Lenten Devotional 2021

Advent Lutheran Church, NYC

Introduction to Lent 2021: Disrupt

I recently read that Jesus' ministry was defined by his willingness to be interrupted. I'd argue that it was also defined by his willingness to be an interruption.

"Disrupt" is our theme for Lent 2021. We understand this theme might feel unsettling. Especially during a period in history where all we want is for things to be settled and ordered.

But with so much disruption present in our lives, we want to explore how God works in and through disruption.

Together, this Lent, we will explore how the Holy Spirit is working through disruption: the disruption of the Lenten season, this past year, Jesus' final days, our best intentions, and God's vision for what could be.

Together, we'll ask: How is God calling us to reorder our lives and our world? How can we follow Jesus' lead and be disrupters of the status quo?

This devotional is a collective community resource to help us wrestle with scripture and holy disruption.

In addition to this devotional, you can join this journey the next 5 Sundays of Lent.

Sunday, Feb 21 (tomorrow): Disrupting Economy Sunday, Feb 28: Disrupting Religion Sunday, Mar 7: Disrupting Racism Sunday, Mar 14: Disrupting Institutions Sunday, Mar 21: Disrupting Death

And engage in a plethora of Small Group opportunities at https://www.adventnyc.org/groups

May God bless you on your Lenten journey. And all the days of your life.

Pastor Danielle

Sunday February 21 | Mark 14:1-11 and Disrupting Economy

It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, "Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people."

While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, "Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." And they scolded her. But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her."

Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

------

Reflection: Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. We vilifying him. We shake our heads in disbelief that his faith could be so easily shaken. And we do the same.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 25, what you do to the least of these you do to me also. The reality is that we operate in a financial system that requires people to lose so that some will win. The system that is our economy has been so divorced from the humanity and belovedness of the people that exist within it, that while we see wealth disparity as an unfortunate reality, we also act as if it is a forgone conclusion.

But God’s economy is relational. And relationships are never forgone conclusions. They are active, living, moving, and holy partnerships/covenants/acts of love and mutual respect. Relationships ask us to value the well being of another, they inspire us to give, and to look beyond what we know and ask us to act with empathy.

Questions:

What does it look like for us to live into God’s economy?

This week, take note of the economic transactions you engage in – large and small. How are those transactions relational? Pay attention to how you participate in economy and ask God to disrupt your regular patterns and assumptions. *artwork: Tree of Life, Elena Kotliarker Monday February 22 | Matthew 20:1-16

1For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3When he went out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; 4and he said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. 5When he went out again about noon and about three o'clock, he did the same. 6And about five o'clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, 'Why are you standing here idle all day?' 7They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard.' 8When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, 'Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.' 9When those hired about five o'clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. 11And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' 13But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?' So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

------

Reflection questions:

Where do you find yourself in this story? Are you the landowner, giving out generous wages? Are you the first laborers, who worked all day and became envious of those who worked less? Are you the last laborers, who worked short hours and received the same wage as the first? Who are you in the story right now, and who would you like to be?

This passage from Matthew is, on one level, a metaphor for the kingdom of God: grace is given to each of us, even and especially to those who have done little or nothing to "earn" it. On another level, this story can be read as a practical guide to a just economy. A day's wages for a laborer was essentially equal to the cost of living for one day, meaning these laborers were living paycheck to paycheck, day to day. If a laborer did not work, or was paid less than a full day's wage, they would likely go hungry. Therefore, it is an act of justice to pay each laborer the same, full wage, so that all would be able to survive. Inspired by this story, what actions can you take in your own life to live out a similar economic ethic?

- Bekah Anderson Tuesday February 23 | Cosmos by Lutz Baar

Reflection Questions:

What does the expansiveness of creation tell us about God’s economy?

Today, take notice of the world around you. Take special notice to the relational aspects of creation. And how you relate from your place within creation.

Bonus exercise: Take three deep breaths. Look around and name 5 things you can see. Reach out to 4 things you can touch. Close your eyes and listen for three things you can hear. Keep your eyes closed and detect two things you can smell. What is one thing you can taste. Take three deep breaths and give thanks for this particular moment. Give thanks that you are here – a beloved child of God’s own creation. Wednesday February 24 | Philippians 4:1-9 and The Economy of Gratitude Reflection

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

------

Reflection Sometimes it feels like we have SO MUCH…and then other days it feels like we have SO LITTLE. Maybe these feelings are filled with love or hope or despair, or so little money to pay the bills, so little confidence, or so little trust in God. What does it mean to rejoice in the Lord always? What does it mean that the peace of God surpasses all understanding? Maybe you are wondering, how can I rejoice in God when it feels like the only thing left inside me is empty confusion and I’m not sure what rejoicing even looks or sounds like anymore? Maybe you are so filled with hope and love, that you are confused (and a little annoyed) why everyone seems so sad and lonely! Perhaps we can take this time to humanize our neighbors and love them in the ways that they need or point them in a direction of people and places that can help. Perhaps we can stop and take a moment to ask ourselves what it looks like to rejoice in the Lord always, and to figure out what peace and understanding with God looks and feels like, whether we are in the pits of despair or the highest mountain tops. We can take heart knowing that God can (and will) reach us wherever we are and God loves us exactly as we are. With these in mind, ask yourself, are you closer to the pits, or are you closer to the mountain top? What does peace and rejoicing look or sound like to you from where you are? - Hayley Moe * Photo: Make a Joyful Noise, by Darlington Ike Thursday February 25 | Manifesto: Mad Farmer's Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise, for power, please women more than men. vacation with pay. Want more Ask yourself: Will this satisfy of everything ready-made. Be afraid a woman satisfied to bear a child? to know your neighbors and to die. Will this disturb the sleep And you will have a window in your head. of a woman near to giving birth? Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card Go with your love to the fields. and shut away in a little drawer. Lie down in the shade. Rest your head When they want you to buy something in her lap. Swear allegiance they will call you. When they want you to what is nighest your thoughts. to die for profit they will let you know. As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, So, friends, every day do something lose it. Leave it as a sign that won’t compute. Love the Lord. to mark the false trail, the way Love the world. Work for nothing. you didn’t go. Be like the fox Take all that you have and be poor. who makes more tracks than necessary, Love someone who does not deserve it. some in the wrong direction. Denounce the government and embrace Practice resurrection. the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands. Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” from Give your approval to all you cannot The Country of Marriage, copyright © 1973 by understand. Praise ignorance, for what man Wendell Berry, reprinted by permission of Harcourt has not encountered he has not destroyed. Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest. Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold. Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years. Listen to carrion – put your ear close, and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come. Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. So long as women do not go cheap Friday February 26 | Psalm 25:1-10

