THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
The theological reflection this month is on the cross and the lynching tree and the lie of white supremacy.
LEARN
Choose one or more of the following:
READ
Book of the Month: While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement
Southern Poverty Law Center’s Civil Rights Memorial: Learn about the people on the Civil Rights Memorial who lost their lives in the struggle for freedom during the modern Civil Rights Movement - 1954 to 1968. The martyrs include activists who were targeted for death because of their civil rights work; random victims of vigilantes determined to halt the movement; and individuals who, in the sacrifice of their own lives, brought new awareness to the struggle.
Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror (report)
WATCH
“Here Am I, Send Me: The Story of Jonathan Daniels” (57 min)
Ruby Sales’ TED talk, How do we maintain our courage to fight for change? (20 min)
The Anti-Chinese Massacre of 1871: Video on white supremacy, manifest destiny, racism and lynchings of Chinese (and Latin Americans) and mob violence against Chinese in Los Angeles, late 19th century (26:15)
LISTEN
Ruby Sales: Lessons from the Southern Freedom Movement for Right Now podcast (58 min)
The Assassination of Medgar Evers podcast (11 min)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I’ve Been to the Mountaintop sermon, delivered April 3, 1968 at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee (43 min)
NOTICE
Choose one or more of the following:
Who are the people you see risking their safety or security to stand up for the freedom and flourishing of other people—here in the U.S. or in other parts of the world?
Look through the calendar of saints listed in A Great Cloud of Witnesses. How many of them were killed because of their dedication to standing up for the freedom and flourishing of other people?
ENGAGE
Choose one or more of the following:
Connect with someone you admire who is speaking and acting to address racial injustice. Consider thanking them for the work they do by sending them a card or an email.
Uncover your church’s history of participation in behaviors and structures of both racial injustice and racial justice and healing. Interview elders in the church and look through church and diocesan documents, and newspaper reports.
REFLECT
What stood out to you the most?
How are you feeling?
What action will you take?
Who in your family/community may want to take action with you?
PRAY
Christ is risen!
Alleluia!
God lives and is alive in us.
Beauty, love, joy, passion, justice - despite everything, they persist!
No spirit of destruction,
no forces of violence,
no means of everyday evil can steal our hope.
The stone has been rolled away.
The Spirit of Life cannot be contained.
Christ is risen!
Alleluia!
Holy One, through you the impossible becomes possible. You birth hope into inconceivable places: In our greatest pain. In our heaviest grief. In our weightiest battles with injustice. Even when we cannot yet perceive it, your Spirit is at work. Give us the faith, O God, to trust in the mystery of your redemptive hand. Amen.
(from "enfleshed," a community and online resource that seeks to provide individuals and communities with spiritual and theological resources for liturgy, prayer & contemplation, preaching, teaching, and consulting that speak directly to what matters the most.)
