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May 25 - July 19, 2020
The more that white people killed and displaced Native Americans, the more they sought to shackle and bring over black bodies. The presence of the original hosts of the land constituted a threat to white identity and the sense of America as a “white country.” They had to be pushed out of sight onto reservations.
Too many in the American church have perpetuated the myth that this land was built on Christian principles rather than on stolen land and stolen labor. Too many American Christians act as though this land justly belongs to white Anglo–Saxon people, and as the hosts of the land they could expect everyone to assimilate into their world.
these stereotypes actually work together to further normalize white standards as “balanced.” Hansen explains, “Artificial polarization helps to pit people of color against each other, leading to division where we should have unity. The ‘divide–and–conquer’ strategy fuels modern racism. It also allows white folks to sit comfortably in the middle, further normalizing their culture relative to the ‘extremes’ around them.”
the more important and Jesus–shaped questions: Does the law please God? Does the law reflect the inbreaking kingdom of Christ?
Merely focusing on obeying the law is an intentionally shortsighted and irresponsible posture for disciples of Jesus.
This hard–core “feminist,” with her supposed agenda, turned out to be someone who was merely trying to teach us the deeper implications of the good news of Jesus Christ, which included a radical new space for women to participate in community as equals when they were otherwise being lowered on the social hierarchy. Jesus, again and again, challenged the gendered hierarchy of his society.
She survived a car crash, but she did not survive being a black woman in a white middle–class neighborhood.
Jesus does not make lording over others an option for his disciples. Unfortunately, most churchgoers today don’t appear to know that.
Assumed to be balanced, objective, measured, and well–reasoned, this elite white male image has been sitting at the top of the social hierarchy, and it has organized life for all of us.
the good intentions of people in power coupled with ignorance provide no hopeful path forward in matters of exclusion and white male centrality.
My professor in seminary, John Franke, used helpful language in the classroom to discuss the role white theologians and preachers have played in theological discourse in the church. According to him, white male theologians have often seen themselves as objective and neutral overseers of the Christian tradition. They function as “theological referees” for everyone else, while imagining their position as neutral and unbiased in the center of all the action. Believed to be “fair and balanced” and merely passing on the “classical” teachings of Christ, white men of means in the church label
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The experience of racism or poverty or gender discrimination is assumed to make others subjective and therefore ill–equipped to teach the pure, unadulterated Word of God.
The living and resurrected one did not, and still does not, incarnate into the life and disposition of the oppressor. Rather, Jesus’ way is found in his humble birth, subversive teachings, radical life, and his state–sanctioned execution by the authorities of the establishment, which found him to be a threat to the status quo.
We are free to follow Jesus into forbidden spaces we were socialized to avoid, spaces in which we previously believed we didn’t belong.
Jesus knew what it was like to have a cousin executed by the powers that be. He personally understood the vulnerable feeling of being picked up at night, put through an unfair trial, and executed by the authorities without anyone to champion his cause.
Christians do not merely watch as distanced spectators.
Alex’s passage
Luke’s passage
Solidarity requires that socially advantaged people realize that their life in this racialized society requires them to use their bodies as a living sacrifice.
People need to put their bodies in places where they are going to slowly learn to see things that they never would otherwise. The secret that followers of Jesus find along the journey is that the view from below, rather than above, offers a better position from which to see what God is up to.
The community that has visibly flipped things upside down will not define its life by the standards and expectations of dominant culture. Risking being labeled foolish or inefficient, the subversive community, under the lordship of Jesus, will patiently dialogue in community, believing that God’s Spirit can speak through someone without a high school diploma as clearly as through someone with a PhD.
Jesus, who was vindicated in and victorious over the cross, reveals that God has consistently chosen the socially weak and vulnerable to shame the mighty and powerful. Throughout Scripture, God takes sides. God is not neutral in the midst of human suffering and oppression. It is not by accident that the divine name of Yahweh was revealed while God delivered the Israelites from the slavery and oppression of the Egyptians.
And the evidence of lives yielded to the Spirit and soaked in Scripture will always be lives that are Jesus–shaped.
For this reason we must never forget to seek first, before anything else, God’s kingdom. Jesus warned his listeners that they needed to repent (which means to change one’s life), because the kingdom of God was quickly approaching. He often told them that the kingdom was near or, at times, already in their midst.
Studying the gospel narratives reveals a strong correlation linking the good news of God’s kingdom, God’s peace and shalom, and God’s righteousness and justice. The kingdom of God has come and still is coming, setting things right according to God’s new creation.
the kingdom of God is not automatic nor is it ritually manifested. The church isn’t the kingdom of God just because we call ourselves Christian,
The church is the kingdom of God when and only when Jesus is present in a community that is taking on his form and way in the world. When our community begins to mirror the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those persecuted for righteousness, then it is there the kingdom of God has become visible and real in our world.
We have too often been distracted by the American dream, pursuing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness instead of God’s reign on earth. However, one day we will find that it is not America but the kingdom of God that is “the beautiful.” The church will joyfully sell all the ugliness of racialized hierarchy, sexist patriarchy, and selfish classism when we find the true treasure in the field.
Lydia’s passage
Christians are supposed to reserve our sharpest criticism for ourselves. Yet we have spent so much time criticizing our society for what we perceive to be wrong while walking around with an attitude of self–righteousness. This, of course, seems hypocritical to non–Christians, who are often more aware of the skeletons in our closets than we are conscious of them ourselves.
We must take seriously our own racialized identity and socialization. This is particularly hard for white Christians to do, because it is the very thing many have often been taught not to do. The truth is that everyone in America has a racial identity that has been socialized from living here. The greatest danger is when we are unaware or in denial of that socialization.
My observation is that most multiethnic churches are normed by white, dominant–culture sensibilities, even when diversity is being reflected on the stage. And it is a real struggle for communities to break from that stronghold.
People might lose track of the fact that black youth are taught by their families, churches, and communities to dehumanize themselves in encounters with police just so they can stay alive. But if we are honest, following those strict guidelines still does not guarantee that we will make it home safely. We are taught not to break from the role of a submissive black man or woman in front of these gun–carrying officers sanctioned by the state.
The policing system, no matter the racial makeup of its individual officers or how nice they are, is an extension and continuation of white supremacist powers that lord over many people’s lives.
Grasping the gravity of the idolatrous violence and oppression that implicates us all, directly or indirectly, is not to cripple any of us in guilt or despair. Repentance opens up new possibilities available only through God revealed in Jesus Christ.
