The 2022 ELCA Churchwide Assembly participants took time to acknowledge the experience of American Indian and Alaska Native people inside and outside of our church body. They highlighted a “declaration” made by the denomination in 2021, which includes a confession that begins like this: “We confess that we have not listened to the stories of Indigenous people and have not taken the time to understand history. We have devalued Indigenous religions and lifeways and have not challenged the invisibility of Indigenous people in American society.”
To be like Christ in the world, we must become repairers of the breach – not those who cause it. In this healing work, confessions and reparations must be front and center, at the core of who we are.
Jesus brings the beloved children of God, the ones it is more expedient to exclude, into the very center of his teaching, his moment of authority, his leadership and the community he was raised to please. Jesus shows us that God’s excluded, beloved children are at the heart of his teaching and our calling.
This message is excerpted from “Already worthy” by Lee Ann Pomrenke in the March/April 2023 Gather magazine. Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the United States.
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