I still remember memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution as a child. I recited those words with pride — “We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…” — without fully understanding what they meant, or who they were meant for.
As I got older, I came to understand something difficult: that document, in its original form, was not written with people who look like me in mind. The word posterity — meaning all future generations of “we, the people” — was never intended to be as wide as it should have been.
And yet, here we are. Still striving. Still believing it can be.
Because the truth I hold onto is this: all people are created in the image of God. Imago Dei. That is not a legal declaration — it is a divine one. And it calls us to do the hard, holy work of making sure that “we, the people” actually means all of us.
Our nation has a complicated history. Systems were built to exclude. Policies were designed to diminish. And sometimes, it still feels like we are fighting the same battles, generation after generation. Some have even lost their lives in that fight.
But we are not without hope.
At Resurrection, we believe we are called to love our neighbor — every neighbor — and to reflect the character of Christ in how we treat one another. Justice is not a political issue for us. It is a spiritual one. It is the work of following Jesus.
The prophet Amos put it plainly: let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
That is our call. Let us not let history be rewritten, redacted, or erased. Let us do the hard work — together — of ensuring that “we, the people” includes every single one of us.
Amen and amen.
