Abilio Peña Buendía, in his study on Biblical Studies on thePilgrimage of Justice and Peace, notes that Jesus always required proclamation of our faith, liturgy and prayer and the practice of justice be kept consistent. Matthew 25:31-46 is a passage that confronts us as followers of Jesus and holds up a mirror to us asking if we are indeed so. It asks a most basic question about how we are treating our poorer fellow humans including those that are hungry, thirsty, unhoused, oppressed or imprisoned. This harkens to the sermon on the mount where we are told that it is the merciful will receive mercy. While this passage is foundational for the church's actions of mercy and benevolence, it is also the foundation of the church's work in fighting racism.
Buendía also makes an important observation. At the heart of conflict is often an imbalance in society and a need for justice. When people are denied basic human rights, and find themselves in an untenable state, they often will turn to visible demonstrations to bring to light their plight. Often at the heart of disagreements in society is a group that is at a point of great human need. When we seek to broker peace, do we recognize that often it is helping those in desperate circumstances meet basic needs. This is also a stunning parable of Jesus that flips the question of who is in need of salvation. The actions of meeting the needs of those presented in Matthew 25:31-46, ends up with the results of not just saving those that are suffering and in want, but in saving those that provided the assistance. In fact, it is the spiritual salvation of those with material goods that is actually in view.
Another aspect of this parable is the teaching of the presence of God. The presence of God is a common theme in scripture as it should be, in Israel's ancient history it was often associated with the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant or the temple. It was God's very presence that led the people out of the Egypt the land of bondage into the wilderness to the promised land. This powerful image cannot be missed, that it was out of the suffering, oppression and bondage of Egypt that God spoke to Moses and revealed God's self to Moses when God promised to deliver the people to freedom.
Now, we see this same presence of God abiding with those in need, with the suffering the hungry, the destitute, the desperate, the oppressed. The questions asked are about the very place where God dwells. Is it the temple? In worship? No,God happens in the person in need. Buendía suggests that his is a model for international conflict resolution. This is also a model for the task of the church in eradicating poverty, confronting structural racism, and fulfilling our mission given to us in Christ Jesus and empowered by the work of God's Spirit. The foundation for the Matthew 25 initiative. If your church has not yet explored the Matthew 25 initiative take some time to examine and ask if God is perhaps not calling your church to take that step.
The link provided below is to the article by Abilio Buendía, I recommend it as an important perspective when studying Matthew 25.
Abilio Peña Buendía is a Columbian theologian and member of the Franciscan Congregation of our Lady of Lourdes.
Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.
What is Transgender Day of Remembrance?
Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence since Rita Hester’s death, and began an important tradition that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Prayer of Remembrance:
(From Augsburg Campus Ministry Webpage by Jenn Luong)
God of all creation, your wisdom, your love and your mystery are boundless. You have many names, which are beyond all gender expression. We give you thanks for the gift of diverse gender identity, expression, and sexuality. We acknowledge the times we deny that gift by holding too tightly to expectations of conformity and norms. We have created these divisions and use them against one another. We know this is not your will or your way. Help us to act mercifully and show grace to all of your people, as you have done for us.
O Mysterious Maker of womxn, men, all that is in between, outside, and none at all. We come before you today with sorrow in our hearts. We remember those who have lost their lives because they did not conform to the gender roles society expects. We lament at the continued suffering, oppression, rejection and struggle of our siblings of all gender identities. Grant them strength, support, and love to accept and be accepted who they are.
We acknowledge the harm prejudice and ignorance has knowingly and unknowingly caused. Help soften hearts and give wisdom and understanding that in the sight of God, all are equally Beloved simply because of our existence. Open hearts and minds to embrace and support one another so that all may let their light shine before others by living out their Truth.
In the name of the One who is beyond all norm, amen.
Jenn Luong
Pastoral Intern
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law on October 22, 2009.
The following is an article titled, "Why I am a Christian for Marriage Equality" written in 2013 by Dr. Megan DeFranza PhD.
"Why I am a Christian for Marriage Equality"
by Dr Megan DeFranza
There are quite a few reasons, actually. Here’s the best I can do to summarize:
…because I believe in marriage. I’m not naïve. I know that marriage is no panacea. I am a child of divorced parents. I know first-hand that good marriages of good people can fail. And I know there are bad marriages—marriages that should end but continue—in abuse, in hatred, in a failure to love. Marriage is no panacea… but it is a prop. Marriage provides support necessary to help love do what love promises. C.S. Lewis wisely quipped that the god of passionate love, Eros, “is driven to promise what Eros of himself cannot perform” (The Four Loves). Eros needs Agape—the self-giving faithful love that does not depend on the response of the other or the emotions of the giver. Marital promises made in the light provide handrails when we grope in the darkness.
