Clare's letter

If there is any way this can be useful, I think Clare would be fine with sharing it:

Dear friends of the Creator community,

I have heard of your journey to explore as a congregation the possibility of becoming a Reconciled in Christ community. As a daughter of the church who lives in another place, and who gets to spend so little time as a part of your church family, I have been hesitant to add my voice to the conversation. However, in discussing both the progress and frustrations of this journey as related to me by my mother, I feel compelled to add my petition for your consideration; and I hope that it is not presumptuous of me to do so.

As I said, I've only had the privilege to worship with you a handful of times, but your quality of character and faith strikes me as that of a true and thoughtful community. I was warmed and delighted to hear that you are discussing being an RIC church. I feel that I can speak well and appropriately for both myself and my generation when I say that this is the direction we seek in the church. When recently asked, the youth of the ELCA has overwhelmingly supported RIC communities, as well as the right of gay male and lesbian ministers to have partners. It pains me when I see my sisters in faith and brothers in love -- your sisters in faith, your brothers in love -- who have been rejected and condemned by the greater society and often by their own faith communities because of their sexual orientation or identification. This is unjust and un-Christ-like.

In Matthew 25, Jesus says to the righteous that they have done rightly, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." When they ask in confusion when it was that they did these things, he replies, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." What is perhaps the most powerful thing about this story is in the people who do not understand Christ in others. They too asked, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?" His response is the same -- "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

Christ comes to us in people in whom we do not expect. To be reconciled in Christ means that we are receptive to the possibility of Christ in others. It means that we take seriously Christ's commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves, to recognize that we are all created by the same God, loved by the same God, and embraced in the same family. We turn our back on Christ's message and vision as we find it in the scriptures when we, like the Pharisees, allow our arrogance and pride to win as we act as judge and jury, rejecting those whom we have made the "other," the "them," from God's Church.

Oregon, as a Synod, has announced its intention to be an RIC synod. The youth of our denomination have said that they are ready and intentional about being an RIC faith. The vast majority within Creator itself has said that we are ready to be an RIC community. Please heed these voices upon voices, pleas upon pleas for peace, justice, and reconciliation between broken sisters and brothers. Open the doors, your arms, and your hearts and let us bring everyone back home.

Love,
Clare Brauer-Rieke
Sister in Christ, Member of Creator Lutheran Church