Aural Tradition, Retelling of the Bible and Resistance to Plationized Christianity: A Sermon about Turning the Other Cheek: Really Jesus?
Grace and peace to you,
My sisters
Brothers
And
Siblings
In
Christ.
Sometimes,
God’s Word
And
Jesus’s Teachings
Leave us
Confused
Perplexed
And
Uncomfortable
But,
The Good News is,
Because of who Jesus is
There is Grace,
There is empowerment
There is love in the end,
For all of humanity.
Amen.
(pause)
Dr. Renita Weems,
Womanist theologian
Shared a story,
About Howard Thurman’s Grandmother,
As it relates to,
The aural culture
The retelling of the Bible
And
Resistance.
Thurman recalls
“two or three times I read the Bible out loud to her.
I was deeply impressed by the fact that she was most particular
About the choice of Scripture.”
She loved the Psalms
Parts of Isaiah
But the Pauline epistles?
Never.
(pause)
When Thurman inquired of her
As to the why,
She told him this story
“During the days of slavery,
The master’s minister would occasionally hold services for the slaves.
Always,
The white minister used as his text
Something from Paul.
At least three or four times a year,
He used this scripture-
Slaves, be obedient to them,
That are your master…
Unto Christ.”
Thurman’s grandmother added
The minister would stress
That it was God’s will,
That we were slaves
And that “how if we were good
And happy slaves
God would bless us.
I promised my Maker,
That if I ever learned to read,
And if freedom ever came,
I would not read
That part
Of
The
Bible.”
(pause)
I find myself
In agreement with her.
Immersed in everything
Theological
Biblical
And
Spiritual,
This Gospel before us
Causes my entire being
To flinch.
If I am honest,
I cannot see
The Good News
Proclaimed
Here.
(pause)
I could last week-
Jesus,
Proclaiming
And being
Counter-cultural
Radical
Focusing towards
Liberation
Of the oppressed
Transforming their despair
Into the fuel to break through every chain
(pause)
That Gospel echoed with me,
As I preached Monday
At LSTC’s chapel service.
I felt
The reverberations
In that Gospel
That God indeed
Stands on the side of the oppressed
And I heard it sung out
In the protest song,
Whose Side Are You On?
(pause)
But,
Here
Jesus,
What Side Are You on,
Anyway?
Jesus,
We hear the Creator speaking power!
Mercy!
But then,
This?
(pause)
Love your enemies
(pause)
Pray for those
Who abuse you
(pause)
Do unto others,
As you would
Have them
Do
To
You.
(pause)
Amid a society,
Which bred violence,
A world,
Which purposely forgot,
The lessons
The words from prophets
Its history
About how humanity
Was to be in harmony
With one another,
A people
Intrusive with relationships
Deserving an apocalyptic punishment
Enters in,
Grace
In the form
Of Jesus.
(pause)
Jesus came to teach them
That because God indeed
Has heard their cry
Has witnessed their pain
Has grieved alongside them,
Has welcomed their tired souls
Into Life everlasting
Has stood and stands
with the oppressed,
There is nothing
That they-
The Roman Empire,
Who valued wealth,
Property-
And saw their bodies,
As expendable
property
Religious leaders who were aiming
For posterity
And not preserving
The bond,
The traditions
The sacredness
Of the people
They were charged
With caring for..
(pause)
There was nothing
That they could do
To remove the affirmation
That the Creator indeed,
Loved all of God’s people.
And so,
Through these acts of nonviolence,
It was a way to humiliate those who,
Did not see the sacred reflection
Of God
In everyone’s features.
(pause)
Turning the other cheek
As the late theologian
Walter Wink offered,
In this ancient time
“would stop the oppressor
and assert one’s dignity,
equality
and
humanity.
It would put the oppressed
on equal footing.
“I deny you the power to humiliate me.
I am a human being just like you.”
(pause)
Broderick Greer,
A colleague and theologian
Offered this on Twitter
“Turning the other cheek,
Is going to whatever length possible
To force your oppressor
To look you in the eye
And acknowledge
One’s
Humanity.”