…because I believe in the separation of Church and State. The USA is a pluralist country—filled with secularists, atheists, agnostics, and religious persons of many stripes. I think the US would do well to follow the example of some European counties—let the government recognize civil unions (for all people) and leave marriage to be defined by the religious traditions so long as these do not violate basic human rights (upholding real consent and the equal rights of all persons before the law). However, this is not how the current conversation is developing. Since state and federal governments are already in the marriage business, I believe it is discriminatory for the Federal Government not to recognize the unions of gays married legally under state laws. I live in a state that provides marriage equality. I do not believe that sharing the rights I enjoy with others deprives me of those same rights. As a heterosexual married Christian woman, my marriage is not under threat. I believe that if I do not show generosity to others, I cannot expect it in return. In other words, if Christians insist on their views being legislated by the government, years from now, if Christians become a minority, they should not expect their religious views to be protected.
…because I believe in adoption. I believe it is always best for children to be raised by their loving biological mother and father. This is the ideal. Unfortunately, this ideal often breaks down. Marriages fail. Parents abandon children. Some parents find themselves unable to provide for their children and—in valiant acts of sacrificial love or desperate end-of-rope decisions—look to others for help. Adoption is a heroic and necessary response to the breakdown of the biological family.
…because I believe some gays can be good parents. Should gays be allowed to adopt? No, not all of them. Should unmarried persons be allowed to adopt? No, not all of them. Should heterosexuals be allowed to adopt? No, not all of them. This is why adoption agencies have extensive (sometimes painfully-long) screening processes to determine to the best of their ability the fitness of individuals and couples for adoption. If some gays, some single persons, and some heterosexuals can show themselves ready and able to attempt the daunting task of parenting, by all means, let them adopt.
…because I believe it is possible that the conservative interpretations of the Bible on the issue of gay sexuality may be mistaken. As a theologian and biblical scholar I am painfully aware of the difficulty of interpreting the Bible. Having studied anti-gay, pro-gay, and queer biblical scholars on this topic, I have found valid points (and weak arguments) on all sides. While is it not obvious, it is nevertheless possible that the commands prohibiting same-sex sexual practice were written against contexts of abuse, pederasty, and/or cultic sexual practices (Lev. 18:22; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; I Tim. 1: 8–11). No one can prove definitively either way—that they certainly were written against specific types of practices or that they were certainly not written against such practices. Interpretation always requires judgment and human interpreters are finite and fallible. I do not believe Sodom has anything to do with the conversation. Gang rape is not gay marriage. The general judgment against gay and lesbian sexual practice in Romans 1 does not fit the experience of many gay and lesbian Christians who have not rejected God, not been abused, not lived sexually promiscuous lives. Many have sought change and not found it. A good number do not find themselves gifted with the call to celibacy. Celibate singleness should be a real option for anyone (regardless of orientation) and Christian communities must do better to support singles in our midst—lay persons as well as monks, nuns, priests, etc. At the same time, I also believe that marriage provides the healthiest context for sexual expression (I Cor. 7:9)—for the personal gift of the whole self, which sex can symbolize—this side of the resurrection (i.e., until marriage is no more, cf. Mt. 22:30).
…because after years of studying intersexI recognize that defining who is a biological man and who is a biological woman is more complicated than I once thought. In other words, enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) may be difficult in the years ahead.
…because I believe intersex persons also deserve the right to marry.
…because I believe that Adam and Eve represent the fruitful foundation not the final form of humankind. The narrative of Adam and Eve is the beginning of the Christian story, not the end. Ours is a story that concludes with a crowd of diverse witnesses—men, women, eunuchs, intersex—people from every tribe, nation, and language, unified by worship not by uniform humanity. Adam and Eve may have been the first but are not the form into which all others must fit.
…because I know that “traditional” and “biblical marriage” are messy categories. Marriages in the Bible, even the marriages of some of the heroes and heroines of our faith, while heterosexual, were far from the Christian ideal held by many today—the union of equal partners, both recognized as fully human; both joining by their own consent (not the will of parents); both joining for love, rather than economic interest, political strategy, or legitimate parenthood; both submitting to one another out of reverence and respect for the other, out of reverence for Christ. I believe the union of one man and one woman is the marital patternpresented in the opening chapters of the Bible (Gen. 1-2) and that it is reaffirmed by Jesus (Mt. 19:1-2). At the same time, I also believe that loving, mutually-submissive, faithful, monogamous gay unions come closer to the current Christian understanding of marriage than many of the polygamous marriages of our Biblical heroes—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, and numerous others. If these ancient “exceptions” can be taken up into the story of God’s redemptive work, who are we to insist that God cannot also include others?
