Brokenness

Broken. This is how my mug ended up as I was starting to write these words today. This mug is very special to me because it was a present from my wife and daughters. Against my will, the mug slipped out of my hands and landed on the floor…broken.

My mug is a perfect example of our world today, a broken one. War in Ukraine, Myanmar and Ethiopia; the ongoing coronavirus pandemic; increasing inflation; continuing injustice in Colombia and the Middle East; millions of refugees and displaced people; looming climate crises; political polarization; conflicts in churches; etc., etc.

“Broken” is the best term we can find to describe our world right now.

The prophet Jeremiah received a very special message with respect to a broken vessel:

“So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel” (Jeremiah 18:3–6).

These words fill me with hope. God wants to – and can – repair that which is broken.

Our world can be different in the hands of our God. There is nothing so broken that God cannot fix it.

Our God does not throw out broken vessels or the material from which they are made; rather God uses the original material to repair them.

On Resurrection Sunday, we remember that Christ triumphs over death.

Even so, it is important to remember that the road to this victory was a breaking apart of his own life. It was the broken life of Jesus that was raised from the dead. Today, we can hold on to hope because God rebuilds broken lives, families and communities, just as God did with his Son, Jesus Christ.

Let us cry out to God for our broken world.

May God use our global church as a means toward restoration and reconstruction amid so many afflictions. May we embody the hope of the resurrection for our world today by being a global community who supports each other and transcends our economic, denominational, cultural and political differences.

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Cesar Garcia is the General Secretary of Mennonite World Conference

This article was originally published in The Recorder Vol 59 No 3