Seeking God amidst violence, politics, & inequality

Rev. Jon Brown spoke at the APCE 2017 conference.

M.A.C.E./M.Div. student Rosy Robson shares her reflections on attending the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE) 2017 Annual Event in Denver, Colorado.

APCE’s theme this year was “God is with us in the chaos.” We spent some time defining chaos. The chaos of a world marked by violence and destruction. The chaos of the country marked by partisan politics and systemic inequality. The chaos of our lives marked by struggle and conflict and busyness. Overwhelming, mind-consuming, troubling, can’t-get-away-from-it chaos.

We looked to Mark’s stormy story of Jesus in the boat with his disciples, in which we saw that Jesus was in the midst of the chaos. As the waves crashed and roared and the disciples feared, Jesus was there proclaiming peace. Right up in the chaos, Jesus was there. Right up in the chaos monster’s face, deep peace. In his sermon on Thursday, Rev. Jon Brown said, “We must cultivate an awareness of God with us in the chaos,” for “at the center of the story, we can still find the Divine.” How might we confront the chaos if God-with-us is at the forefront of our awareness? If God is down and dirty in the chaos that we witness and experience?

At the conference’s conclusion, Rev. Shannon Johnson Kershner suggested one way of confronting this chaos. She challenged us to reframe our understandings of chaos, and to instead think of chaos as something that is “creative and generative.” The creative and generative chaos in our lives can be a place in which new life is born. Chaos can be something that is filled with possibility. Indeed, as Christians we’re familiar with this sort of chaos and new life, for we are resurrection people… a people whose lives are marked by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in a chaotic world, and who trust in God’s continuing creative and generative promise of new life.

Thus, in the chaos, God is not only present, but is at work! We’re called to be in the midst of that chaos and to be a part of God’s continuing creation and regeneration. Shannon encouraged us to transform our system of beliefs into an embodied expression of a “loving way of life.”  In a world marked by chaos, in a time such as this, the world needs us to live lives of love. As we practice what we preach and live what we teach, we, as the church, can proclaim Christ’s peace in the midst of chaos. We can look for and witness to the new life that God is bringing into the world. We can counteract the chaos with love and justice and peace.

So, as I return home from APCE, back into the chaos of a busy seminary schedule, and back into the chaos that fills the television screen and my Facebook newsfeed, my eyes are wide open. I’m looking for God’s presence, creativity, and re-generation in the midst of the chaos. I’m praying that my beliefs may be transformed into an embodied life of love and faith, and that God will work through me to help bring about the kingdom. And I’m taking Shannon’s charge to heart: “May peace take root in your soul. May the chaos be stilled in your heart. And may we keep at it, and be the church, no matter what.”