…because sometimes even God works “against nature.” Looking closely at the book of Romans, Eugene Rogers notes that the very phrase used to denounce homoeroticism as “unnatural” in Romans 1:26 (para phusin) is found again in Romans 11:24 where it is God who is grafting Gentiles (non-Jews) into the (Jewish) covenant “contrary to nature.”
Rogers argues that God retains the freedom to graft gays into the vine of Christian marriage so that marriage can do its sanctifying work in the lives of these believers. He argues, “Marriage is a sacrament because it gives desire time and space to stretch forward … into things that are more desirable. Marriage allows sex to mean more.…‘Who devalues the body? Those for whom its gestures make no commitments, or those for whom they can make irrevocable commitments? Those who find freedom in casual nakedness, or those who reserve this most visible word for those whom they have something extraordinary to say? Marriage is a place where our waywardness begins to be healed and our fear of commitment overcome’—that, and much more.” [Rogers, “Sanctification, Homosexuality, and God’s Triune Life,” in Theology and Sexuality:Classic and Contemporary Readings, (London: Blackwell, 2002), 223-225.]
…because I know that in my own finitude and fallibility I could be wrong on this, but I believe there are good reasons to think as I do, and that there is grace for me if I am in the wrong, just as there is grace for you.
1970 The United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA) released "Sexuality and the Human Community" a report to study the Christian concept of sexuality.
1972. The first resolution on homosexuality was rejected by the General Assembly of the (PCUS).
1974 David Bailey Sindt holds up a sign that reads "Is anyone else out there gay?" on the General Assembly floor. Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns is formed.
1975 Bill Silver an openly gay Presbyterian came before the Presbytery of NYC seeking ordination.
1977 The Lazarus Project starts with Chris Glaser as the founding director in West Hollywood Presbyterian Church to work towards reconciliation of LGBTQ community.
1978 When the UPCUSA General Assembly (GA) ruled against ordaining gay and lesbian persons, congregations respond by declaring themselves More Light Churches.
1983 The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. is formed as a merger between (UPCUSA and PCUS) two denominations that separated during the Civil War.
1985 The PC(USA) GA rejects an amendment meant to protect homosexuals from employment discrimination. The Program Agency organizes a Consultation on Homophobia in Stony Point NY.
1991 the Human Sexuality Committee's Final Report advocates for the ordination rights of gay and lesbian Presbyterians, although ultimately rejected. A silent protest is held. Listen to an interview with Marvin Ellison and Dan Smith on the work of the committee below.
1992 Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) rejects the certification of Lisa Larges, a lesbian candidate for ordination in the Twin Cities Presbytery.
1993 That All May Freely Serve ministry begins with Jan Adams Spahr elected as the "lesbian evangelist".
1996 The GA receives overtures demanding that presbyteries be given the right to decide who to ordain.
The GA passes an overture in 1994 to ban clergy from performing same sex unions, but Presbyteries reject the amendment in 1995.
The Shower of Stoles Project by Martha Juillerat and Tammy Lindahl to honor LGBT church leaders is initiated.
1996 Erin Swenson becomes the first Presbyterian minister to make a gender transition while remaining in ordained office. Listen to the Erin Swenson story below.
1996 GA voted 313 to 236 to approve the "fidelity-chastity" amendment. Statement barring LGBT Presbyterians from ordination was included.
1997 Presbyterian Welcome (PARITY) was formed in New York City by Rutgers and Jan Hus Presbyterian Churches. A group that advocates for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Presbyterian Church.
1998 Leaders from both sides issue a call to a five year Sabbatical from overtures regarding gay issues.
1999 Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns merge with More Light Church Network to form More Light Presbyterians.
2000 Presbyteries reject Amendment 00-O, which add an explicit statement to the directory of worship prohibiting same sex union ceremonies.
2001 The PC(USA) GA voted to delete "Fidelity-Chastity" clause.
2004 Mieke Vandersall begins an annual summer retreat for LGBTQ+ candidates for support, it continues as the Emerging LGBTQIA+ Faith Leaders Program.
