Good morning…
“Hello all,” a brave daughter of a subscriber wrote a letter to her extended family, giving me permission to share it with you. “I’m sure you all have heard of what’s happening in our country right now in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. I know that many of you hold very different political views than I do, and that’s okay, not everyone has to agree with everyone on everything. That is why I am emailing you a call to action, not as a liberal or someone on the left of the political spectrum, but as a fellow Christian. I’ve been thinking a lot with everything that’s happening in our country about what my duty as a Christian is to this world. And I have come to the conclusion that to do nothing, to stay silent in the face of injustice would be to reject the teachings of Jesus.”
She went on to explain: “Jesus spent his life on the margins. Walking with, eating with, being in communion with, and healing those who have been cast out of society. He was constantly questioning both political and religious authorities, calling out their hypocrisy and how they have let down their fellow humans. He continuously put himself in situations that I’m sure we would all find extremely uncomfortable. But the radical love that Jesus preached was not about comfort, it was about action, it was about letting go of our own desires and reach out our hand to others that are hurting.”
The Spirit’s flow of wisdom continued unhindered: “It would be much more convenient if Jesus had just told Christians to go to church every Sunday and profess that we believed in Him. But that is not the only thing that Jesus calls us to do. I urge, as you follow the news and witness what is taking place before our eyes, to open up Scripture to figure out what Jesus is actually calling us to do. Take a look at what Paul is telling us in 1 Corinthians 12:24-26: “But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”
She brought her thoughts home to this time and this day: “The black community is currently undergoing (and has been undergoing since the first slave ship came to America in 1619) suffering that is beyond my comprehension. But as a child of Christ I know that the suffering of the black community is my suffering as well, as they too, are children of Christ. I do not claim I understand what it feels like to be strangulated with someone’s knee on my neck for nine minutes until eventually I die. But as a Christian, I must feel that George Floyd was my brother, my brother in Christ, and so I must fight for him as if it happened to my younger brother. That is the love of Jesus. If my brother had been unjustly murdered in the brutal way that George Floyd was, I would be filled with grief and rage, I would stop at nothing to get justice, and I would fight to make sure no one else had to feel that grief. The same is true if it happened to my sister, or my mom, or my dad.”
This compassionate young woman offered a call to action: “If you are still feeling apprehension to get involved in this movement for racial justice, I implore you to look deep inside yourself to ask why. I used to be resistant too. I desperately wanted to believe that my country, that has always served me, as a white person, so well was not committing atrocities against people because of the color of their skin. I wanted to believe that the police, who have kept me safe, keep all Americans safe. But this belief ignores the cries of my black brothers and sisters and chooses my own comfort over the radical love and compassion of Jesus.” (For those interested she and her youngest sister put together a link to educational resources and places to donate to support the cure for racism.)
She summed up her articulate thoughts: “We cannot stay silent while members of the body of Christ face atrocious oppression. Love only when it feels comfortable is not love. Love asks us to step outside of ourselves, our lives, our own self-interest, and to feel and heal the pain of others, even (and especially) when it is painful for us. The Christian life is not an easy one. And it certainly isn’t a comfortable one. The Christian calling is to love God more than we love material possessions, more than we love our country, and more than we love ourselves. We must hear the cries of our black brothers and sisters in Christ and we must fight for them like we would fight for ourselves and for our own families. That is the love of Jesus.”
Her open-hearted aunt wrote her back this affirmation: “This is one of the best and most beautiful things I have read— would it be okay with you for me to share it? I am not really on social media, but I would love to share it by email with a few of my friends. Thank you, thank you for these thought-provoking words… there was been so much to think about, and this is helpful. For one reason or another, the idea that I keep coming back to, so often that I definitely need to be paying attention to it, is one that came from our minister last week— that anger typically springs from deeper sadness, and that (this is the part that got me) that we must not judge the ‘imperfect expression of anger’, and feel that we can dismiss it. I’ll go to the link and see what I can do, but in the meantime just wanted to extend heartfelt thanks to you for this.”
A simple email exchange from a wise young woman to a receptive older adult offers us a model as we seek to be the body of Christ in this interactive time of accelerated learning. Now you [collectively] are Christ’s body, and individually [you are] members of it [each with his own special purpose and function] (1 Corinthians 12:27, AMP).
It is essential for each of us to do our own inner work, digging down deep into our own roots in the eclectic body of Christ. Like this young woman and this open-minded aunt, it is important to put time into pondering: “What is my purpose and what is my function in Christ’s healthy body on earth?” Our loyalty first is to our Creator, who made us uniquely as part of the mysteriously marvelous mosaic called humanity. Some of us are planted on the left side of God’s mammoth masterpiece, some of us are planted on the right, much like our physical bodies have both a right hand and a left hand, a right foot and a left foot, a right eye and a left eye. As we deepen into our individual roots, planted perfectly by God before we were born, we will rise up with our own set of fresh fruits to share, trusting that both-sided balance is God’s intentional design.
Might we all take time to prayerfully consider: “What is my special purpose and God-designed function in the body of Christ today?” Then walking in step with the Spirit, our Christ-centered actions will expand into the peaceful unity Scripture envisions in Isaiah 11:6 (NIV). The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
…Sue…
P.S. To continue our learning through Northside Church, remember that tonight at 8:00 pm, we begin Dr. James Johnson’s Faith and Film class on the imagination of God. See zoom link in the P.S. of our Sunday post, Use This Time Wisely. Then tomorrow, Wednesday, at 10:00 am, consider joining us for our weekly Women’s Summer Book Study as we begin discussing Henri Nouwen’s beloved book The Return of the Prodigal Son. To receive the zoom link, please reach out to Caroline Smith at fitzco1@comcast.net.
