Starting a Conversation

The following is a guest post by my good friend and brother, Brian Foulks.

The constant rehearsing of the trauma of racism has placed an indelible chasm in the soul of black folks. As we wrestle to understand and try to reconcile, how other Christians can stand around as such heinous crimes were/are being done to black and brown folks. How can Christians care so little about the poor and alienated while condoning the evil rhetoric of a Donald Trump? Yes, I applaud Donald Trump for at least [being] honest about his politics but he is an evil man. How do Christians even justify that black and brown lives are not vehemently abused by society? If you call yourself a believer in Jesus and live out the tenants of the Christian faith, how do you reconcile with such evil?

Racism kills the very essence of love and confines perspectives; there is no growth or progression. You can’t say you’re not racist but sit idly by and not combat racism. You can’t say you’re not racist and think that it is ok to allow poor education and poor healthcare to ravage through black and brown communities.

Racism sucks the life out of organization. It demeans in order to tear down. There is no redeemable quality within racism. Racisms presents a subtle approach but it comes with obvious and intentional outcomes –keep black and brown people poverty. There is nothing accidental about racism. It is an intentional weapon used when the majority finds its status sleeping away.

The mere thought of racial reconciliation is laughable at best. What exactly would this reconciliation mean? Here the words of James Cone,

Reconciliation does not transcend color, thus making us all white. The problem of values is not that white people need to instill values in the ghetto; but white society itself needs values so that it will no longer need a ghetto. Black values did not create a ghetto; white values did. Therefore God’s Word of reconciliation makes us all black. Through this radical change, we become identified totally with the suffering of the black masses. It is this fact that makes all white churches anti-Christian churches in their essence. To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people.

Now these words can be easily misconstrued if read through the eyes of racism. But Cone is very simply stating that God is on the side of the” least of these.” Black is not a color but a place where “your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body are where the dispossessed are.” To be Christian in to know what the underside looks like and to feel the pain of the margins. Reconciliation is not just a pathological response of forgiveness but it is a deep intrinsic reframing of one’s authentic God-self.

 I love the words that introduce Dr. Yolanda Pierce’s website,

“I am not interested in most conversations about equality. To whom would you like to be equal, given a broken and morally bankrupt system? Do you want to be equal to the persons, forces, and systems which generate the very terms of your oppression?  I am, however, interested in the weightier matters of law: justice and freedom.  How can we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly?"

These words echo the sentiments of a generation that’s been disproportionately jailed, harassed, overlooked and abused for the sheer nature of their skin. Honestly, the system is not broken, it is working exactly how it was programed to work. When corrupt people build a system, you can rest assured that the system is corrupt. America was established through corruption, theft and racism and those sins continue to wreak havoc on all people locked “in these yet to be united states.” Maybe KRS-One was right when he rapped, “There can never be justice on stolen land.” There is no simple strategy or words that can make things better overnight. But a collective sorry that is entrenched in justice is a good place to start.

“How can we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly?- Pierce

If you want to know more about Brian, you can check out his blog or follow him on Twitter.  Brian is currently a STM student at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, SC.  His insights have always been important in shaping my understandings of race and Christianity (like above).  

"What's Up?"

This sermon was preached to the people of 

Word of Hope Lutheran Church in Lexington Ky on

Sunday, June 28th, 2015.

The text for the sermon was Lamentations 3:22-33

I have to begin this sermon with a confession.  I unapologetically love 90s pop music and one-hit wonders.  It’s taken me a long time to make peace with this fact, but there it is.  There’s just something about that music that speaks to me.  Often times, these catchy and usually fun songs are able to lift me up when I’m feeling down.  And yet, at other times, I find myself drawn to a song over and over again but it’s trying to tell me something or speaking to my soul.  And over the past four weeks or so, I have found myself humming or singing the 90s one-hit wonder by 4 Non Blondes, “What’s Up?”

Don’t know the song because you don’t share my love of 90s music? Let me help. The chorus goes something like this:

“And so I wake in the morning and I step outside, I take a deep breath and I get real high, and I scream from the top of my lungs, What’s going on?”

I think the reason that I keep humming or singing out loud this chorus is because every time I turn on my computer and scroll through my Facebook news feed, every time I  glance at the headlines in the morning paper, and every time I turn on the news, I find myself asking “What’s going on?”  What is going on in the world today?