To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O LORD! Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees. ------

Trust is a difficult thing. We put our trust in people. Ideas. Things. Trust requires a level of courage and a willingness to be vulnerable. And so often we find ourselves let down and disillusioned. Sometimes we give up on finding something or someone worthy of our trust, and instead turn to the most expedient thing.

God asks for our trust. Which can be hard, especially since trusting God means surrendering control to something/someone so far beyond us. I imagine that God already knows how difficult that can be. And so, God sent Jesus so that we could learn to trust the greatness of God in the singularity of our experience with Jesus.

And Jesus made good on the promises of God, showing us that there is no where God will not go to be with us, to feel our joy and pain, to love us and be loved.

What holds you back from trusting God? What gives you the courage to practice trust? Saturday February 27 | Disrupting Economy

What are ways you can live into God’s economy? Here are some resources to help you dig deeper. Choose one to explore today.

+ The Poor People’s Campaign | Founded in 1968 to gain economic justice for people who are poor in the United States, and in 2017 the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival was launched to resume the work begun in 1968. www.poorpeoplescampaign.org

+ Money Autobiography | Our faith is tied into everything, including our finances. Write a “money autobiography” to better understand your relationship to money and faith. Use the link below to find sample questions to dive deep. http://www.allsaintstampa.org/2018%20Stewardship%20Personal%20Money%20Autobiography.pdf

+ Convos with God and Others | Begin to break the stigma of talking about money. Have a conversation with a trusted friend about your relationship to money. Or, write a prayer to God in relationship to your resources. Ask how you are being called to live into God’s economy.

+ Explore the Accompaniment Model| The idea of the accompaniment model is used for development work through the ELCA around the globe. It is an economic model that goes beyond charity. It is rooted in relationship and justice. http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Accompaniment_%28full%29.pdf

Sunday February 28 | Gospel Reading Mark 14:12-25 and Intro to Disrupting Religion

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?" So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there." So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

When it was evening, he came with the twelve. And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me." They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, "Surely, not I?" He said to them, "It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born."

While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body." Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."

------Reflection: How bizarre it must have been to the disciples to hear Jesus passing around bread and wine and calling it his body and his blood. It is not what they expected. And it certainly was not what they were prepared for.

This act of Jesus is so central to our faith community. Every Sunday we hear these words and to us, while extraordinary in intent, they are not surprising. We expect it. Yet theologians have argued about it. A lot. What is the correct way to celebrate? What happens if you use grape juice? Is gluten- free bread really bread? Who gets to come to the table? None of these feel like the intention of this moment.

Religion is a vehicle for faith. It is not faith itself. And the vehicle is certainly not perfect. It helps us to catch a glimpse of the unfathomable greatness of God, but it also can keep us from experiencing that greatness because of the ways we insist God has to be.

How do the rituals we observe invite us and others to experience the mystery of God? And how do those rituals put limits on God and keep others from experiencing the Divine?

Monday March 1 | Read Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." 9When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. *Artwork: Journey of the Magi, by Tissot ------Reflection:

In today’s story, we read about some wise men (also called magi) who play a very important role in Jesus’ birth story! An interesting thing to note about the magi, is that they were not Jewish; they were astrologers following a star that they realized was the star the Jewish teachings said would be where the King of the Jews would be born! The magi knew this star was important for those who were Jewish, so they sought out to tell the people and pay their respects for the baby. In the midst of a politically trying time, this is a beautiful story about people across different traditions helping connect the dots to where Jesus was to be born.

As Christians, we often do not realize what other religions and traditions can tell us about our own traditions and views of God! We sometimes dive so deep into what the story of Jesus means to Christians, that we forget that Jesus crossed barriers and religious divides quite often. We sometimes are so nervous to stray from Christian belief that we do not give any thought to how those other practices might help us feel closer to our God. Society often tells us what people we can hang out with and who is “out”. We often choose to view entire groups of people through the stereotypes and rumors we have heard about them that we choose to avoid them all together in order to stay comfortable. It is not a secret that there is a long history of racial and religious violence in this country and world, and this violence often comes from mass stereotyping and demonizing of the “other”. Anyone who is too different from what we’ve always known somehow is seen as a burden rather than a gift from God. Jesus was told by his society exactly who he should and should not hang out with and Jesus did the exact opposite. He chose to sit with the outcasts and talk with those who were different from him. The longest conversation someone had with Jesus was a woman of Samaria who was being ignored in her own outcast society! The longest conversation Jesus has with someone was with an outcast in her own outcast group of people! Jesus did not need the people he interacted with to prove that they were worthy of his love, presence, and time. Jesus just loved them anyway for exactly who they were; children of God.

A more recent example of learning from other traditions, was from one of my religion classes in college. Our professor had us read part of the Quran where we read about the birth of Jesus when Mary was talking to God in agony! Mary was asking why God would put her through this kind of pain! Now, I’ve never given birth to our Lord and Savior, but this perspective of Mary made me think that maybe Jesus’ birth wasn’t a silent night after all!

The good news is that Jesus is here with us NOW. We must decide within ourselves what needs to change. We need to discuss why we decide who is “in” and who is “out” and who is deserving to receive our love. We need to ask ourselves what excuses we make for our unloving actions and ask why we sometimes even do it in the name of Jesus.What can we learn from other traditions? How can our view of God change by loving our interfaith neighbors exactly as they are?

