Christ the KIng Sunday. Guest post by Joseph Doyle-Davison

*this post was written for the Atlanta Bar Church website for Christ the King Sunday, 2018

John 18:33-37

Standing before Pilate, someone who could sentence him either to death or set him free at a moment’s notice, if Jesus was to claim to be the “king of the Jews,” he would be guilty of treason in the eyes of the empire because the emperor in Rome was “rightful” king over the Jews. Jesus responded to Pilot’s interrogation, saying “If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over…. You say that I am a king.”

Who is this Jesus who refuses political power?

As “little Christs,” we declare that Jesus is “King of kings and Lord of lords,” but what does that mean if Jesus never desired to lead a Jewish revolt against the Roman occupiers nor to be a king in the conventional sense? What does it mean for our allegiance with Jesus, as the only one we bend our knees toward if Jesus asks us to pray for those who seek to harm us, “turn the other cheek,” and forgive those who have done us wrong way more times than most would ever be okay doing? (As an aside, forgiving and letting a toxic/abusive person back into one’s life are two entirely separate things. I hold to the view [attributed to St. Francis of Assisi]  that we forgive to release the burdens of wrongdoing placed upon us so that we may live more freely to accept and celebrate all that is good, holy, and beneficial.)

This “King of kings and Lord of lords” humbled himself to the point of death. He came to serve and not be served. Jesus’ kingship is bound to neither nationalism nor geographical boundaries. Christ’s power is wielded through profound love and collaboration, not acts of domination nor subjugation.

The Kingdom of God is always worth living and dying for, but never worth killing for and yet many still murder in God’s name….

As “little Christs,” we are called to the ministry of the baptised, the missio Dei, to share our resources and to ensure that the poor among us, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, the marginalized, the refugee, and the stranger are welcomed and cared for with the same affection Jesus has for us. In doing such we further the kin(g)dom of God:

our words, our time

intentionally well wasted

well spent in kind

intimate and sacred

exploring, discovering

reaching and risking

trusting though at times

we will each other fail

responding ideally

with forgiveness

and reconciliation

and justice when necessary

persisting forward

with hearts so frail

Turning to one another

with Sacred regard

we proclaim:

you are worth

the risk

the labor

the pursuit

the effort

my courage

and my fears

my honesty

and my prayers

to embrace and let go

for in such all will know

we share a generous presence

and genuine affection

rather than mere imitation.

Empires rise and fall. Violent revolutions come to an end. So far, God willing, the way of Christ continues on as a most beautiful way of living and being in the world.

When I read John 18:33-37, one passage that sticks out to me is “everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Meditating on this, a prayer begins to take shape:

One for the quieting our minds and tuning out of the cacophony of voices from those who seek to divide and frighten.

Another that we better recognize the voice of Jesus beckoning to us to heed the common call for reconciliation, and to be advocates for justice and restoration as we speak truth to power:

In the face of bigotry
let’s stand up for the oppressed
and give them a voice
so they too may express

desires for dreams come true
embracing all that’s empowering
so that together we all may sing

as we live bravely

Wise as Serpents. Gentle as Doves?

Sermon from Atlanta Bar Church on June 3, 2018

That Damn Icon: All About Eve and Something About Mary

“Not Today”

Why won't you grow up & be a man someday

I can't believe that you're still playing silly games

Now why do I put up w/ all this child's play

Now if your word is all you have

Then you ain't worth a damn thing

Eve and Mary J. Blige

Every year, when I least expect it, this damn icon makes its way to the various surfaces of my social media feeds, and my reaction is always visceral. It makes me angry. Actually angry is too genteel.  It pisses me off.  Now, I know there are many who love this image of Eve and Mary.

Fine.

Yet, every year I hope that those who let their sentimentality regarding the season and this image, those who are the feminists I know them to be, will come to their senses and decide that they won’t plaster their social media with this image.  I hope that this will be the year that this misleading icon falls onto the trash heap that burns like the fires of Gehenna, you know the one that is reserved for bad theology, but here we are.  One of my friends who posts this image, every year, without fail is, Laura.  Laura is a friend and colleague. Every year we talk about how much she loves this picture, and how much I hate it. So, I’m accepting her invitation to write about this icon because we have different points of views, and we’re each hoping to see what the other sees. You can find Laura's post after mine.

GAME ON!

All About Eve

Let’s talk the Fall. The story about how of all humankind fell into sin based on a decision made by our friend, Eve.

 It. Is. A. Myth.

