The beginning of the school year has its familiar rhythms. Students will pop up on my screen in little squares for an online course. They will slowly trickle in and take seats around tables. We will gather around a common text or share interpretations or experiences or questions. They will come with some paper or a computer, a few books, little tools to fidget with or doodle on.
They will also bring pieces of a haunted world. They may know people who have been disappeared; they may be trying to manage a constant fear of a doorbell or an unmarked car and masked men. Some will bring with them the pain of flooded streets or charred homes with no help coming. And of course there are the cancer diagnoses and the lost jobs. There is the feeling of a world teetering on the brink of something terrible, a feeling that pokes through every headline and every scroll on our phones.
And somehow, we have to read a text. We have to wonder about who God is and how we recognize them in our midst. How do we participate in today?
