Reconciliation and Truth
Generalities are not enough
Earlier this year I listened as the pastor of a multiethnic church preached about the countercultural way of life Jesus calls us to. I’ve respected and learned a lot from this pastor over the years but something felt odd to me about this sermon clip. Everything the preacher said was true and was proclaimed boldly but it was also pretty generic. Each of the kingdom attributes he listed are being besieged and belittled by the current presidential administration even as a segment of American Christianity stumbles over itself to provide spiritual cover for the administration’s anti-Christian policies and rhetoric. The contemporary application of the kingdom ethic this pastor was proclaiming was clearly on his mind, rumbling just beneath the surface of his impassioned proclamation. But about the particular cruelties of this president and his enablers he said not a word.
I’m sympathetic to the challenges clergy face when addressing current events. Minefields abound! A thoughtful pastor will recognize how their congregation has been malformed by what James K.A. Smith calls “secular liturgies” and will do the careful discipleship work of inviting them always nearer to Jesus. So, for example, a person whose media diet led them to hear the Sermon on the Mount as Marxist propaganda will be lovingly discipled to welcome the radically nonpartisan kingdom which Jesus brings near.
I’m also wary of the obligation some pastors feel to offer commentary on every political or social development. While "the church is well aware of the complexity of political activity,” wrote Óscar Romero in 1978, “it is not, nor ought to be, an expert in this sort of activity.” In other words, because our churches exist as outposts of the kingdom of heaven, we simply won’t have the capacity to become expert in the all the complexities of the kingdoms of this world.
So, given the purposeful discipleship that happens in local congregations and the distinction between political commentary and gospel proclamation, why would I hope for anything more specific in that pastor’s sermon? Because, in racially reconciling churches the truth must be spoken plainly.
Let’s imagine a multiracial church whose mission includes racial reconciliation. In this political moment the pastor is aware that some in the congregation are being personally impacted by the presidential administration’s cruelty while others are either tuned out or supportive of the president. Rather than risk the latter’s frustration – angry emails, diminished giving, departure to the MAGA church across town – the pastor chooses not to apply the gospel directly to mass deportation, slanderous press releases, and persecution of the global poor.
The results of the pastor’s decision to preach in general terms are predictable: the tuned-out and MAGA-adjacent are abandoned to their assumptions while those who are vulnerable to the administration’s cruelty are left wondering if God has a word for their circumstances. The lack of precisely spoken truth reveals that this is a multiracial church for the culturally privileged.
But what about Romero’s distinction between political complexities and gospel proclamation? Understanding the church’s vocation doesn’t mean we remain silent about the injustices impacting those in our congregations and beyond. Rather, the church “can and must pass judgement on the general intention and the particular methods of political parties and organizations, precisely because of its interest in a more just society. The economic, social, political, and cultural hopes of men and women are not alien to the definitive liberation achieved in Jesus Christ, which is the transcendent hope of the church.” While our congregations will typically stay out of the political weeds, it’s our very identity as the embodied presence of Christ in the world which compels our prophetic witness when the intention and methods of our nation’s leaders damage our neighbors.
To be pursue racial reconciliation, then, is to tell the truth plainly, applying the revelation of the gospel to the specific manifestations of sin under which people are currently groaning. Anything less betrays a belief that reconciliation depends on us, that we are responsible for making peace rather than simply testifying to the God of peace.
I expect it won’t get any easier to tell the truth in the days to come, especially about how powerful people are acting destructively toward our vulnerable neighbors. But there simply is no actual reconciliation without the unvarnished truth. May our willingness to speak the truth with precision and courage be evidence that Jesus truly is reconciling all things
(Photo credit: Luis Quintero.)
This is an ongoing thinking-out-loud series about the faith-rooted racial reconciliation movement during these chaotic days. You can find previous entries here: Reconciliation and New Creation, Reconciliation and the Preferential Option, Reconciliation and Repair, Reconciliation and Warfare, Reconciliation and Prophetic Witness, Reconciliation and Politics, Reconciliation and Joy and Reconciliation and Place.
I’m excited to join some friends in Spokane next month for the Whitworth Ministry Summit. If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll join us.
The Race Against Gun Violence
A huge thanks to Sue, Jess, Ira, and Louise who contributed to my fundraiser last week! If this newsletter has been helpful to you, would you contribute to my participation in the upcoming Race Against Gun Violence? All proceeds will support our restorative justice work through New Community Outreach. Thanks!