A harmful myth that has been used to perpetuate the subjugation of women for eons. It’s also the reason we have the problematic doctrine of Original Sin... because a woman ate an off-limits piece of fruit after a conversation with a talking snake. (Before any church folk freak...I do believe that we all do things every day that separates us from our Creator, and I do call those things sin. Again, I just don't buy into the crazy-ass story that it was because a woman ate a piece of fruit because she was tempted by a TALKING SNAKE in a story that was NEVER supposed to be taken literally in the first place.) And besides all of this, let’s talk about how Eve’s transgression is linked to the belief she is the cause of painful menstrual cramps and painful childbirth (holy and beautiful biological occurrences that are specifically centered in women’s bodies), as well as one of the many, ridiculous reasons some cling to the belief that women can’t be pastors.

Something About Mary

Let’s talk about Mary. Mary, the unwed mother whose agency has been stolen from her over time by making her a perpetual virgin, because heaven forbid that the vagina that birthed the baby Jesus would also know the pleasure of consensual sex. Mary, the woman who was so clueless about what her son would become that she forgot that she said yes to the angel that visited her, AND the words that she defiantly proclaimed in the Magnificat as perpetuated in the horrible, and biblically illiterate song Mary Did You Know. (Y’all, she f-ing knew! She said yes! She had agency! SHE F-ING KNEW!)

If it Had Been a Snake it Would Have Bitten Me

Let’s talk about the serpent.  The one whose neck is being stepped on by the barefoot Mary in the icon in question. In ancient cultures, the serpent represented new birth and fertility and the continual renewal of life; feminine attributes. Serpents were often the familiars of goddesses, and in some cases, they were the representation of the Divine Feminine. Back to the story of The Fall of all humanity, I find it an interesting coincidence that the serpent in this cultural myth has come to represent Satan and death.

(In the words of Fox Mulder, “If coincidences are just coincidences, why do they feel so contrived?”)

 Genesis chapter three begins, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made.”

And in verse 15 of the same chapter, YHWH says to the serpent,

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,

    and between your offspring and hers;

he will strike your head,

    and you will strike his heel.”

What was once a symbol celebrating fertility and female empowerment became a symbol of evil. In the Midrash, the serpent represents sexual desire, and here that desire is being crushed, by the offspring of Eve, but also here in this icon by Mary, (lest we miss it) a virgin.

#metoo

So, here’s the thing. From my perspective, this icon perpetuates the damaging and oppressive narrative fueled by the desire to keep the patriarchy safely in place; a narrative which, by the way, has been bought into wholeheartedly by many women! Eve, as the first to sin is part of this narrative.  Mary, the perpetual virgin, is part of this narrative.  Remaking symbols for the Divine Feminine and calling them evil is part of that narrative.

This narrative includes men like Roy Moore and one of his supporters, Alabama State Auditor, Jim Zeigler, downplaying Moore’s predilection toward teen-aged girls by saying, “Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus...There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.” This narrative is also perpetuated by Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House, (and a Catholic) when he says that Roy Moore should not be allowed to be in the US Senate. Yet when he was pressed to comment regarding the many allegations of sexual assault against President Trump, he wasn’t sure that those claims were credible even though the President was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women’s vaginas without their consent.

Women are rarely believed when it comes to making claims about their own bodies and what has happened to them, thus they aren’t often the participants in their own narratives, so stories matter.   Narratives regarding women and their culpability, and their ability to be the keepers of morality must be rewritten and the script must be flipped. Images matter, too. Images such as this one where Eve is cloaked in shame looking at Mary’s belly as the solution continue the narrative of sexism and subjugation, not to mention the damaging messages of purity culture.

The worst part of this icon, for me, is that it is posted and celebrated by representatives of the Church, which sadly is a patriarchal culture that orders bodies, especially the bodies of women, in an attempt to “help” keep us all in our rightful place. This ordering is done out of fear. Fear of powerful women who already do most of the heavy lifting in churches, and the fear that women will reject the patriarchal structures that have long kept us bound to subjugation and shame.

An Open Letter to Congresswoman-Elect, Karen Handel

Ms. Handel:

America is waking up to the news that you have defeated Jon Ossoff in the special election to become the Congressional Representative for the 6^th District in Georgia.  While the rest of the country will begin to analyze what this means for our new Administration, its agenda, and what this means in a very divided nation, it is my hope that you will take moment to pause and reflect on what being elected in the place where you are, in a time such as this means to those people that you represent.  I’m sure that no one has to tell you the election results were much closer than anyone would have predicted when this race began. And while you are the winner in this race, you do not have a clear mandate.

I am writing to you as someone who doesn’t live in your district, but as someone whose job has put me into a situation similar to the one in which you find yourself in now.  I am not a politician. I am a pastor. I am one of the pastors of a large church that has people on both sides of the political spectrum and all of those in between. I am a pastor to many individuals who live in your district, some who supported you and some who worked very hard to #flipthe6th. With that said, here is what I would ask you to remember: You serve and represent ALL of them. ALL of them, whether they supported you or not. All of their concerns are now your concerns.