- Hayley Moe ------Tuesday March 2 | Becoming Disabled by Dadu Shin

Dadu's illustration for Becoming Disable d reflects the notion that disability is everywhere, and be coming aware

of it can be a

revelation. How does religion create space for a variety of abilities? How

does it create barriers? Wednesday March 3 | Acts 8:26-40

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." 30So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth." The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. ------Reflection: To bring the main points forward to better understand, we read that a eunuch was turned away from the temple in Jerusalem and was on their way back to Ethiopia. When Philip was called into the desert, he did not know what he was called there for until the angel told him to go catch up with the eunuch! The eunuch thought that they would be able to worship at the temple, but after being turned away, they were trying to understand what they were missing! Philip was able to explain the text and Jesus to the eunuch, and soon enough, they passed some water! The eunuch asks, what is keeping me from being baptized? Philip realizes there wasn’t anything keeping them from being baptized, so in the middle of the desert, Philip baptized this eunuch, and was immediately whisked away by the angel! This story about the Ethiopian eunuch is revolutionary! Eunuchs were not socially accepted during this time, and we read that Philip was called to that desert to sit and wait until the angel told him where to go. When the eunuch crossed his path, he was told to catch up to him, and then after the eunuch was baptized, Philip was whisked away again! This is an intentional story of radical inclusion of someone who was completely left out of society during this time. We are shown that Jesus’ radical reaches well beyond our earthly understandings and exclusion. Don’t you think that if eunuchs were not meant to be in God’s kingdom, then the angels would not have called Philip to the desert and whisked him away after the baptism? Knowing this, what can we do moving forward and thinking about Jesus’ radical love and inclusion? Who in our society and context is “not included” that God is calling you to love? ACTION ALERT: As we lift up the Ethiopian Eunuch today, we also lift up the people of Ethiopia. The current conflict in Ethiopia needs not only our prayers but our advocacy. Educate yourself on the current conflict in the Tigrey region. Join the Tri-State Tegaru Advocacy Group, [email protected]. Contribute/connect with ELCA World Hunger who has accompaniment relationships in Ethiopia on the ground or contact Dennis Fredo, (773) 380- 2290/ [email protected], the director of the Lutheran Office for World Community at the UN. ------

Thursday March 4 | Inclusive, a poem by Ana Lisa De Jong

We were meant to grow up climbing rungs to heaven. We were meant to grow out expansive as yeast rising. We were meant to grow inwards, increasing in love and wisdom. We were meant to grow out beyond our old ways of living. Shedding skins as clothes grown long too tight. We are meant to learn grace as something not heavy, for it always being a gift renewed and re-given. We are meant to stop condemnation, judgement, anything small. Cease from all that makes us smaller than what we are now. For we are growing up, and giving up, the old receding like the sun behind the hills. And the love in us expanding out beyond ourselves, so that we might not recognise who once we were. And so it should be, love in us ever expanding until all we see is love in all. Friday March 5 | Jeremiah 31:33-34

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

What is the covenant that God desires to write on your heart? Spend 10 minutes today journaling a prayer to God. Or ten minutes in expectant silence.

------

Saturday March 6 |Ableism and Religion

Disabled people have not always felt welcome in religious spaces, and many still don't.

There are a million and one reasons for this.

Some of us have been prayed over without our consent in attempts to cure our disability. Not all disabled people want to be cured, but even for those that do, such prayers communicate to us that a church community isn't willing to be with us, as we are—or worse, that they think God isn't willing to be with us, as we are. Some of us have been told that if prayer does not cure our disability, it's because we don't have enough faith.

Some of us have been placed on pedestals by our faith communities, lauded for our perseverance in the face of hardship, our ability to smile through our disabling condition. But no one feels comfortable on a pedestal. We don't persevere and smile because we are somehow stronger or more resilient than others; we do it because we believe our lives are worth living, worth taking joy in. Standing alone on that pedestal, we can't help but think that the people who put us there don't really know what we struggle with. They didn't ask which aspects of our disability really tax us—they simply assumed. And, we wonder, what happens if we fall from this pedestal, if we have a day—like all humans do—where we just don't want to smile and say everything's fine? Will our community still hold us then, or will they turn away from us for failing to perform our disability correctly? That's happened to some of us, too.

Some of us have been denied the sacraments. We have been told—or our parents have been told— that we cannot tell good from evil, that we cannot understand what Communion is, and therefore it would be wrong to give us the bread and cup. We have been kicked out of our friends' and siblings baptisms for "causing a scene," being too loud or moving too much. But I ask you: who of us truly knows good from evil, truly knows everything that communion means? Who of us gets to decide what "proper" behavior in worship is, what it means to make a joyful noise to the Lord? Why must we put limits on where and how God shows up, to whom and how Their grace is poured out?

Some of us—many of us—have simply been able to enter our paces of worship. We are at home because we can’t take public transit, and no one would volunteer to drive us. We are outside the church, looking at those front steps and broken lift, and contemplating how the ones who built this building never imagined we might want to come inside. Some of us are thrilled to be able to worship online, from the comfort of our beds and couches and wheelchairs—but lament, because some day, the rest of the church will go back to worshipping in that building we can't enter, and will they remember us then?

This is ableism in the church. Ableism is the set of standards that say what is "normal" for a body or mind, what "functioning" and "well-adjusted" people look like. Ableism is all the ways disabled people experience discrimination, and all the times abled people feel shame for not "fitting" normal body and brain function quite right. Ableism is having one standard for abled people, and another for disabled people, instead of realizing that no one standard will work for all of us. Ableism is not having access, being told you are not good enough, being told you are better than others, being told that you have to be anything other than the fully human, child of God that you are.

God did not endorse ableism. Jesus did not turn away from disabled folk, but welcomed them as disciples. The Holy Spirit moves in the bodies, minds, and spirits of disabled folks just as it moves in nondisabled folks. How can we imagine it would be any other way?

