Building Beloved Community | KALEO PHX
APRIL 18, 2021
How would Jesus address the injustices shown towards Daunte Wright, Caron Nazario, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery? How would Jesus create space to comfort the communities hurting from the loss of life? How would Jesus address the dangers of White Supremacy?
How would Jesus create space for racial reconciliation? I spoke at Kaleo Phx on Sunday, April 18, 2021, doing my best to address these things in humility and love. This is a recording from that gathering. Below is a transcript of my message/notes.
SAY THEIR NAMES
Led by the African American Policy Forum, the phrase ‘Say Their Names’ stemmed from the ‘say her name’ movement. This movement launched in December of 2014, along with support from the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies (CISPS) as a way to support the stories of Black women and girls who faced police violence.
The phrase “say their names” is a way to honor the lives and legacies of those who lost their lives at the hand of police violence or brutality.
So we BREATHE...and create space to process the evils that have happened recently in our country.
A local pastor here, Jimmy of Neighborhood Ministries recently said that breathing is his favorite form of prayer.
When we breathe...we remember:
We are worth liberating.
We are worth protecting.
We are worth seeking justice for.
Just because we’re BREATHING.
His breath in our lungs is a sign of His love for us.
As I say their names, would you breathe with me and remember the love that God has for the ones that lost their lives and the families/community grieving the lives lost at the hands of White Supremacy acted out in police brutality.
Adam Toledo
On Thursday, April 15, 2021 - A shaky, fast-moving video released in Chicago showed a police officer chasing a boy down a dark alleyway, yelling at him to stop. “Stop right now!” the officer screamed while cursing, telling him to drop his gun. “Hands. Show me your hands. Drop it. Drop it.” As the boy turned and lifted his hands, a single shot rung out and he collapsed. The boy, Adam Toledo, died. He was 13.
*BREATHE*
Dante Wright
On Sunday, April 11, 2021, Daunte Demetrius Wright, a 20-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop and attempted arrest for an outstanding arrest warrant in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. After a brief struggle with officers, Wright was shot, and then drove off but crashed his vehicle into another and hit a concrete barrier. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
*BREATHE*
Derek Chauvin’s Trial
A fired Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death. We watch and wait, listen and observe this historical moment. Will we see justice for the murder of George Floyd that happened on May 25, 2020? Mr. Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, who after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground under the knee of the murderer, Chauvin, for more than nine minutes.
*BREATHE*
The big church-wide liturgical calendar that we follow has us collectively in the season of Eastertide as Chris explained earlier in the service: throughout Eastertide we are invited to reflect on how we are to live as disciples of the risen Jesus Christ (a resurrected people), choosing joy, and being surprised by God’s new Hope. As N.T. Wright says, “The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it.”
And so we find ourselves here in...
1 JOHN 3:1-7 (NLT)
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that...is...what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.
2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.
3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.
5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him.
6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.
What’s interesting to me about this passage is that it’s all about building a beloved community a multi-ethnic people group that truly reflects the family of God because each individual present sees themselves and the people around them as truly beloved...of God.
A DUTY TO THE COLLECTIVE
If you’ve been living in America for any length of time we’ve been taught to desire and seek the “American dream.” To win at whatever cost...by all means necessary. To make it and achieve “freedom” doing whatever it takes. This mentality teaches us to see ourselves as individuals -- separate and apart from one another.
Which is the exact opposite of the Kingdom of God. The family of God says that we “belong to each other.” And as INDIVIDUALS we have a responsibility TO THE COLLECTIVE that we are a part of.
As an individual...I have a responsibility to learn…
To create space for other cultures to live and thrive around me.
To have empathy and deep understanding for other cultures and people groups.
To look out for, protect and love my family...because that’s what Christ did for us.
And we love Christ...because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19).
A QUICK STORY
Thursday night, Kendall was dropping me off at home (my new home in downtown Phoenix, whoop-whoop). I went to get out of my car and say goodbye, but he wanted to keep chatting and reflect on the good time we had together with the family and friends we just spent time with, so I got back in the car and we kept talking. While we were talking, in front of me I see this really dressed up female walking swiftly across the street in front of us. It’s 10:30 at night. There’s a lady walking alone at night...kind of fast. Then she stops walking and starts walking backward which seemed a bit awkward. A man gets out of his car and walks towards her. I’m thinking maybe she was waiting for him, maybe they’re walking together. Then he grabs her and begins to rough her up a bit.
By this time, Kendall’s voice has completely faded out and I say with great urgency to Kendall, “He’s hurting her, he’s hurting her. We have to help her.” He speeds his car up and we check on her to see if she’s okay. The Latino man and woman look at us like we’re crazy...they weren’t expecting anyone to intervene. The man says to us, “She’s my wife...it’s okay.” to which we respond…”Um, it’s actually not okay!” and then we ask her if she needs help or needs a ride somewhere. Long story short, the gentleman wound up leaving, we informed the cops and stayed with her a while as she walked home.
I share this not because I believe everybody has to do what we did. But I cannot shake the responsibility I feel to the collective I’m a part of...as an individual...to seek justice...to love mercy...and to walk humbly with my God.
Ayo said it best In the Disney+ series, Falcon and the Winter Soldier:
She, being a black, bald, powerful female from Wakanda is told by a white man…”You have no jurisdiction here.” She responds with "We have jurisdiction wherever we find ourselves to be."