As someone who has made missteps in leadership in this divided time in our nation, it is easy to ignore the divisions that exist in our political districts and even our churches.  Every Sunday, I stand before a congregation that, along with their hopes and joys, bring their burdens and especially their fears with them into the church.  Some fear they will lose their healthcare, and some fear that the ACA will continue.  Some fear that the current immigration laws will allow the US to be overrun with terrorists, while some fear that if our country does not allow for broad policies of immigration the humanitarian crisis in our world will become a crisis of an epic scale.  Some of my parishioners fear the pervasiveness of guns in our society, while some fear that their second amendment rights will be stripped of them and they will lose the right to protect themselves and their families. Ms. Handel, I often have to remind myself that I have been called to be a pastor to all of them, with all that they bring with them. But here’s an even more important lesson that I have learned, while the people that I serve are all over the political spectrum, they are all part of a Christian congregation.  They all stand shoulder to shoulder on Sunday morning, confessing their sins, confessing the Apostles Creed, and they all come to the altar to receive Holy Communion. The people that you are now elected to serve have diverse political beliefs, but they are all Georgians, and they are all Americans.

My hope for you is that you will begin your service to the people of this State with the courage to make fair and just decisions that will benefit all of your constituents.   I am sure that it will be tempting, and perhaps even easy, to go to Washington and live inside an echo chamber with those who believe exactly the way that you do. As pastor, I can tell you that temptation exists even for myself. Again, it is my hope that God will give you the courage to govern with wisdom to do what is right instead of what is easy.

Finally, I want you to know that each week my congregation prays for our elected officials.  We will be praying for you.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Karen Stephenson Slappey 

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Atlanta, Georgia

One Day is Today

It started with Lilith. She would not be ruled by Adam. She was relegated to demonic forces.

Next came Eve. Temptress. Responsible for the fall of all of mankind, as mankind was as inclusive as it was. It’s her fault that there is pain in childbirth, not to mention menstrual cramps.

Jezebel. A strong woman with a feckless husband who was indecisive and paranoid. We remember her as a worshiper of pagan gods. Men celebrated her death from a fall as she was eaten by wild dogs.

Sweet Mary. Mary Magdalene. Lover and devoted follower of Jesus. The first evangelist. Announcer of the Resurrection. She becomes a prostitute in a century where women are pushed out of leadership from the Church because Pope[1] begins with P, and y'all so does Penis.

Inquisitions: Spanish, Papal, and otherwise. Powerful women in Ireland, and healers in Salem. Maria[2], Alice[3], Tituba[4].

Thinkers, activists, leaders, poets, thealogians. Julian, Sappho, Eleanor, Dorothy, Eva, Flannery, Sylvia, Mary, Audre, Alice, Gloria, bell, Elizabeth, Maya, Hillary, Coretta, Beyonce, Malala, and Emma.[5]

We have known robbery, theft - not just at the hands of men who fear us because we are powerful, but by women who perpetuate patriarchy because they are afraid not to be favored daughters, church handmaids, or gracious ladies.[6]

One day...We hope and pray, and work for ONE DAY when powerful women will not be called…

Whore.

Bitch.

Dyke.

Witch.

Slut.

Cunt.

Butch.

ONE DAY we will all step into the powerful river that is our birthright.

One day these names and these threats that are meant to make us afraid and intimidate us back into silence will lose their hold on us. The tide is turning. We are connected as we have never been connected before. 

We remember who we are.

We are not afraid.  

We do not live in fear.

ONE DAY is today.

---

[1] Pope Gregory the Great, in a sermon confused Mary Magdalene with the woman who washed Jesus’ feet in Bethany. In that sermon she became a prostitute and it stuck.

[2] Maria Cazalla was arrested in 1524 for regularly attending a meeting on the exposition of the Scriptures.

[3] Dame Alice Kyteler was the first person in Ireland accused of and charged with witchcraft. She was a wealthy woman and business owner.

[4] Tituba, an enslaved Barbadian woman, was the first to be accused of practicing witchcraft during the 1692 Salem witch trials.

[5] Julian of Norwich, Sappho (Greek poet from the Isle of Lesbos), Eleanor Roosevelt, Dorothy Day, Eva Peron, Flannery O’Connor, Sylvia Plath, Mary Daly, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Gloria Steinem, bell hooks, Elizabeth Warren, Maya Angelou, Hillary Clinton, Coretta Scott King, aka Queen Bey, Malala Yousafzai, and Emma Watson.

[6] A reference to feminine scripts that women tend to follow that perpetuate patriarchy from The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd.