May we disrupt religion. May we disrupt ableism. May the Church live into God's dream of accessibility, with full attention to the needs, gifts, and humanity of all Their children. Amen.

- Bekah Anderson

Sunday March 7 | Mark 14:26-50 and Intro to Dismantling Racism

When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, "You will all become deserters; for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.'

But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." Peter said to him, "Even though all become deserters, I will not." Jesus said to him, "Truly I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." But he said vehemently, "Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you." And all of them said the same.

They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. And he said to them, "I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake." And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, "Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want." He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour? Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And once more he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to say to him. He came a third time and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand."

Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; and with him there was a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, "The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard." So when he came, he went up to him at once and said, "Rabbi!" and kissed him. 46Then they laid hands on him and arrested him. But one of those who stood near drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to them, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled." All of them deserted him and fled.

------

His closest companions slept through his anguish. They fled at this arrest. He was betrayed with a kiss.

Racism is power plus bias. Power can exist without bias. And bias can exist without power. But when the two combine, the damage is horrific. Racism is individual. It is communal. It is systemic. And ultimately, in the US it is a white problem. What do I mean by that?

Stokley Carmichael once said, "I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people. For example, I am black. I know that. I also know that while I am black I am a human being, and therefore I have the right to go into any public place. White people didn’t know that. Ev ery time I tried to go into a place they stopped me. So some boys had to write a bill to tell that white man, “He’s a human being; don’t stop him.” That bill was for that white man, not for me. I knew it all the time. I knew that I could vote and that it wasn’t a privilege; it was my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived. So somebody had to write a bill for white people to tell them, “When a black man comes to vote, don’t bother him.” That bill, again, was for white people, not for black people. So that when you talk about open occupancy, I know I can live anyplace I want to live. It is white people across this country who are incapable of allowing me to live where I want to live. You need a civil rights bill, not me. I know I can live where I want to live." The sin of white supremacy infects the roots of our country. When we hear white supremacy we think of members of hate groups – of proud boys and KKK members. But the truth is white supremacy is interwoven in our economy, our churches, our schools, our workplaces, and yes, our hearts. There is privilege afforded people who are white because of whiteness. Folks might experience oppression in other ways, but not because of skin color. People might not like you because you are white. You might be made to feel bad. But because bias needs power and power is reserved for whiteness in America, the virulent and dangerous racism that we are called to deconstruct is connected first and foremost to the white experience. People are against racism in principle. But to reject racism means to relinquish privileges that have been around for so long that they feel like rights. And so often, the anxiety of giving up what is known for what is unknown cuts off solidarity at the knees. Martin Luther King Jr. talks about the danger of the white moderate. It is the friend who betrays with a kiss. The disciple who sleeps through the anguish. The followers that flee when the dangers become real. As people of faith, how are we called to be the body of Christ? To engage in true love and solidarity with one another? To lose our lives to find them? To act for justice and to seek repentance and restoration when we inevitably stumble? These are not easy questions. But they are necessary ones. If they lead to discomfort, good. That discomfort points to a thin space. A disruption. An opportunity for God to do a new thing.

Monday March 8 | Reading from Letter from a Birmingham Jail (part 1)

From the Birmingham jail, where he was imprisoned as a participant in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote the letter which follows. It was his response to a public statement of concern & caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South. Dr. King, born in 1929, did his undergraduate work at Morehouse College; attended the integrated Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, PA, one of six black pupils among a hundred students, and the president of his class; and won a fellowship to Boston University for his Ph.D. While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling our present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all of the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would be engaged in little else in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the argument of “outsiders coming in.” I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliate organizations all across the South, one being the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Whenever necessary and possible, we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promises. So I am here, along with several members of my staff, because we were invited here. I am here because I have basic organizational ties here. Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth-century prophets left their little villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Greco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider.

You deplore the demonstrations that are presently taking place in Birmingham. But I am sorry that your statement did not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the demonstrations into being. I am sure that each of you would want to go beyond the superficial social analyst who looks merely at effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. I would not hesitate to say that it is unfortunate that so-called demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham at this time, but I would say in more emphatic terms that it is even more unfortunate that the white power structure of this city left the Negro community with no other alternative. Tuesday March 9 | Reading from Letter from a Birmingham Jail (part 2)

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying of the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of this country. Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in this nation. These are the hard, brutal, and unbelievable facts. On the basis of them, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the political leaders consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation.

Then came the opportunity last September to talk with some of the leaders of the economic community. In these negotiating sessions certain promises were made by the merchants, such as the promise to remove the humiliating racial signs from the stores. On the basis of these promises, Reverend Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to call a moratorium on any type of demonstration. As the weeks and months unfolded, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. The signs remained. As in so many experiences of the past, we were confronted with blasted hopes, and the dark shadow of a deep disappointment settled upon us. So we had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national community. We were not unmindful of the difficulties involved. So we decided to go through a process of self-purification. We started having workshops on nonviolence and repeatedly asked ourselves the questions, “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?” and “Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?” We decided to set our direct-action program around the Easter season, realizing that, with exception of Christmas, this was the largest shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this was the best time to bring pressure on the merchants for the needed changes. Then it occurred to us that the March election was ahead, and so we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that Mr. Conner was in the runoff, we decided again to postpone action so that the demonstration could not be used to cloud the issues. At this time we agreed to begin our nonviolent witness the day after the runoff.

This reveals that we did not move irresponsibly into direct action. We, too, wanted to see Mr. Conner defeated, so we went through postponement after postponement to aid in this community need. After this we felt that direct action could be delayed no longer.

