hope for true humanity. It was Julian's dark context that created a lasting connection between us. I’ve been grateful for her witness to a living hope in even the darkest of times. I too have known something of life’s darkness.

Julian wrote from one of England's darkest hours--the black plague. She wrote, "All shall be well, all manner of things" when wheelbarrows full of bodies were being carted off to mass graves. People were dying left and right all over the city where Julian lived and prayed. Really, Julian? All shall be well? How can you mean this?

Julian's confidence in Christ's Kingdom and her confidence in God's ability to transform human communities making them in my estimation more truly human than they were ever before sent me on a quest into the pit of evil. I’ve wanted baldly to hold onto this high hope for God's Kingdom taking up residence in humanity. The unspoken question, yet the question driving me to learn from the different world contexts was, "Could I?" When everything around me looks so wrong, is God's Kingdom really still alive and well? When embodied evil looks into the face of another, are all manner of things well? When human sin—corporate and personal-- strips away the person’s true humanity, is all well? Let me look into the places in the world that to me represent the greatest absence of Kingdom, the greatest absence of true humanity and then tell you if all is well! I knew I was on some kind of pilgrimage--going to all of these crazy historical sites. From an onlookers perspective I must look to be a masochist. But there really has been something greater compelling me and for the first time I know what that has been.

Today something happened in me and maybe for the first time I really understand why I've been on this quest. Maybe for the first time I understand what Julian meant. All shall be well, all manner of things! My mind has been full of questions about "truth" on this trip. I've found myself enraged at my own people and then full of great compassion for them. I've been dismayed by current world events that are taking place and seeing where they could in the future lead. Empires create genocide even if they don't participate in them directly! Yet with all questions, frustrations, sadness, regret I've been so aware of the Spirit of God. It IS alive in the world. World Kingdoms rise and World Kingdoms fall but there is one Kingdom that has risen for eternity. When life is lived in God's Kingdom there IS hope and there IS joy. I've never felt as grateful for being a part of God's Kingdom as I have felt today. It feels more real in this context, the context of a history of genocide, then it has ever felt to me. This says something great about the life the Kingdom Jesus brought into the world.

When so many kingdoms on earth go wrong, when Colonialism/Imperialism leads to genocide, when people abuse and destroy people and the earth, there is still something greater that will never steal the life from us. Jesus has come and begun a new world order, a new regime, a new people and we who take up residence in His Kingdom have a special calling. This is what I'm a part of!

There is a calling on humanity to be and ever be becoming what he made us for in the beginning—truly human. Not humans who are only destined to the power of sin, not humans weighed down by shoulds and have-tos created by global and national powers economic and otherwise, not humans fighting and raping others power, and definitely not humans consuming every last bit of our neighbors will to life. We are called to be the great lovers of the world. We are called to be peacemakers. We are called to the work of reconciliation which changes us as much as it changes those who we aim to be reconciled with. In our true humanity we don’t make others take on our way but create a space for where God can do the work of human making.

Today I've been captivated by the picture Christ paints of the Kingdom of God. It IS more than a picture. The hope that we have despite what we experience, despite the atrocities, despite what was and is and what will come is so real. If there were no Kingdom of God to participate in, to find life within, what else would there be? The other Kingdoms can seem so darn REAL and life consuming! What a lie! We are consumed by them and the life and real humanity in us sapped out.

I've encountered some of humanities worst stories. Thankfully I have never personally experienced humanities worst. Within the worst of humankind's stories I see something more. Beyond the shadows there is the Light. No matter what becomes of the kingdoms we live within there will always be His Kingdom. In the Kingdom places, when we look into the mirror even if we’ve not looked for a while, we can see and remember again what it means for ourselves and others be call ourselves by our first name-- human. All shall be well, all manner of things.