2011 The PC(USA) votes to pass Amendment 10-A which becomes G-2.0104b in the Book of Order. The church finally allows the ordination of LGBTQ+ Presbyterians.
2011 Scott Anderson becomes the first openly gay pastor to be ordained.
2014 the GA passes Amendment 14-F which revises sections on marriage in order to include same-sex relationships.
2016 Out of Order Film, a documentary was released featuring stories and struggles of queer Presbyterians. The GA approves a resolution acknowledging the harm done to LGBTQIA+ Presbyterians throughout the church's history.
2018 The GA votes to establish non-discrimination policies for all gender identities and appoints a task for to study the need for a LGBTQIA+ advocacy committee.
2022 The GA of the PC(USA) votes to create a permanent LGBTQIA+ equity advocacy committee.
The Shower of Stoles Project is a collection of over a thousand liturgical stoles and other sacred items representing the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people of faith. These people have served as leaders in thirty two denominations and faith traditions. The Shower of Stoles project began in 1995 when Martha Juillerat was forced out of the ministry for being a lesbian. Martha Juillerat wanted to do something symbolic to demonstrate the number of LGBTQ+ Christians serving the church, so she asked people to send her a stole and the collection grew to represent hundreds of LGBTQ+ people. Learn more about the stories of these Christians, and their stories at the the LGBQ+ Religious Achieves Network and at the other links below. Watch these two videos to learn more about the Shower of Stoles Project.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has a place in that history, as one of the few denominations and churches that welcomes people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Along with ordaining ministers of word and sacrament, ruling elders and deacons, the denomination also recognizes same sex marriages and permits ministers of word and sacrament to perform them. But even with affirming church policy, people in the queer community still face challenges in the PC(USA), which has a long history of exclusion, and full inclusion remains elusive.
With these celebrations upon us, Presbyterian News Service asked a few church leaders who are in the LGBTQIA+ community questions on this month’s observances and the church.
Q: What do National Coming Out Day and LGBTQIA+ History Month mean to you?
Annanda Barclay, Pastor, Mission Bay Community Church, San Francisco: National Coming Out Day and LGBTQIA+ history month to me are national efforts to recognize our full humanity, in response to the historical failure to see queer people as fully human and fully divine.
Bertram Johnson, Chaplain, Union Theological Seminary, New York: The importance of National Coming Out Day and LGBTQIA+ History Month are undeniable, and I believe the two events should be celebrated daily. Each day should present opportunities for queer people to live our lives, love those we love, share our stories, and embrace our identities as wholly beloved children of God without fear or threat.
Coming out is so much more than a statement of sexuality. It’s also a spiritual practice, an affirmation, and a blessing. It’s seeing our whole selves as being made in the image of God and knowing there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love and grace. This year I’m humbled that I have a chance to claim my truth, voice and space as an out, gay, African American PC(USA) pastor. I also want to honor the queer Black saints before me who served in silence and secrecy so that I can do so boldly today. I would not be here had it not been for their strength and sacrifice.
Phillip Morgan, Director of Music at Central Presbyterian Church, Louisville: Coming out as LGBTQIA+ remains a challenge for many in this country, especially those tied to certain religious communities, and a national day helps to give those that need it the strength required to make a declaration of who God has created them to be. It also offers a real opportunity for those religious institutions that are welcoming and affirming to be a resource and a place of love for those facing new and unknown paths.
Likewise, LGBTQIA+ History month can allow us to evaluate structures and systems that have been, and in some cases still are, harmful to LGBTQIA+ communities and face our role in the history of committing those sins against our siblings and discerning what shall be our role in the reparative actions we take in the future.
Slats Toole, a freelance writer in Minneapolis: My relationship with National Coming Out Day has changed a lot throughout my life. When I was younger, it was a deeply important day to me, a day of celebration and revelation. But particularly since I began coming out as non-binary, it almost feels like every day is a day I have to come out; I am constantly having to come out and assert who I am in a way that’s frankly exhausting. (I do love watching people have the courage to come out for the first time on National Coming Out Day, though! It seems to be a day where people are predisposed to take those announcements more graciously.)
LGBTQIA+ History Month, though, becomes more and more important to me as I move forward in life. A lot of our history has been erased or buried, and the lack of history is used as an excuse to dismiss who we are. “Oh, this is just some newfangled made-up thing!” But studying our history helps us realize that we are part of a long and glorious line of unique and vibrant bearers of God’s image.
Q: How has the PC(USA) affirmed you in the church?