(pause)
As I wrestled with this
During moments of solitude
And commiserating with colleagues,
Friends
And Elders alike
I realized,
That was Jesus is vocalizing,
Is everything
That He would experience
In those last days,
Those last moments
Before his execution.
(pause)
I realized,
That my Elders,
Many now Ancestors
Emulated this
During the Civil Rights movement
They prayed for those who reviled them,
And the world saw the violence
Heaped on these innocent bodies.
They turned the other cheek,
And the world saw,
That America did not value
Peoples of African Descent
As equal human beings
Even as People of African Descent,
Tried to emulate what Jesus Christ
Taught those of His time
And us now,
To show compassion
Even in the midst
Of violence
Of hatred
And yes,
Even
Death.
(pause)
Perhaps,
This was
An asset
In those fighting
For Civil Rights
Because it was the first time
That people found the momentum
To stand together
As one,
For restorative justice
And
Change.
(pause)
But,
Does
That
Work
Now?
(pause)
Jesus,
I’m sorry
But this right here
Is problematic
The oppressors today?
They REVEL in our humiliation
Our degradation
We can turn the other cheek all we want,
And they will still press towards our demise.
(pause)
These verses right here?
Pray for those who abuse you?
This is one of the verses used,
To shame people back into relationships
And situations filled
with domestic and physical exploitation
(pause)
Jesus,
I can’t.
Have you seen the world, lately?
Where bodies are shot at,
Because people assume, they are criminal
Based on their history
In this country
As slaves
Based on a distorted narrative
That their homeland,
Is nothing more than savage, undeveloped and unintelligent
Where we complain,
About having a month to celebrate their History
When we should be incorporating the gifts,
Talents
Contributions
That peoples of African Descent have given to this country
All year long.
(pause)
Where bodies are stamped as being illegal
Because the government blames them,
For daring to journey towards freedom
And not taking ownership
At the systemic racism
That was created by the dominant culture
To belittle those,
Who did not conform
And who would never be accepted.
It leaves us to question,
That whole phrase
That the U.S. widely displays
“Give me your poor,
Tired,
Huddle
Masses,
Yearning to be free.”
If the U.S. will ever adhere to it,
Or if it has always been
Nothing more
Than a P.R move
Because this Empire
This government
Really doesn’t mean
That all lives matter
In this country.
(pause)
Where bodies, are disregarded
And their lives seen as inconsequential
Because they choose to live
As whom they feel,
They identify
Who the Creator made them
We,
As Christians
As followers of Christ,
Are real good about saying
Love thy neighbor
But when our neighbor identifies
As anything other than straight, cis gender
Suddenly,
We don’t want to know them
We want to avoid any contact with them
We become opposed vocally
And deny their humanity
When we deny them the right
To be our Pastors, Priests, Clergy and Ministers
In our churches.
(pause)
Jesus,
Is it alright,
If I disagree here with you?
There has been so much violence we have witnessed
There is so much hate that has been spewed
That this world right now,
Leaves us so fearful!
These verses,
There are those who use them
To try to quiet us
Into submission
Shame us
Into submission
Demand that we,
Accept our fate
Give up our lives,
What we have earned
Fought for
For someone else’s comfort.
(pause)
And yet,
Jesus knew,
That there would be those,
Who refuse to hear
This word of restoration
Of repair,
That what the law could not accomplish
Through the Word
Through the Holy Spirit
There could be grace,
Mercy
And
Peace!
(pause)
You wouldn’t know it now, beloved
But I used to be real quiet
I tried to be that mediator
Now,
I can’t sit still
I can’t shut up
And because I know where Jesus stands
I feel called to express my righteous indignation
To blend my voice,
With others
Singing definitively
Whose Side Will you Be On?
And I know,
As we all know
When we try to live out these verses,
These words
And the world instead reacts
And belittles our humanity
And suppresses our
And tries to eliminate us from,
Society
From speaking truth
From doing justice
From being that example
From being that witness
(pause)
Through the pain,
Bruises
Humiliation
Jesus will be with us,
In the midst of us
(pause)
Thanks Be to God.
