Horizons: September/October 2020

Across the street and across the globe, our daily lives have been upended by the coronavirus. Whether it’s by city or state mandate, advice from our healthcare providers, direction from our employers or at the behest of our sessions, it’s reasonable to say that our lives look much different today than in February. The early months—February and March—found us stunned, wondering how long it would be until we returned to normal.

Now, six months and counting, our perspective on normal has shifted. We’ve taken mask wearing, physical distancing, virtual connecting, and checking for rules as our new pseudo-normal, while still eagerly awaiting a vaccine that will let us return to the “real normal.” But these six months have also been a time that our society as a whole has started to question what we had accepted as normal. Perhaps this not-so-normal time is our call to pro-pose a new normal.

Scripture cautions us to not look back in nostalgia for what was but instead look forward to what could be. “Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this” (Ecc. 7:10).

Yes, our “former days” included won-derfully just and wholesome goings-on! Just consider our Thank and Birthday Offerings and mundane blessings such as good news stories and passing of the peace! But normal doesn’t necessarily mean good. How, when or why did our society normalize and accept social ills such as racism, violence, climate change, detention centers, inequity? As God’s beloved children, what is God asking us to do or dream? Let’s face it. We can only go forward so how do we choose to proceed?

In the words of writer and activist Sonya Renee Taylor, “We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature.”*

Our garment as a society is stitched through politics. For many, the word “politics” brings to mind speeches, elections, notions of red and blue in opposition to one another. But politics, as contributors to this issue explore, is simply about issues that impact the community and the planet. And if we’re going to create a garment that “fits all of humanity and nature,” what better place to draw inspiration than from Jesus, who upended his society’s notions of who deserved care and respect?

The following pages include articles and art from people who are or were “in politics”—part of elected government for their community—but also contributions from individuals who care for their communities in a variety of ministries that seek to stitch a garment that fits each of God’s children and each part of God’s beloved creation. Together, with God’s help, let’s put our hearts and minds to ushering in a new normal, a good new normal.  

* Sonya Renee Taylor, interview with Brené Brown, Unlocking Us, podcast audio, September 16, 2020; https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-sonya-renee-taylor-on-the-body-is-not-an-apology.