Rev. Katie Omberg, our Area Conference Minister for the Northeast Region, recently shared a quote from poet Assata Shakur that has a rather startling first line:

“Love is contraband in Hell.”

Rev. Katie writes: “It’s not that love is not present in hell, but it is contraband: smuggled in, hidden from power, ferreted away.  In prisons here on earth, ‘contraband’ are things in high demand, brought in from the outside world or made inside for connection or comfort.  

For many in this region, it can feel like hell is too close for comfort.  In Burlington MA, people are held captive by ICE for days without beds, showers, or medical care.  In Malden, ICE and bounty hunters have spirited people away at gas stations.  I have been on the phone with an immigrant who has lived here for 15 years, him saying “when I leave for work, will I get to hug my two-year old child again?”  I have not heard from this man in months.  I do not know where he is or if he and his family are safe.  I pray that they are.

Love is contraband in hell and it is needed.”

Well said.  ICE raids may be the extreme sense of hell that many are living through these days, but hell can come in a lot of other ways as well.  There are many who are working without pay right now because of the government shutdown.  Others have lost their jobs entirely.  Hell may come in the form of the fear that overtakes you when you get a diagnosis that completely devastates your life.  It may come in the form of an addiction that has gripped you or your child.  

Hell can come in the form of a physical and spiritual hunger that tears at your heart until you cannot find the strength to go on.

Hell is real and love is contraband in hell.  And yet it is there.  It is there because God is there.  God’s love is always with us.  Says the psalmist: “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.”

Each of us and all of us as a church hold within us the contraband of love.  It is with us in the best and in the worst of this life.  It will never leave us and cannot be taken from us and we need to share it every chance we get. 

May you grab on to that love in these challenging days and not let go.  It is a love that will see you through.

See you in church,

–Rev. Dominic