You may well ask, “Why direct action, why sit-ins, marches, and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. I just referred to the creation of tension as a part of the work of the nonviolent resister. This may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men to rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. So, the purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. We therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in the tragic attempt to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

One of the basic points in your statement is that our acts are untimely. Some have asked, “Why didn’t you give the new administration time to act?” The only answer that I can give to this inquiry is that the new administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one before it acts. We will be sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Mr. Boutwell will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is much more articulate and gentle than Mr. Conner, they are both segregationists, dedicated to the task of maintaining the status quo. The hope I see in Mr. Boutwell is that he will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from the devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct-action movement that was “well timed” according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “wait.” It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This “wait” has almost always meant “never.” It has been a tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration. We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our God- given and constitutional rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say “wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos, “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “n****” and your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and when your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodyness”—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

Wednesday March 10 | Reading from Letter from a Birmingham Jail (part 3)

You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, it is rather strange and paradoxical to find us consciously breaking laws. One may well ask, “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “An unjust law is no law at all.”

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. To use the words of Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher, segregation substitutes an “I - it” relationship for the “I - thou” relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. So segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, but it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Isn’t segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation, an expression of his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? So I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court because it is morally right, and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances because they are morally wrong.

Let us turn to a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself. This is difference made legal. On the other hand, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow, and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

Let me give another explanation. An unjust law is a code inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or creating because it did not have the unhampered right to vote. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up the segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout the state of Alabama all types of conniving methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties without a single Negro registered to vote, despite the fact that the Negroes constitute a majority of the population. Can any law set up in such a state be considered democratically structured?

These are just a few examples of unjust and just laws. There are some instances when a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I was arrested Friday on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong with an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust.

Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience.

We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws.

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

In your statement you asserted that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But can this assertion be logically made? Isn’t this like condemning the robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn’t this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical delvings precipitated the misguided popular mind to make him drink the hemlock? Isn’t this like condemning Jesus because His unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to His will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see, as federal courts have consistently affirmed, that it is immoral to urge an individual to withdraw his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest precipitates violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.

I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth of time. I received a letter this morning from a white brother in Texas which said, “All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but is it possible that you are in too great of a religious hurry? It has taken Christianity almost 2000 years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth.” All that is said here grows out of a tragic misconception of time. It is the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively. I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.

Thursday March 11 | Letter from Birmingham Jail (Part 4)

You spoke of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I started thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency made up of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, have been so completely drained of self-respect and a sense of “somebodyness” that they have adjusted to segregation, and, on the other hand, of a few Negroes in the middle class who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because at points they profit by segregation, have unconsciously become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred and comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up over the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad’s Muslim movement. This movement is nourished by the contemporary frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination. It is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incurable devil. I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need not follow the do-nothingism of the complacent or the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. There is a more excellent way, of love and nonviolent protest. I’m grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, I am convinced that by now many streets of the South would be flowing with floods of blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as “rabble-rousers” and “outside agitators” those of us who are working through the channels of nonviolent direct action and refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes, out of frustration and despair, will seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies, a development that will lead inevitably to a frightening racial nightmare.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come. This is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom; something without has reminded him that he can gain it. Consciously and unconsciously, he has been swept in by what the Germans call the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America, and the Caribbean, he is moving with a sense of cosmic urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. Recognizing this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand public demonstrations. The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations. He has to get them out. So let him march sometime; let him have his prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; understand why he must have sit- ins and freedom rides. If his repressed emotions do not come out in these nonviolent ways, they will come out in ominous expressions of violence. This is not a threat; it is a fact of history. So I have not said to my people, “Get rid of your discontent.” But I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled through the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. Now this approach is being dismissed as extremist. I must admit that I was initially disappointed in being so categorized.

But as I continued to think about the matter, I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not Jesus an extremist in love?—“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice?—“Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ?—“I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Was not Martin Luther an extremist?—“Here I stand; I can do no other so help me God.” Was not John Bunyan an extremist?—“I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a mockery of my conscience.” Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist?—“This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.” Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist?—“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?

I had hoped that the white moderate would see this. Maybe I was too optimistic. Maybe I expected too much. I guess I should have realized that few members of a race that has oppressed another race can understand or appreciate the deep groans and passionate yearnings of those that have been oppressed, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent, and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too small in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some, like Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, and James Dabbs, have written about our struggle in eloquent, prophetic, and understanding terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They sat in with us at lunch counters and rode in with us on the freedom rides. They have languished in filthy roach-infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of angry policemen who see them as “dirty n***** lovers.” They, unlike many of their moderate brothers, have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful “action” antidotes to combat the disease of segregation.

Friday March 12 | Letter from Birmingham Jail (Part 5)

Let me rush on to mention my other disappointment. I have been disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand this past Sunday in welcoming Negroes to your Baptist Church worship service on a nonsegregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Springhill College several years ago.

But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say that as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say it as a minister of the gospel who loves the church, who was nurtured in its bosom, who has been sustained by its Spiritual blessings, and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.

I had the strange feeling when I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery several years ago that we would have the support of the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests, and rabbis of the South would be some of our strongest allies. Instead, some few have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows.

In spite of my shattered dreams of the past, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and with deep moral concern serve as the channel through which our just grievances could get to the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.

I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South call upon their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers say, follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is your brother. In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sidelines and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, “Those are social issues which the gospel has nothing to do with,” and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which made a strange distinction between bodies and souls, the sacred and the secular.

There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But they went on with the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven” and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.

Things are different now. The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s often vocal sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I meet young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust.

I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America. Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages of history the majestic word of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. For more than two centuries our foreparents labored here without wages; they made cotton king; and they built the homes of their masters in the midst of brutal injustice and shameful humiliation—and yet out of a bottomless vitality our people continue to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.

I must close now. But before closing I am impelled to mention one other point in your statement that troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping “order” and “preventing violence.” I don’t believe you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its angry violent dogs literally biting six unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I don’t believe you would so quickly commend the policemen if you would observe their ugly and inhuman treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you would watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you would see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys, if you would observe them, as they did on two occasions, refusing to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I’m sorry that I can’t join you in your praise for the police department.

It is true that they have been rather disciplined in their public handling of the demonstrators. In this sense they have been publicly “nonviolent.” But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the last few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. So I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or even more, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.

