My dog was kicked in the head by a deer, yesterday. We aren’t sure whether he provoked the full-size doe with a brief chase or if they surprised one another in a happenstance moment in the backyard. Most noontimes, when our 6 year-old Terrier mix goes out for a few minutes, there isn’t a deer in our yard.
We haven’t ever heard yelps and howls like the ones we heard after this midday rumble. At least one tooth is gone and his eye is cut open, as well as what the vet calls “road rash” around his mouth. Whew! While he looks like he visited Fight Club, we’re grateful that Otto’s injuries aren’t worse.
There are all kinds of life events that feel like they are an unpredicted kick to our head or heart. These situations leave us stunned, seeing stars, and wondering which end is up. Out of nowhere – Wham! – illness or disease, unemployment or an accident, abuse or addiction, death or other loss, can leave us wondering which end is up.
I’ve been knocked off balance by the recent apprehension and deportation of a Lutheran student pastor Betty Rendón and her husband, Carlos Hincapie. The Chicago Sun-Times reports, “[They] fled Colombia’s civil war in 2004 after guerrilla rebels threatened to kill Rendón for not allowing them to recruit students of a school where she was a principal. They came into the United States with tourist visas and later applied for asylum, but their applications were denied in 2009.”
Bishop Michael Rinehart of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod said, “Like many people in the world fleeing violence, they chose to stay rather than risk returning.” The Sun-Times states, “Since then, the couple bought their family house in Englewood and maintained spotless criminal records.”
The Sun-Times continues, “Rendón was set to begin her doctorate at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in June. For the past few years, [she] drove 2½ hours from Englewood to Emaus Evangelical Lutheran Church in Racine, Wisconsin, every Sunday to preside over the church’s Spanish Mass.”
“Rendón is also a breast cancer survivor who before being detained was being treated for possible cancerous tumors in her colon and urinary tract.”
This week, Rendón and her husband were “put on a plane and deported back to Colombia. Their daughter (a DACA recipient) and granddaughter (born in the US) were not allowed to visit them to say goodbye. Because of her DACA status, their daughter, Paula Hincapie-Rendón is not subject to deportation. It also means, however, that she is not allowed to leave this country; she will now be permanently separated from her parents.”
Read more here: www.tinyurl.com/SunTimesRendon.
I don’t have the answers to this complicated issue, but I am convinced that we must continue to wrestle with matters of justice. We are called by God to step into the places of chaos and bring resurrection hope in the name of Jesus.
I am reminded of the many injured and hurting people that Jesus met. Over and over, he approached and embraced those who were stunned by grief, shame, and isolation. As he departed, he sent the Spirit and instructions to his followers to welcome, feed, clothe, and visit those in need. Let’s follow God’s lead.
Living, sharing, and celebrating with all,
Pastor Lowell Michelson