April 15, 2025

“Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you, “Restorer of ruined dwellings.” Isaiah 58: 9–10, 12

Reparation is not a task or a moment; it is a process and a movement. As the prophet Isaiah and at least one diocesan mission statement make more clear, reparation, and its sibling “restoration”, line the path which leads from remembrance to reconciliation and, I would add, redemption. No matter recent, lawless chaos and profuse oppression, I believe that it is important to remember that this path persists and we have made a covenant to labor on.

As stated in the Diocese of Washington’s commission on reparations mission: “It [reparations] involves a process to remember, repair, restore, and reconcile historical and continuing wrongs against humanity that can never be singularly reducible to monetary terms, but must include a substantial investment and surrender of resources.

”This reminds me of another covenant we are in the midst of, namely to keep a holy Lent, to engage in the process of prayer, fasting and almsgiving that we might deepen our relationship with God and offer compassion and mercy to one another in more profound ways.

Not only might the process of engaging Lent be reparative of self and soul, it also might lead us to a new understanding of how we might become repairers of the breach and restorers of ruined dwellings.

For me the agents of repair and restoration are mercy and compassion. They are the compass which identifies brokenness and the glue which joins jagged edge to jagged edge.

Goodness knows jagged, shattered edges surround us in this wilderness. And I believe there is another agent which assists us in finding the courage and hope to even tackle the work of reparation and restoration when we have almost given up on grace…almost. It is memory.

Remembering is the agent which precedes restoration and reparation, catalyzes and inspires us toward action.

In my own quest I am remembering Bishop Budde’s sermon at the National Cathedral on January 21, 2025, when she courageously reminded the newly inaugurated president of his and our mandate to be merciful. In that reminder I felt some, albeit thin, thread of grace reenter political discourse repairing frayed hope.

Remembering, summoning our life stories of mercy and justice, is the first step toward the grace of redemption.

Remembering can be as a light which shines on possibility in the face of what seems impossible.

Remembering called us into the wilderness and will sustain us in our summoning of mercy and compassion, in our beloved communal work toward reparation and restoration.

Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. It is in returning, re turning, that we know God’s whole and perfect grace.

— The Rev. Dr. Martha Tucker