I wish you had commended the Negro demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midst of the most inhuman provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, courageously and with a majestic sense of purpose facing jeering and hostile mobs and the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old woman of Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride the segregated buses, and responded to one who inquired about her tiredness with ungrammatical profundity, “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.” They will be young high school and college students, young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience’s sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were in reality standing up for the best in the American dream and the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage.

Never before have I written a letter this long—or should I say a book? I’m afraid that it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else is there to do when you are alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think strange thoughts, and pray long prayers?

If I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything in this letter that is an overstatement of the truth and is indicative of my having a patience that makes me patient with anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Get Connected Learn More www.blacklivesmatter.com I’m Still Here, Austin Channing Brown www.colorofchange.org Baptized In Teargas, Elle Dowd www.thekingcenter.org The Tears We Cannot Stop, Michael Erik Dyson www.trcnyc.org/freedomschool The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin The Cross and the Lynching Tree, James Cone Film Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates 13th Eloquent Rage, Brittney Cooper I’m Not Your Negro The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap

Boss: The Black Experience in Business

Saturday March 13 | Micah 6:1-8

Hear what the LORD says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with his people and he will contend with Israel. "O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the LORD." "With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?

Reflection:

This passage speaks to me of solidarity.

The prophet Micah brings us into a courtroom scene: God has a case against God's people, the Israelites, and asks the mountains and the Earth to witness and judge. In the first few verses, God just seems to want to know why: why are God's people turning away from God? Don't they remember all the things God has done for them, like bringing them out of Egypt, and turning the curses of their enemies into blessings? So many prophets and leaders have come to the people to tell them what to do: why don't they remember?

Next, the people speak, and I can empathize with their response. They don't try to answer the "why" of God's question; they jump straight to trying to make amends. "Okay," they say, "we get that you're angry we're forgetting about you. How do we make it better? What can we sacrifice? What can we give up, give to you, to atone for what we've done?"

It's a reasonable response, I think. Someone asks you why you've forgotten about them, and you jump straight to showing how you remember them. Someone says you've done something wrong, and you ask, "What can I give up to show I'm sorry?" It's a common theme of Lent, isn't it? To show our discipline, and our penitence, we give something up?

It's reasonable, but it's not the response God is looking for here.

"HE has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

God isn't asking us—God's people—to give up our possessions, or make a big show of penitence. God is asking us to show some humility, and to live in justice, love, and kindness with our neighbors.

In other words, when God expressed anger and hurt that the people were forgetting God, God was truly expressing anger and hurt that they were forgetting one another. Forgetting the marginalized. Forgetting love and kindness. To God, forgetting God and forgetting our neighbor are one and the same.

This is solidarity: the knowledge that what affects one affects all, and the commitment to respond with that truth in mind. God responds to injustice done to humans as if that injustice were done to God—because it is. We are invited into that same solidarity, to respond to the suffering of others as if it were our own.

That solidarity, however, still has to center the one who is literally suffering. And so all of Micah's words come together. When we follow the leadership of those most affected, we are walking humbly with our God. When we act with compassion and safeguard the emotional well-being of the marginalized, we are loving kindness. And when we feel the depth of outrage and pain that any one of God's children should be denied their dignity and rights, we are doing justice.

May it be so with each of us. Amen.

- Bekah Anderson

Sunday March 14 | Mark 14:53-72 and into to Disrupting Institutions

They took Jesus to the high priest; and all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes were assembled. Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the guards, warming himself at the fire. Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death; but they found none. For many gave false testimony against him, and their testimony did not agree. Some stood up and gave false testimony against him, saying, We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.' But even on this poi nt their testimony did not agree. Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, "Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?" But he was silent and did not answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?" Jesus said, "I am; and 'you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power,' and 'coming with the clouds of heaven.'"

Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy! What is your decision?" All of them condemned him as deserving death. Some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to strike him, saying to him, "Prophesy!" The guards also took him over and beat him.

While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came by. When she saw Peter warming himself, she stared at him and said, "You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth." But he denied it, saying, "I do not know or understand what you are talking about." And he went out into the forecourt. Then the cock crowed. And the servant-girl, on seeing him, began again to say to the bystanders, "This man is one of them." But again he denied it. Then after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, "Certainly you are one of them; for you are a Galilean." 71But he began to curse, and he swore an oath, "I do not know this man you are talking about." At that moment the cock crowed for the second time. Then Peter remembered that Jesus had said to him, "Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." And he broke down and wept.

------Reflection: We all interact with institutions. The church is an institution. Our schools, banks, hospitals…any established organization, particularly of a public character. Once put in motion, they often develop their own self-sustained forward motion. And they become so entangled in our lives, that at times we lose sight of the bigger picture.

To disrupt institutions, we must take a step back to see how not only our lives are affected, but the lives of our neighbors. We read about Jesus experience in the courts, both religious and secular, and see gross injustice. An injustice that still plays out in our court systems and prison systems today.

How do we see our relationship to institutions? Are we creators? Sustainers? Users? The prophetic voice? Reconcilers? Renewera? A call to accountability? Or perhaps we are all these things. Monday March 15 | 1 Samuel 8:4-9

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, "You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to govern us." Samuel prayed to the LORD, and the LORD said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. Now then, listen to their voice; only — you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them."

------

Reflection: When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beer-sheba. Yet his sons did not follow in his ways, but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice.

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, "You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to govern us." Samuel prayed to the LORD, and the LORD said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them."

The word "kingdom" has many varied meanings, both in scripture and in the world. What do you think of when you hear the word kingdom? Do you think of, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven"? Or maybe, the kingdom of Israel, ruled by kings like David and Solomon? Or maybe you think of the many of the kingdoms of more recent centuries: kingdoms like Britain, France, and Spain which invaded other continents to colonize them, those monarchs spent their nation's wealth on themselves, and manipulated politics and religion to their own ends?