And in the same way
Wherever my feet tread...there will be justice.
Wherever I find myself to be...there will be mercy.
Wherever I find myself to be...there will be love.
Wherever I find myself to be...there will presence.
So I extend this challenge to you -- which comes from the heart of 1 John 3. A journey of transformation that comes out of being in community together and showing love to one another as Christ has shown love to us.
A PUBLIC ADDRESS
To the WHITE MAN:
Your words hold the most weight in America.
What would it look like for you -- being the most powerful, most believed human being in America to use your words to name White Supremacy? Or, to name the injustices of the world?
What would it look like for you to speak the truth and to use your ability to be believed to speak things that haven’t been heard for generations from the mouths of people of color?
What would it look like to leverage your whiteness to center the voices and bodies of people of color? To turn the world’s eyes away from you and to the people who live in the margins? More specifically…women and BIPOC.
THAT is love.
THAT is the Kingdom of God.
For you -- White Man -- are also loved by God and the responsibility you have to the collective is that that same love would be extended to the margins.
To the WHITE WOMAN:
You are the most influential human being in America.
You are the most protected human being in America.
Why not leverage your whiteness to also protect Black and brown bodies?
Why not redeem the word “Karen” and like my friend Raven Short says, be “Karens for justice”?
Why not use your white power to teach your children to care for just behavior.
To see Black and Brown bodies as sacred and beloved of the Lord...YOU -- White Woman have that power.
THAT is love.
THAT is the Kingdom of God.
For you -- White Woman -- are also loved by God and the responsibility you have to the collective is that that same love would be extended to the margins.
To the MEN OF COLOR:
I know most of the world sees you as dangerous…a prized commodity.
Your body, gifts, talents are used for profit.
Rest, weary soul, and know that you are loved by God.
Fear not, for God is with you. Though the world may be able to kill your body...they cannot kill your soul.
Your life is valued.
You are seen.
You are loved.
To the WOMEN OF COLOR:
Rest.
Breathe.
Slow down.
Take care of yourself...because the systems you live in aren’t designed to take care of you.
Get your dignity back.
You are not what systemically the White man tells you.
You are not what systemically the White woman believes about you.
You are not too loud
You are not too angry
You are not too much
You are perfect, beautiful, beloved as you are.
You too are a child of God made in his image and likeness.
If you would with me for a moment reflect on the differences in what must be said to encourage the different bodies and lived experiences present here today…that we might see equality and love for one another as the family of God together.
This means that the world that we live in does not YET reflect the Kingdom of God…BUT the Kingdom of God lives in us.
May the love of God that lives in us be reflected and shine like light on the people that we encounter.
As the band comes up I want to read to you once again 1 John 3:1-7 with some of my own expanded commentary:
1 JOHN 3:1-7 (NLT)
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us (Black, White Brown, Yellow, Red) his children, and that...is...what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.
2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we DO know that we will be like HIM, for we will see him as he really is.
3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure (untainted by the systems of this world), just as He (Jesus) is pure (operating from a different culture -- one that reflects the family of God).
4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.
5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him.
6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.
In silence...would you let Jesus speak to your heart today…
I’d like to read to you a prayer written by a Chinese-American friend named, Rachel Lam. Rachel is a Psychology Professor at Weber State University and clinician at a trauma therapy clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was a long-time resident here in the city of Phoenix and was heavily involved at Neighborhood Ministries downtown before moving to Utah. She read this prayer at the CCDASW Racial Justice conference and with her permission, I read to you her prayer.
God, thank you for your sovereignty. Thank you for covering us. Thank you that you hold us under your wings and that we can take refuge in You. Thank you that when we are broken and grieving, when we are weeping in the sufferings of our brothers and sisters - in our own pain and the traumas of our people, when we are overwhelmed and afraid, exposed and targeted… thank you, Jesus, that you stand alongside us in empathy, because you have already been through it all.
Thank you for liberating us from fear because we can follow the model that you laid out for us in our Messiah, and by the footsteps of the many activists and freedom fighters, the prophets of their times, the truth-tellers in our histories and heritages, who have all gone before us. It is our turn, but we do not go alone. I hear you, God. You have made me, us, truth-tellers. You have given us the space to speak - to tell our stories. Let us be obedient to your call, let us not quiet our voices in silence only to sustain broken systems and a society that works against us, but let us boldly proclaim the truths that we know.
Give us the strength and perseverance to do the dismantling that you have set out for us, to do our part to tear down the resilient structures of a racist world. Give us courage, God, to love our brothers and sisters - those who may not know or see us - by telling them the truths in our stories, truths they need to hear. Let us walk both in Love and in Truth, and in the hope of a world that does not yet exist.
I pray in the name of the Sovereign God, the God of Justice, the One who is for the oppressed and the foreigner, in the name of Emmanuel, God with us… Amen.
———
Thank you for deciding to come and participate in today’s collective gathering. If you would like to continue to learn and grow outside of the Sunday gathering, we would invite you to check out our Eastertide Resource page available here: http://kaleophx.com/eastertide
We will continue to fill it with recommended books, practice guides, meditations, sermons, etc. Things that you can do at home or with your family and friends around a table.
BENEDICTION
Until we see you again… may the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
