Our Primary Opportunity | Rise + Vote Town Hall - July 2022

Illustration Black fetus in womb by Chidiebere Ibe

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June 23, 2022

What is the language of a decolonized faith? How do I marry my faith with my desire to see social and political change? Where is Jesus in relationship to the oppressed and marginalized?

I had the opportunity to share a reflection at the Corazón AZ Rise + Vote Town Hall meeting and a few people asked me for a copy. Below is a transcript!

Don’t forget to VOTE in Arizona’s primary election on August 2nd and follow @corazonarizona for helpful information.

Good afternoon, in light of this being a multi-faith space, to provide context, I’d like to say that I was born in the Black church - my Grandmother was a pastor.

By the time I was 6 years old, my family had moved to the suburbs and found an evangelical church. So I spent my formative years (ages 6-26) in an evangelical church led by a white man. Now I find myself being a part of a community that is trying to decolonize our faith. There’s an emphasis on following Jesus as one who cares about the marginalized and seeks out those whose backs are against the wall.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

With that being said, my name is Erin and my pronouns are she/her. I’d like to once again begin with a land acknowledgment to honor the Native people that existed here before us. This land we dwell upon today (Grace Lutheran Church in downtown Phoenix) is the ancestral land of the Tohono O’odham Nation. We acknowledge their historical roots in this place, the many generations who were stewards of this land before it was stolen from them.

In Luke 3:1-6

John is described as some sort of prophet who exudes great discipline by living in the wilderness. Because to the ancients, the wilderness was a place beyond human habitation, dangerous, and inhabited by evil spirits. John’s preaching of repentance was advocating for a transformation of society as a whole under the rule of God....while in the midst of oppressive politicians...

So to recap once again what’s happening in the context of this passage:

Political Unrest & Oppression
John the Baptist is Advocating, pleading that those participating in the system of oppression would repent, change their ways and be baptized into the way of God. Which is a way of love, deliverance, liberation, and freedom.
In the same way that God rescued the Children of Israel from the oppression of the Egyptians by parting the red sea. John invites all those who will hear into a “purification ceremony to be released from their bad hearts and broken ways.”

John does this by quoting Isaiah 40:3-5.

There were two writers of Isaiah. We don’t know who the second writer was but we know they picked up the pen to continue the story and bring HOPE to Israel. In a time when the people didn’t believe God would hear them, deliver them, see them...the second writer of Isaiah pens these words:

Prepare your lives for Jesus. Do right by people in the dark places -- for this is how you make a highway for God. For in the reign of Jesus, He makes all things right. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the unjust who oppress shall be set straight and all rough places made plain.

John the Baptist is inviting us to lean in and help make things right. He invites us to participate in the mission of Jesus.

Before my grandmother passed, I somehow miraculously got a copy of her Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible. After looking up many of the root words in context, I wrote out my own translation of this passage. It reads:

Do right by people in dark places. Exalt those who go unseen in low spaces. Make those who are on mountain tops and hills, brought low. Set straight the crooked and unjust who oppress. Make those rough places and spaces smooth and plain again. Don’t stand by and watch...join in and participate. Repent and turn from your wicked ways. Renew your hope in a God who liberates and delivers. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Come and be baptized in this way...for this is the way of Jesus.

VOTING RIGHTS

Pastor Stanley Hawuerwas said this, "Christians are called to non-violence not because we believe non-violence is a strategy to rid the world of war, but in a world of war, as faithful followers of Christ, we cannot imagine anything other than being non-violent. And that will make the world possibly more violent. Because the world does not want the order it calls "peace" exposed as the violence it so often times is. Now learning how to wait as a people of non-violence in a world of war…(is what) Advent is.”

The temptation of our time is to throw our hands in the air and say, “It is all bad anyway. We cannot stop oppression! We cannot stop injustice! We cannot stop the school shootings! We cannot stop police brutality! We cannot abolish the death penalty! There is nothing we can do! Que Sera Sera! Whatever will be, will be! But the life of Jesus (and even his very birth) suggests that HEAVEN is the Kingdom of God here on earth and THAT is the mission that Jesus invites us into.

So the primary election is a primary opportunity to be the hands and feet of love.
Let us pray.

PRAYER BEFORE AN ELECTION - AUTHOR UNKNOWN

(adapted for this event)

Father, Son, and Holy SpiritAs the election approaches,we seek to better understand the issues and concerns that confront our cities and our state. We seek to understand how the Gospel compels us to respond as faithful citizens in our community.

We ask for eyes that are free from blindness so that we might see each other as brothers and sisters, As one and equal in dignity, especially those who are victims of abuse and violence, deceit, and poverty.

We ask for ears that will hear the cries of children and those abandoned, men and women oppressed because of race or creed, religion or gender. We ask for minds and hearts that are open to hearing the voice of leaders who will bring us closer to Shalom.
We pray for discernment so that we may choose leaders who want to join you where you are. You are always with the marginalized. You are always with the poor and the needy. You are always with the oppressed. Keep us in the ways of your truth help us follow in the steps of Jesus Guide us to your Kingdom of justice and peace.

AMEN.

END NOTES

Pastor Pastor Stanley Hawuerwas’s quote is from the Aventus video created by The Work of the People: https://www.theworkofthepeople.com/adventus
The description of John the Baptist’s conditions in the wilderness comes from Blount Brian True to our Native Land (Minneapolis: Fortress Press 2007) pg. 89-90.