Here, in the book of 1 Samuel, we see the Israelites, not yet a kingdom, asking to become one. Samuel, their judge/leader, isn't too pleased about this; it feels like a rejection of him and his family. But God says no; actually, it's worse than that: this is a rejection of God. You see, the kind of authority that humans give to kings and emperors is only appropriate for God to have. Not just because God is God, but because God, unlike humans, will not abuse this power.

One could broadly summarize the rest of the Bible, from 1 Samuel right on through Revelation as a story of how human kings and emperors abuse their power. The kings of Israel and Judah turn away from God and oppress their people. The emperors of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome dominate and oppress huge numbers of people, including the Israelites, and eventually the Christians. In light of these stories and of the more recent examples of imperialism, "kingdom," for a lot of scholars and theologians, starts to sound like an oppressive term. It rejects the leadership of God, replacing it with the imperialist power of humans.

And yet, of course, Jesus uses the term kingdom. He does so to undermine this exact problem: to show how a kingdom headed by God would destroy imperialism and the concept of unlimited human power, turning all towards justice and love instead. God's kingdom is fundamentally not like any human kingdom.

Even so, is kingdom even the right word? God is so very much unlike a human king that the comparison becomes hard to hold up. God does not give unmediated commands: everything we know about God's leadership and what God wants comes to us through scriptures written by humans, and from our own experience of God in the world. It requires interpretation and prayer to discern what God wants. Critically, it usually involves coming together with other followers of God to discuss, discern, and pray together. This collaborative, evolving, multivocal movement that is our human attempt to do God's will on Earth—is that really a kingdom?

Some theologians have begun using the term "kindom," without the G, emphasizing the familial connections between all of us who are trying to do God's will. This shifts the center of the term from God's authority to our boddedness with God and with one another. It emphasizes not just the fact that we are seeking to do God's will, but some of what that will is: to treat one another as beloved members of the same family.

And it calls us back to the early days of the Israelites, all descendants of one family, making their way in a world of kings with leaders who arose when they were needed, then stepped back. It was hard, and it was messy, and sometimes poor leaders were put in charge, like Samuel's sons. But it was hard like a family quarrel, not like the oppression of a king over subjects.

What if, when the people asked for a king, Samuel had asked them, "Do you want to be a kingdom, or a kindom? Will you recommit to being family again?"

God, help us to disrupt the patterns of authority that threaten our bonds to one another. May we be family in the best ways possible, loving one another and sorting out our differences with your help. Your kindom come, your will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven. Amen.

- Bekah Anderson

Tuesday March 16 | Who Am I, Dietrich Bonhoeffer in “Letters & Papers from Prison

Who am I? Who am I? They often tell me I stepped from my cell’s confinement Calmly, cheerfully, firmly, Like a Squire from his country house. Who am I? They often tell me I used to speak to my warders Freely and friendly and clearly, As though it were mine to command. Who am I? They also tell me I bore the days of misfortune Equably, smilingly, proudly, like one accustomed to win. Am I then really that which other men tell of? Or am I only what I myself know of myself? Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat, Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds, Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness, Tossing in expectations of great events, Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance, Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making, Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all. Who am I? This or the Other? Am I one person today and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved? Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!

Wednesday March 17 | Reflection on Power

Make a list of the institutions you interact with.

Write a prayer asking God to help you interact in just ways with those institutions.

Thursday March 18 | Acts 16:16-30

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation." She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour.

But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, "These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe." The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. 23After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

Place yourself in this story. Are you the girl who is enslaved? Are you the jailer? Paul? Silas? An innocent bystander? A lawmaker? The supervisor? The person in the next cell? What does freedom mean to all of these different people? How do you live into the gift of God’s freedom? How do you use your freedom, found in Jesus, to liberate others? Take 10 minutes and write, draw, or sit in silence as you reflect.

Learn more about the School to Prison Pipeline | https://www.aclu.org/issue s/juvenile-justice/school- prison-pipeline

Friday March 19 | Mark 11:15-19

Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tabl es of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers." And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.

------A Reflection from Turning Tables:

Table Turning is a rarely discussed part of the Jesus story. Just a few days before he was executed as an enemy of the Roman Empire, Jesus turned over the tables used by businessmen and bankers in the Temple, the epicenter of the Jerusalem’s economy, and invited in children and the "blind and the lame" who had been historically barred from entry. The voices of marginalized people ring out in the center of the city's social, economic, and religious hub while commerce is disrupted. Just before turning the tables, Jesus and the occupied people of the land had staged a performance (commemorated on Palm Sunday) that mocked the Emperor and offered an alternative vision of what peace and power could look like.

Tragically, institutional Christianity in the U.S. has become aligned with nationalism and capitalism. So the aims of Table Turning are:

▪ Reclaiming the subversive tradition of Jesus in the public sphere ▪ Centering marginalized voices to tell their own story and define their own identity, while interrupting a culture that allows only the powerful to be heard ▪ Increasing participation in faith-based social justice activism ▪ Repentance and realignment of our own lives away from oppression and toward liberation As a holiday, Table Turning exists as a constellation of local actions occurring between Palm Sunday and Good Friday of each year. It is not meant to be the only time each year when churches participate in direct action. Rather it is meant to build a counter-narrative about religion and politics, and Christianity in particular. It’s a challenge to a faith tradition that has been seduced by incarnate capitalist brutality, to redefine itself based on incarnate liberating love.

Learn more at: https://tableturning.org/

Saturday March 20 | Giving Thanks

Today, give thanks for the good work of institutions. Make a list of positive experiences you or someone you know has had with an institution. (Non-Profits, Schools, Families, Businesses, etc.)

Take time today to thank someone who is doing good work within an institution.

Give thanks to God for the opportunity to come together in community to care for one another. And give thanks to God for the opportunity to engage in solidarity and justice work, in holding institutions accountable and lifting up God’s beloved people.

Sunday March 21 | Mark 15:1-20 with intro Disrupting Death

As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. 2Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" He answered him, "You say so." Then the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him again, "Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you." But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.

Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. Then he answered them, "Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?" For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate spoke to them again, "Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?" They shouted back, "Crucify him!" Pilate asked them, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Crucify him!" So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort. And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him. And they began saluting him, "Hail, King of the Jews!" They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. ------The empty tomb is not resurrection. It is the affect of resurrection. Resurrection happens when hope will not be denied even though everything seems lost. When love does not abandon even while hate rears it’s head. Resurrection happens in the dead of winter, under the ground, when the seed lies in wait, cracking open to prepare the moment it springs forth. Monday March 22 | John 11: 1-44

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." But when Jesus heard it, he said, "This illness does not l ead to death; rather it is for God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them." After saying this, he told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right." Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."

When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." 29And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." 35Jesus began to weep. 36So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 37But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

38Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39Jesus said, "Tak e away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." 40Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." Reflection: Preacher and scholar Karoline Lewis writes that a constant theme throughout the Gospel of John is “grace upon grace”. This comes from John 1 where the scripture says, “and the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth…From his fulness we have all received, grace upon grace.” Lewis explains that after chapter 1, each story in this gospel shows direct stories that show what life and discipleship with Jesus looks like and that this grace upon grace is embodied in Jesus. This grace is shown in Jesus’ miracles (called “signs” in this gospel) and these experiences of grace can be seen, tasted, felt, and heard. What does this grace taste like? The best wine, more than you can possibly imagine when you least expect it after you have run out. What does this grace feel like? Not being able to walk for 38 years and to be able to pick up your mat and walk. What does this grace look like? Being able to see for the first time after being born blind. Lewis continues by explaining Jesus’ final sign as yet another embodied narration of grace upon grace. What does it sound like? “It sounds like when you are deader than dead and you hear your name being called by the shepherd who knows you and loves you, and you are then able to walk out of the tomb, unbound to rest at the bosom of Jesus.” Now that we know that because of Jesus, death doesn’t have the final word, what will we do with our lives to live that promise? - Hayley Moe

Tuesday March 23 | Germination, Artist Unknown

Where do you find hope in the midst of struggle?

Wednesday March 24 | Jonah 2:1-10 with question

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, "I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea s, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?' The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!" Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.

Reflection Do you want to hear one of life's great truths? Sh*t happens. Without rhyme or reason sometimes things fall apart. And when things go bad we look for someone to blame. Seldom do we want to blame the person looking back at us in the mirror, so we look for a scapegoat. So often that scapegoat is God. We think God should be able to wave a magic wand and make everything okay but for some perverse reason doesn't. But that's not how the world is designed. But the truth is far more complex than our limited understanding. When posed with the question of brokenness and pain in the world William Sloan Coffin once said, Why does God let these things happen? Because God can’t prevent them, love being self-restricting when it comes to power. If these human disasters grieve us, we can imagine how they break God’s heart. But human disasters are the responsibility of human beings, not God. We can blame God only for giving us the freedom that, misused, makes these disasters inevitable. Often, I confess, I do blame God. I rail at God, saying, “Look, God, if you give an expensive watch to a small child and the child smashes it, who’s at fault?” But I have to recognize that if love is the name of the game, freedom is the absolute precondition. God’s love is self-restricting when it comes to power. And so, sh*t happens but that’s not the final word. Do you know what grows the lushest vegetables and the most beautiful flowers? You guessed it. God created a world where flowers grow out of manure. God created a world where pain and blood bring about squalling new life. God created a world where decay and rot fertilize new growth in the forest. God created a world where everything is redeemable. God doesn't cause the bad stuff – but God can take all of it and transform it, transform us with His simple, incredible, foolish, over-the-top love for us. And so even in the midst of the struggles of life, open your heart. Don't look for someone to blame – seek instead to praise. And when life gets so difficult you can't breathe, ask God to plant a garden in your heart and use what is falling apart to nurture what is yet to come.

------Thursday March 25 | Faith in Action

Today, write a prayer remembering those who have died this year, especially those who have died from COVID-19.

Or call someone and tell them you love them. Then write a letter to someone who is no longer here and tell them you love them.

Friday March 26 | 1 Corinthians:15:50-58

What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

"Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

------Reflection:

“In a mother's womb were two babies. One asked the other: ‘Do you believe in life after delivery?’

The other replied, ‘Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.’

‘Nonsense’ said the first. ‘There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?’

The second said, ‘I don't know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can't understand now.’

The first replied, ‘That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.’

The second insisted, ‘Well I think there is something and maybe it's different than it is here. Maybe we won't need this physical cord anymore.’

The first replied, ‘Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one has ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.’

‘Well, I don't know,’ said the second, ‘but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.’ The first replied ‘Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That's laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?’

The second said, ‘She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.’

Said the first: ‘Well I don't see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn't exist.’

To which the second replied, ‘Sometimes, when you're in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.'”

------

Saturday March 27 | God is in Silence, Susan Palo Cherwien

In the emptiness, God is. In the darkness, God is. In the silence, God is. When the psalmist cried out from the pit, God was already there. When we cry out from the deep night, God is already there. When the silence is roaring in our minds, God is there. For when we are emptied of our paltry projects and goals, When our grandiose and prideful accomplishments run aground in darkness, When even our incessant mental chatter ceases in despair, God is revealed in silence.

Whither can we flee from God’s presence?

God is.

Holy Week 2021, Advent Lutheran Church

Sunday March 28 | Palm Sunday Worship Online, 11am (English) 12:30pm (Spanish)

Holy Thursday April 1 | Worship Online, 7pm (English)

Good Friday April 2 | Worship Online, 6pm (Spanish) 7pm (English) Virtual Stations of the Cross, TBA Stations of the Cross, Central Park, TBA

Holy Saturday April 3 | Easter Vigil, Online Partnership, TBA

Easter Sunday April 4 | Online Worship 11am (English) 12:30pm (Spanish) Easter Worship, Central Park, TBA

Advent Lutheran Church 2504 Broadway New York, NY 10025 www.adventnyc.org www.facebook.com/AdventNYC 212-665-2504