Preaching grace and justice (at the same time) to whole people
This week a few video clips from some amazing preachers made their way across my social media feeds. The first was from Rev. William Barber of the Poor People's Campaign who, despite vehemently opposing this presidential administration, made it clear that he doesn't hate the president. He mourns for him. Drawing from Psalm 139, Rev. Barber pointed out,
Whatever one human does is possible for another one to do. Y'all better hear me tonight. But for the grace of God you can become your enemy... So Lord I need you to do something: search me Lord. Search me. Don't ever dislike somebody so much that you don't realize that some of what you see them doing lies in you too. But for the grace of God.
He's drawing deeply from the gospel here to make the point that there are none who are righteous, not a single one. We are each of us profoundly dependent on the grace that has been won for us through Jesus' death and resurrection.
The second clip is also from Rev. Barber. A couple of days later he spoke at an MLK event in Tennessee. There, in front of the governor, he made plain the hypocrisy of those who celebrate Dr. King while advancing policies that undercut his agenda of justice and equality.
Politicians can't say they love Dr. King and how he stood for love and unity but then you deny and refuse to support his agenda, right governor? I mean, since you came, right congressman? Let me show you want I mean: Dr. King would not have been for a wall.
If you are a preacher of the gospel and you are asking your people to tithe but are not fighting for them to have a living wage you are lying!
You love Dr. King? Since 2001 the Tennessee state government has passed multiple voter ID requirements... under the lie of voter fraud. What you should be passing in Tennessee is early voting and same day registration and more access to the ballot. The courts have said voter ID is a form of systemic and surgical racism. Nobody talked about voter fraud until black people and brown people started voting in mass.
Here's what strikes me when these two sermonic moments are held together: Rev. Barber has absolutely no problem moving between the gospel foundation of grace and the biblical mandate to pursue justice. On the one hand, he refuses to hate or dehumanize those whom he sees as a genuine threat to the well-being of poor people because he knows his own sinful tendencies. And on the other, he is willing to publicly call out the state's elected officials to their faces for the way they have oppressed those they represent.
It's been my experiences that this ability - holding together grace and justice - is almost entirely lacking in white pulpits. It's either one or the other. A preacher will mostly proclaim justice or grace. Those who preach one over the other may very well believe in the theological importance of both, but they choose which is most important and relegate the other to an occasional sermon or an optional Sunday School class.
In his important book, Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision, Randy Woodley points out the dualism that underlies much of western society. It's this tendency that separates people from land and, more subtly, people from ourselves as minds are elevated above bodies.
One of the ways this dualism gets brought into white pulpits is seen when we preachers bifurcate grace from justice. We tend to preach to people's minds, believing that grasping theological concepts like justification by grace through faith is what preaching is for. We forget that those in the pews are fully embodied people for whom tangible and visceral experiences of injustice are equal concerns and threats to their humanity. Even when a white preacher is convinced of the vital importance of both grace and justice, she will likely struggle to hold them together, choosing to focus on one or the other. At least that's been my own personal experience.
But, as Rev. Barber makes plain, the grace and justice which are held perfectly together by Jesus can also be held together in our preaching. And that brings me to the final clip. My friend, the Rev. Charlie Dates, also for MLK Day, preached down in Arkansas. And like Rev. Barber, Charlie directly addressed the elected officials in the room about the systemic injustices that remain in both Arkansas and Chicago. But then, at his close, Charlie looked over the gathered crowd and said, "But I'd be half a preacher if I stopped there." And for the final minutes of his sermon, having just boldly identified and denounced injustice, Charlie proclaimed the beautiful gospel of grace. Please watch the entire thing!
We need more preaching of this kind these days. More sermons like those that can be heard from Rev. Barber and Rev. Dates and so many other African American clergy on a weekly basis. We need to hear these sorts of sermons not only from black pastors but from the rest of us too. The place to begin, though, is not to copy any other preacher's style, but to notice the holistic, non-dualistic view of people that under-girds such powerful preaching. And that, I think, is something we can all learn from these black preachers, whether or not we'll ever step foot in a pulpit ourselves.
This article in The USA Today describes the impact of racial segregation on students of color when they begin attending predominately white, suburban schools.
Will Barrett, an 11th-grader in the Rochester suburb of Fairport, recounted one instance when a student said black people come from the jungle. Black people commit the vast majority of crimes, the white student continued, so the country would be better off without them.
A teacher overheard the comment, Barrett said. Instead of intervening, he said, the teacher put the responsibility for talking with the white student on Barrett, saying simply that Barrett "shouldn't stand for that."
"I often feel like there’s 1,000 eyes on me while I’m taking a test. It creates a lot of stress and anxiety," he said. "Honestly, sometimes I feel I’m invisible, but at the same time, everyone’s watching me to see if I fail."
This week's endorsement for my forthcoming book comes from Sandra Maria Van Opstal, whose book about worship, The Next Worship, was really helpful at a couple of key moments in my own book.
David brings a fresh lens not just in how to view the state of race in the church but how to address it. He integrates the practices of any congregation, including children, with God's call toward unity across race and toward addressing the systems of racial oppression in both the church and in the world. His emphasis on our communal discipleship is a great addition to the resources available to the white church to understand their history and role in reconciliation and justice.
Thanks Sandra!