And so, perhaps I have another confession.  I am tired.  I am world-weary and perhaps even downright exhausted.  And while I’m tired because of a lot of things, physically, perhaps what I’m most tired, emotionally.  You see, I am tired of turning on the TV, tired of logging in to Facebook, signing on Twitter, of turning on the radio, or glancing at the headlines of the newspaper.  I am tired of these things most of all because they stir up in me more things that I am tired of.

I am tired of living into my privilege.  I’m tired of being guilty as part of  a system that I did not create.  I am tired of watching my black sister and brown brothers persecuted and oppressed.  I’m tired of people explaining away crimes of hate using words like “mental illness.”  I’m tired of the debates about the Confederate flag.  I’m tired of seeing violence against women.  I’m tired of listening to debates regarding marriages.  I’m tired of watching news stories about ISIS.  I’m tired of not knowing what to say, tired of wishing something could be said.  And at the end of the day, I think I’m tired of being tired.  

And in my state of being tired, I have become angry and irritable.  I’ve snapped at my roommate more than I should and I’ve lost patience with my dog when he wants to cuddle and sleep right next to me.  I am filled with anger that started with hurt and heartache and is fueled daily by my exhaustion.  And as I’ve said before, that one-hit wonder has been speaking to my soul, and there are times when I’m not singing and I’m actually screaming “Hey! What’s going on?”  

And in these moments, I think that what I’m really doing is singing, well screaming, to God.  I demand to know from God what’s going on? Where are you, God in all of this?  Why isn’t something being done to prevent the hurt and the pain and the tragedy and the anger?

This song has helped direct my anger and frustration away from the people that I care about and can actually hurt and lets me feel angry at God.  Because a wise friend once told me that God can take it.  However, being angry at God, which I think happens from time to time for many of us, does not lend itself to any of the lessons this morning, unfortunately.  I did not want to preach on God’s faithfulness and mercy and grace.  So that wise friend reminded me gently (or perhaps not so gently) to go back and read the rest of the book of Lamentations.

This book is filled with an author’s anger and grief and frustration that is directed at God for failing to act, for failing to prevent the destruction of Jerusalem. This book is much more in tune with the feelings of many Christians in America today, I think.  This grief and frustration that our world isn’t perfect and the feeling of helplessness to change the system that has caused these imperfections.  

In fact, these few verses are the only ones in the entire book that profess God’s faithfulness and the idea that God will keep God’s promises.  It would feel a little out of place, if we didn’t know that God tends to work in surprising and unsuspecting ways.  And so, because that’s how God works, I think that it’s here we need to spend time this morning.  It is this author’s declaration of God’s enduring steadfastness and faithfulness; the ideas of God’s never ending love and refusal to let suffering go on forever.  There, there is where America meets God in the Bible this morning, and every morning.  We hear, “great is your faithfulness” even though we feel that God has abandoned us.  

Oh what a wonderful message to hear.  Oh what a terribly hard message to take to heart.  It is so easy to say that I will trust in the Lord, but when you’re angry and hurt it’s a very different thing to actually trust in the Lord.  We want to believe that God doesn’t cause pain or suffering and does not enjoy it when we feel hurt or betrayed.  That God suffers when we suffer.  But, there’s a voice inside us in the midst of pain and tragedy that wants to say, “you did this, you made this happen, you brought this upon yourself because you aren’t good enough, now God is punishing you.”  So sometimes we believe that instead because that voice is loud enough and speaks long enough and we’re just tired enough that it makes sense.  It’s easier to believe that God is punishing us than acknowledge that bad things happen because the world is broken and is in the process of being healed.  So we need a reminder now and then, especially when we’re tired that God is faithful and just, God pours out love and mercy now and forever, and that God has not abandoned us.

But not even God expects us to be able to lay out our griefs and sorrows and then “get over it” just like that.  Lamentations goes on for two more chapters where the author continues to lay our grievances before God.  And then it ends.  There’s no resolution.  There’s no divine action.  There’s no immediate healing.  This author just lays out griefs, frustrations, and fears, while acknowledging that God is not going to leave things the way they are, and then it’s over.  Not because the grief and the pain has gone away, but because the words have been carried to God and there is a certain trust that things are in God’s hands now.

This text serves as a reminder that it’s ok to get angry with God, God can take it.   We too, have permission to give voice to our fears, our frustrations, our grief and our pain.  We can tell God that we’re hurting because of systemic racism, we’re hurting because of how men view women, how America views other nations, and how other nations look at America.  We can tell God that we feel angry when our loved ones die too soon.  We are allowed to take all of these things to God.  And we can know that God suffers our pain with us.  God knows our grief.  God feels angry with us in our anger.