Barclay: The PC(USA) has affirmed me in the church by my eventual ordination and the continued support of my call. It has also supported me through my LGBTQIA+ elders who stayed, determined to see the church reflect God’s kin-dom. The testimony of their lives, their presence, their resilience, their wisdom, tears, and relentless love created room for the whole of me. They held space so I could be, and in adaptive ways they still create this container of love, safety, opportunities, and mentorship. With palms wide open they encourage me to do the same.
The Rev. Bertram Johnson
Johnson: I don’t know any LGBTQIA+ person in our denomination who has had a smooth or easy road with the Church. We have all suffered in some fashion. The fact that we still have to question if an individual congregation or church leader will genuinely welcome and affirm our gifts is a sign that our legacy of exclusion and sin is still with us. The reality that queer people choose to be here is a testament to the fact that God still performs miracles and that each of us love the Church enough to suffer with it in its growth and reformation.
That being said, I finished seminary in 1996 and there were years after graduation when I left the ordination process because I didn’t see the possibility of growing in love for myself as a newly out queer child of God and living into the polity of the Church. By grace, I was blessed by friends in the denomination who recognized God’s call upon me when I couldn’t see it clearly for myself. They questioned, challenged, and encouraged me to return to my vocation, and to trust that God would never leave me alone.
Since that time, I’ve been blessed to serve the PC(USA) in local congregations and on a national level. I continue to get asked to serve in a variety of ways. Even this interview is an unexpected affirmation that my being here does matter, and that God is not done with me yet.
Morgan: Born and raised a Baptist, my church welcomed only my talents that might be used for their gain but did not affirm the person I was. Because of this as a young man my coming out was also tied to a vow to never expose myself to that hurt again through church work. But sometimes our work is a calling not a choice and the PC(USA) has for nearly a decade been a place where I can freely share my gifts and ministry while also being loved and applauded as fully me. I am blessed to serve a congregation that, literally since 1988, the year I was born, has made that public commitment to LGBTQIA+ children of God as a More Light congregation.
Toole: One of the most beautiful moments I’ve had in the church was my renaming liturgy at the Breaking Bread worshiping
Slats Toole
community in Princeton, New Jersey. As I began to transition to a name that felt more right for me than the name that I was given at birth, awakening to a clearer sense of who God made me to be, I started to long for some kind of ritual to mark that change. I was hesitant to voice this longing, having spent my entire life being told that my identity did not have a place within the church. At the same time, looking at the Directory for Worship, I saw this paragraph: “In the lives of believers and in congregational life there are special occasions of awakening, renewal, or commitment; these are appropriately celebrated through the reaffirmation of the baptismal covenant. People should be encouraged to share these decisive moments and stirrings of the Spirit with the session, so that they may be acknowledged and affirmed in public worship.” (W-4.0205)
When I mentioned this to my pastors, Revs. Andrew and Len Scales, they were immediately onboard, and together we crafted a liturgy and service where this Reaffirmation of Baptism surrounding my new name was framed as a witness of God’s transforming love in this world. It wasn’t until I was in that room, filled with a cloud of witnesses who cared for me and affirmed me, that I realized how much I needed this experience as a part of healing from the trauma the church had caused me.
Q: What can the PC(USA) do better?
Barclay: The PC(USA) can have the flamboyant audacity to embody its beliefs far beyond panel discussions and book clubs. To recognize itself as queer too, not just a space for queers. As Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous, not just a seat at the table where we are finally welcome. We’ve been welcome, and the church has been late to arrive at the table that speaks and knows all our names without shame or indifference. Gods table has always already been a table for all. The PC(USA) can understand its economic impact on those it has historically marginalized, and pay those it has literally indebted in its discrimination starting with the categories of seminary education, ordination, lack of access to medical care, benefits, and denominational grants, the stealing of Indigenous land, boarding schools, slave labor, and continued gentrification; doing all this knowing payments are not relationships, but an introduction of good faith acts on the Jesus it claims to follow.
May the church ask this question: “Who do queer people and queer people of color say we are?” and have the sincerity of self and neighborly love to listen to the voices and align itself accordingly.
Johnson: Our theology, our churches, and resources have been used as tools to negate, exclude, and strip queer people of their rightful and sacred place in the family of God. It is the responsibility of the PC(USA) and all its worshiping bodies to repent and seek repair for the wrongs we have done, the lies we have supported, and spirits we have broken.
Queer and trans youth continue to endure spiritual, emotional, and physical violence born out of our theological maleficence. Transgender and gender non-conforming women of color are murdered at rates that reveal our complacency and condemnation.
