We Shall Overcome
Monday, we celebrated with our community the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. We marched, we worshiped, we sang and we dined… together. We were One in the spirit, One in the Lord. We were acutely aware of how beautiful the body of Christ looks. Was everyone represented? Not quite…but we were closer than we are on most days.
In honor of the MLK holiday celebrations Sunday’s youth group lesson was about racism. We talked about the roots of racism, what racism looked like in the 1960s and what it looks like today. We discussed the different categories of people we separate ourselves from today and what some of those categories were in years past. I spoke of what the world was like when I came of age in the early 80s and the youth shared what they experience today as they come of age. We did an exploration of scriptures and discussed how there are texts that support separating out from other people and can be used to support attitudes of racism (Nehemiah 13:3, 13: 23-30, Numbers 12: 1-10, Deuteronomy 23:3, Matthew 15: 22-28) and, we discussed how there are texts that tell us that we are all the same in God’s eyes and how we should show no partiality to one group over another and how we should love others (John 7:24, Romans 10:12, Genesis 1:27, John 13: 34, James 2:9). What I tried to convey to our youth is that sometimes the Bible is used to justify things that are not just, as in the arguments in favor of slavery which surrounded the time of the Civil War and sometimes the Bible is used to move people towards compassion and love, as in the arguments of the abolitionist. We talked about why it is important to be very careful in our study of scripture and in our search for truth in the world around us.
We ended our discussion time with questions about our world today. How is racism different today than it was in the days of Dr. King’s life? How is it the same? Are there more groups being discriminated against today than in years past? Are there less? Who is currently working for justice? Inclusion? Equal pay? What is the world saying about these groups of people? As Christians, what kinds of things should we be saying/doing? As followers of Christ, which side of history are we standing? That question confused them…there is always a side. Which side are we on? What will historians say about us 50 years from now for what we have done or failed to do? What will Christians say about us 50 years from now for what we have said or failed to say? Which side of history are we on? It is my hope that our youth will learn to always speak of others with compassion and love and will learn to treat others with dignity and respect. It is my prayer that they will learn to look at one another and at those who look different from them, and see everyone as beautiful children of God. It will be a lot easier to teach them this way of looking at humanity if we all were to learn to do so. I am thankful to serve a congregation who seeks the same understanding.
Blessings,
Tracy