June 2020 – Authentic Joy

This moment in time in America is God-ordained. Not only is the ‘coming to a head’ of race relations God-ordained, but also the fact that it happened when the world is at home and paying attention is God-ordained. The fact that blacks and whites have taken to the streets regardless of the very real danger presented by Covid-19 tells us that for many this issue is so important that it is literally worth dying for…

I sit here in the island of Trinidad where brown people are the majority. While I share not only ancestry with African Americans but also a history stained by slavery, I cannot pretend to fully understand what it means to live in America. Yet… I feel the pain of my blood brothers. I cannot ignore it and I refuse to be silent about it.

I am a Christian. That means something to me. It means that I see myself especially connected to my brothers and sisters in Christ of all races. So, in the flesh I am connected with African Americans through our shared heritage and experience, AND at the same time, in the Spirit, I am one family with my sisters and brothers of faith in America. This means that I have loved ones on both sides of this divide. In the body, in the church, there is hate… there is division and worst of all there is silence… and it hurts. It is not only the pain that one part of the body feels when the other is wounded but also the add-insult-to-injury-pain that comes when one part of the body dismisses and devalues the pain of the other.

So, I have a few things to get off my chest today.

To my white church family:

DO NOT TURN AWAY. STOP AND LISTEN. As I said, this time is God-ordained. Today, there is an opportunity presented to you. Do not miss it. The parable of the good Samaritan was Jesus’ response to a question. The question was, “Who is my neighbour?” It was asked by a Jewish lawyer who wanted to argue himself out of the requirement to love your neighbour as yourself. I see the same attitude in my white church family today.

The history of the church and race relations in America is riddled with an attempt to define black people as some ‘thing’ other than our neighbour. First, they were sub-human. Then they were 3/5 human. Now they are criminals. That is one argument I hear in the church to deflect the commandment to love: “George Floyd was high.” “George Floyd was less than an upstanding citizen.” The other argument is that our outcry is rooted in a demonic or non-Christ agenda. “Have you seen the BLM agenda?” they say. So, we are either criminals or demonic. Neither worthy of compassion it seems.

Jesus gave no such qualifications to the definition of neighbour. In fact, the focus of the parable was not the worthiness of the wounded man to receive help (that was taken as fact). The focus was on who was ACTING like a neighbour to the wounded man. We too have to choose whether to keep walking like the priest and the Levite, or to stop and tend to the wounds of our black brothers and sisters like the Samaritan. Choose. Silence is not an option that Jesus gave. The church has been silent far too long. The reason Jesus scripted the Samaritan as the ‘hero’ in this parable was an indictment to the religious leaders. It was an indictment to the ones who should have taken care of their brother but didn’t. Let’s be different.

Listen, I get it. I have visited the USA on more than 10 occasions, and I have never felt victimized. Policemen have been helpful, and for the most part I have felt safe. For many years my personal experience caused me to be ambivalent to the cries of my black brothers and sisters. Over the years, I have had to have several conversations with my family and friends who either live in the USA or studied there, to truly understand their experience. It changed me. This is not about statistics. There is no answer in statistics. Talk to people on the other side. Listen to them. This is about listening to a family member that is suffering. Uncle John may be a wonderful man to me but if my daughter said that he was abusing her you better believe that I would take her seriously (even if the statistics said that most uncles do not abuse their nieces). My experience does not give me the right to ignore and invalidate someone else’s experience. And the love of Jesus compels me to stop and tend to the wounds of my family; to show compassion.

To my black church family:

DO NOT LOSE FOCUS. STAY THE COURSE. I know you are hurting. I know you are tired. I want to remind you that we (and I say we because of the trans-Atlantic slave journey that we share) are the people who believed in the Jesus that our slave masters told us about despite the fact that they did not act like Jesus. In fact, we believed it more than them and still do! https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/02/07/5-facts-about-the-religious-lives-of-african-americans/

Our faith has been integral to our survival. We have only made it this far because of Jesus. Do not forget that! Speak out. Protest if you feel led too. Take action where you are led to. Engage the issues vigorously. But do not for a second think that your victory will be by your power, not His. I repeat, this is a God-ordained moment. What I mean by that is this: God has brought this issue into world view and by so doing issued a demand on the church to change. God did that. In typical God style He did it through a plague and an oppressor who refused to take his knee off the neck of his victim.

We only come out of this better as a church if we refuse to hate. If we refuse to shame. If we remain committed to relationship with our white brothers and sisters, many of whom have good intentions. Celebrate those who are willing to take a stand, and there are many (this too is from God.) There are many making safe space for black church members to be vulnerable about their experience and we in turn have to make it safe for white church members to be vulnerable about their perceptions. This cannot be done without the active work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We need Him now more than ever! But I know we can do it… because we have done it… Listen to the prayer of a slave woman in 1816 quoted in the book ‘Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans’.

“Oh Lord, bless my master. When he calls upon Thee to damn his soul, do not hear him. Do not hear him but hear me. Save him. Make him know he is wicked and he will pray to Thee. I am afraid, O Lord. I have wished him bad wishes in my heart. Keep me from wishing him bad though he whips me and beats me sore. Tell me of my own sins instead and make me pray more to Thee. Make me more glad for what Thou has done for me a poor slave.”

Only God can so work in the heart of a human to truly live Jesus’ call to bless our enemies. I believe that few have lived this to the degree that African Americans and women have, and that is more precious than freedom. If African Americans were to gain equality and lose this love in our hearts we would have lost all. I say this not to manipulate into submission but to exhort you as a brother in flesh and Spirit to treasure and guard the love of God that lives so richly in your heart.

Finally, to all my church family. Let us come together to heal and be the Body of Christ like we never have before.

Here are three videos that demonstrate those safe spaces that I spoke about:

Be blessed,

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