A Bridge of Mercy
There are few places like the Bay Area where one can appreciate the supple elegance and awe-inspiring fortitude of a bridge. Yet, beyond the visible construction and design, we discover the true brilliance and meaning of a bridge: a bridge makes the impossible possible. Whereas two geographies, two landscapes, or two entities were at one time distinct, detached, and disjointed, a bridge unites each to the other. A bridge enables the pioneer to venture where he or she was once unable to tread. A bridge creates new opportunities and channels new resources, inspiring hope beyond our limited imaginations and opening up a better life than we ever dreamed possible.
Christ Church of Berkeley seeks to be a bridge between our community — Berkeley, the East Bay, and the Bay Area — and our God. This, of course, implies that there has been a breach in that relationship — that two entities are separated and need to get re-acquainted and re-united. We believe that God created all things good, but now, we live in an age where all things are not as they should be. Tarnish. Rust. Frustration. Perversion. Injustice. Inequality. Suffering. Pain. Isolation. Loneliness. Marginalization. Alienation. Words that were inconceivable notions when the world was once applauded by its Creator as “very good” are now the commonplace descriptors of our lives. Yes, many, many years ago, the unthinkable happened. Humanity, our very species, chose to shirk the God who lovingly made us and ruled over us. We did the unthinkable — we grappled and groped for our own autonomy, symbolized by the illicit reach for the forbidden fruit. The result? We failed to acknowledge God’s proper place in our lives as our Creator and our King. Our pursuits became exploits into worshipping the gifts of God rather than the giver of those gifts. These gifts became our pleasures. These pleasures became our fixations. These fixations became our addictions. These addictions have marked our lives with discontent, uncertainty, and fear; with dis-ease, dis-unity, and dis-harmony.
Today, rather than fighting for the common good, we selfishly clamor for our own security, our own right and privilege, bickering with those who might stand in our way. Yet, somewhere down deep, wedged in the recesses of our soul, our hatred of injustice should prove to us that things are not as they should be. If only we could act decisively on this tinge of indignation. Yet our meager attempts and trifling efforts to do anything about injustice proves that we are not able or qualified to make this world, to make our lives, good again. Thus, at Christ Church of Berkeley, we believe that Jesus — the only religious leader in recorded history who claimed to be God incarnate, who willfully abdicated privilege and stature, riches and wealth, to step into our messed-up, chaotic world and suffer for its wrongs, and who rose from the dead as the firstborn of a general resurrection to come — is the only one who is both able and qualified to bring the hope of justice, renewal, and restoration into our lives. Jesus came to re-create — to make this world, and to make Berkeley, good once again. He is the bridge of mercy between God and our city.
We are not arrogant or presumptuous enough to think that we are the only representatives of this Jesus. Many have gone before us and many will come after us. Today, there are churches dotting the Berkeley landscape that are seeking to restore, renew, and redeem in the name of Jesus. Yet there are not enough of these churches. Indeed, there are woefully few of them. We join with these churches to build the bridge of Jesus — a bridge that will span the divide between God and our city; a bridge that will create new opportunities for justice and new channels of mercy; a bridge that will inspire hope beyond our limited imaginations and open up a better life than we ever dreamed possible.