Every worshiping community and every member of our denomination can do something to help make us look and love like the community Jesus came to make real. I encourage everyone who reads this to ask, “What does God require of me?” and then do what you can to help LGBTQIA+ people know they are seen, welcomed, and blessed by you and by the God whom we claim is loving and just.
Morgan: Realize that there is still work to do and the issues around justice for queer people go beyond ordination.
Phillip Morgan
Toole: While the changes to polity made in recent years are deeply important, there’s still a lot of work to do on the ground. I’ve experienced many churches who believe we have reached equity because of the changes made on paper, or who think adopting a welcoming statement or joining an affirming organization is what it means to be an ally. While those are all good and important things, they don’t actually mean that the culture has changed yet. I have been yelled at for being in the “wrong” restroom when presented with only binary gender options at churches. I have sat in pews while the liturgy celebrates men and women and does not acknowledge any of us who fit somewhere outside of those boxes. I have been looked at as if I have three heads when I state my pronouns. All of these experiences have been at churches that claim to be affirming of my identity.
There is no shortcut to doing the work, having difficult conversations, educating yourselves and each other so that you’re more ready to actually do the work of welcome.
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Jonah's Scarcity Mindset By Rev. Jody Mask, Pastor, Grace Covenant Presbyterian, Orlando, Anti-Racism Committee Member
(As a white person, I sense my responsibility to talk to white people about our role in anti-racism work. If you are not white, feel free to read on, but this article is addressed to white people first and foremost.)
I have been preaching on the book of Jonah this July. Jonah is such an interesting and compelling character because of his emotional swings. At various times, he runs from God’s will, then embraces it; he prays once for deliverance in a time of desperation, then for pity in a time of pouting. He is at once a hot and cold spokesman for God.
When it comes to race relations in America, what do you suppose is God’s will? For equality, or for unequal treatment? For harmony or for discord? For honoring one another as created in the image of God, or dishonoring one another as somehow less than ourselves? The answers are obvious, but honoring that will is a constant challenge that requires self-reflection and vigilance. The temptation to run from our responsibility is tremendous.
At the beginning of his prophetic call to witness, Jonah fled God’s will. When he finally obeyed God and brought the word to Nineveh, a remarkable response followed. Nineveh’s repentance saved its people from certain destruction. Potential enemies became fellow followers of God. But Jonah wasn’t happy with that! “That is why I fled,” he prayed angrily, “for I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.”
Jonah resented God’s equal treatment of people that Jonah was conditioned to believe were inferior and undeserving. God’s love and attention were finite and limited in Jonah’s thinking. There was only so much to go around, and if some went to the Ninevites, then that meant there was less for him as an Israelite.
We white people have historically carried a similar mentality when it comes to rights and privileges, and even divine favor. We were the Israelites, and everyone else were Ninevites. Why should they receive equal treatment?
We may think that we solved “the racism problem” in America and that it no longer exists. If we do, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
You may get defensive and insist that you “do not see color.” I challenge you to rethink that. We all “see color.” The difference is how that sight shapes our reactions, our assumptions, and our interactions with people who don’t look like us.
I have heard it said that the greatest lie the devil told was that he didn’t exist. Likewise, when we deny that racism exists within us, we lie to ourselves and to God. It’s part and parcel of the social and cultural conditioning of America.
That doesn’t mean we are any more or less fallen than anyone else. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But it also doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about it. It takes constant work--both within ourselves and within our society.
Self-work is the easiest. Try this: the next time you encounter a stranger who isn’t white, pay attention to your reaction. What was your first thought? How did your body respond? Consider this “physical audit” to be a spiritual practice. Acknowledge your feelings so that you can work to change them as needed.
Societal work is bigger and more challenging, of course. We have to fix the unjust systems that our forefathers created, consciously or not. We have to get out of our comfort zones. We have to expose the deception of those who seek to downplay the legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, centuries of chattel slavery, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and Executive Order 9066 that led to the establishment of Japanese internment camps during World War II.
In both personal and societal work, Jesus calls us to assume a posture of humble service, elevating others as he told his disciples: “...whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27-28).
God asked Jonah twice, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah insisted that it was, but God reminded him that the great city of Nineveh was just as important to him as the people of Israel. God loves equality, and if we humble ourselves and seek the welfare of our neighbors, we can certainly achieve it.
history month to me are national efforts to recognize our full humanity, in response to the historical failure to see queer people as fully human and fully divine.