But, as these few verses from Lamentations say to us today, we cannot stay stuck in our self-pity or anger.  We cannot allow ourselves to continue to vent and complain with no purpose or end.  It is one thing to lift up our weariness and frustrations and griefs to God, but it is another to make that all we say or think about.  Lamentations gives us permission to voice these things, yes, but the author does not give us permission to stay stuck within these feelings of helplessness or despair.  The author takes a break in the middle of his rant to remind himself and us about who we are talking to.  The author does not allow himself to stay in this place of despair, instead, the author reminds himself and us of the hope that we have in God.  That in the midst of all the darkness we feel, God is still present with us.

Yet, in all of these very real griefs and frustrations,  we still believe that God’s faithfulness is great  God continues to love us and forgive us, even as we struggle to forgive ourselves..  God continues to teach us what justice is, even as we look out into our broken world and see injustice upon injustice.  God continues to listen to our pain and suffering; God even sees us in our exhaustion and God promises that one day it will be no more.  God will continue to strengthen us and empower us to make small changes to fight unjust systems.  

Because that list of things that I’m tired about?  There are things that I can do to help God in the process of bringing justice to the world.  There are things that we together as the church can do to take a stand against oppression and evil in this world.  We have been freed through the waters of baptism to stop living into this oppressive system and live into God’s system of justice that is mercy and grace.   God, through us, is there to help us as we try to stop telling and laughing at racist jokes.  God will help us as we try to stop objectifying women and men and start seeing them as sisters and brothers.  God will help us as we struggle to find the words to speak; saying yes to second chances and no to the evil that is very real in this world.  And, I believe that God will give us energy when we are tired.  

For God is faithful.  Even as we struggle to believe it, we gather as one church to remind each other of God’s presence as we see God’s presence all around us here today.  And we will gather at the altar to join in the bread and wine that becomes Christ’s body and blood connecting us not just to one another but to all of those who have come before, are present across the world now, and will come after us.  And for that, even we who are tired, can give thanks to God, even as we lament.  Amen.  

Inherent Human Dignity: It's a Thing

Last week in my theology class, we talked about how easy it is for people to use and abuse one another by objectifying or de-valuing a person from the status of a living breathing human being to that of a thing that exists solely for our personal pleasure.

Obviously, this is not ok.

The theological counter to this is the idea that humans have inherent dignity.

Inherent human dignity is the idea that because all humans are created in the image of God, and that God blessed them, then even though humans (like the rest of creation) are fallen, there is still an image of God within them, even if the image is a little fuzzy.  Or maybe we see someone and it looks like they are waiting for the image of God within them to load.

And we're waiting...

The scripture passage for this idea is Genesis 1:27

"So God created humankind in [God's] image, in the image of God [God] created them; male and female [God] created them."

Let me back up and say that in this story, the author of Genesis isn't talking about Adam and Eve, but rather God is creating all of humanity at once.

That's right.  All people in all parts of the world.  People who live in Asia and Australia, Europe and the Americas.  Africa.  All of humankind is created in God's image.

And then if we just skip down past all the blessings and being fruitful and multiplying we get to this nice little verse.

"God saw everything that [God] had made and indeed, it was very good." (1:31)

So every single person created by God?  Check.
Every single person created with something very good in them?  Check.

Why is this so hard to hear then?

Why do we as a species feel the need to treat one another as objects that entertain us?  Then we can discard them when they are no longer important?

Why do we find it so easy to victimize a group of people because they don't look like us?

Why do we find it so easy to ignore great problems in how the system works because it "doesn't really affect me"?

Why do we ignore the inherent human dignity that is supposed to be found within every single person.

Why aren't we looking for the image of God in our neighbors?

I'll repeat, we are fallen and some people make it really hard to find that image of God.  And there are certainly days when it's hard for us to find the image of God within ourselves, let alone have someone else find the image of God within us.

Still waiting...

But, shouldn't we at least make an effort?  Shouldn't we try and fight a broken system because someone else, another person made in the image of God is being abused and hurt by it?

Now, even though we still have a hard enough time with this male/female image of God thing that Genesis has in verse 27, what if we added more of these categories in there?

God created humankind in God's image, in the image of God, God created them; male and female, black and white, gay and straight, trans, rich and poor, skinny and fat, and mentally ill and physically ill, and everything in between, God created them.

Would we at least maybe think twice before we start mistreating someone else?

I hope so.