The Truth is Out There

Yesterday, I woke up to the news that another black church had burned in Greeleyville, South Carolina. I read multiple posts in my feed about how this was the seventh black church that had burned since June 17th, the day that nine African American children of God were murdered by a white supremacist in the basement of their Church, Emanuel AME. I felt the need to post something about this on my own page. By the end of the day, on my own post, and in my feed, I saw responses to this latest church fire like these:

“Investigators say that it was caused by a lightning strike.”

“White churches were burned, too.”

And then came the lists:

June 8 Experience Community Church, Murfreesboro TN - Believed to be arson, donation box set on fire which spread to church building
June 14 Lake Lindsey United Methodist Church, Brooksville FL - Believed to be arson, fire was set before a wedding and the suspect is believed to have had anger against bride side of family, has history of bomb threats
June 21 College Hill Seventh Day Adventist, Knoxville TN - Hay bales outside set on fire. Ruled arson / vandalism but not a hate crime
June 23 Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Queens, Queens NY - Lightening is suspected
June 23 Fruitland Presbyterian Church, Fruitland TN - Lightening is suspected

June 23 God’s Power Church of Christ, Macon GA - Under investigation as arson but FBI has not ruled a hate crime. Church was recently burglarized and a sound system was stolen.
June 24 Briar Creek Road Baptist Church, Charlotte NC - Intentionally set by vandals, under investigation but FBI has not rule as a hate crime
June 26 Glover Grove Baptist Church, Warrenville SC - No cause for the fire determined, investigators have found no indication of criminal intent

June 26 Greater Miracle Temple Apostolic Holiness Church, Tallahassee FL - Electrical wires exposed when tree fell causing electrical arc
June 27 Northside Community Church (Church parsonage), CHATTANOOGA TN - Still under investigation

June 27 College Heights Baptist Church, Elyria OH - Cause unknown, not suspected to be intentional but still under investigation

June 29 Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church Parish Center, Queens NY - Appears intentional, still under investigation

June 29 Disciples of Christ Ministries, Jackson MS - Electrical box faulty and believed to have sparked the fire

June 30 Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, Greeleyville SC - Lightning is suspected as cause. This church was set on fire by KKK in 1995 (20 years ago).

And then there are these statements:

“Let’s be more responsible about what we post on Facebook, so we don’t create more problems.”

And my favorite,

“Don’t fall prey to click-bait. Do your research.”

I recently heard my friend and colleague Alisha Gordon compare racism in this country to the Matrix. It’s always there, but you can’t see it until someone shows it to you, or by some circumstance you discover it’s there by yourself.  And in much the same way, too, once we come to know there is a Matrix, we have a choice.  We can take the red pill or the blue pill. The choice is between embracing the sometimes painful truth of reality (red pill) and the blissful ignorance of illusion (blue pill). There are many white Americans who continue to opt for the blue pill.

“I’m not a racist.  I have a black friend.” Or “I’m not a racist. I don’t make racial slurs.” And in relation to the burning of black churches, “Investigators say that these church burnings are not arson”, or “not hate crimes,” or “are arson, but not connected to hate crimes.”

And my favorite justification, “Well, white churches burned, too.” As if somehow the fact that white people are experiencing this pain means black people should just get over it, or in some way come to believe that because white people are oppressed as well, the oppression and racism that people of color face isn’t really that bad.

So, to all the list makers and anti-click bait decriers, I’d like to introduce to my friend Fox Mulder. 

Yes, that Fox Mulder (X-files, anyone?).  The same guy whose motto was,“The truth is out there.”

He’s also the guy who said one of my favorite quotes…ever… “If coincidences are just coincidences, why do they feel so contrived?”

Thus, in the spirit of Truth and contrived coincidences, I would like remind us all of a few names from a different list:

January 1, 2009, Oscar Grant III, Oakland, California

Shot by BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle. Initially Grant had struggled with officers, but was shot while being restrained and unarmed. The officers were responding to a call of a fight on a train. Mehserle, who maintained that he accidentally used his handgun when he meant to use his Taser, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and received a sentence of two years in jail.*

May 16, 2010, Aiyana Jones, Detroit, Michigan   

Shot by policeman Joseph Weekley during a house raid. Weekley was ultimately cleared of all charges after multiple mistrials.

November 19, 2011, Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., White Plains, New York

Shot by policeman Anthony Carelli in Chamberlain's home. No criminal charges filed. Emergency services were drawn to Chamberlain's home after his medical alert device activated. Chamberlain refused to let them in, with police breaking down the door to enter.

February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin, Sanford, Florida        

Trayvon Martin was shot outdoors by neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman, who was later charged and acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter.

March 2012, Rekia Boyd, Chicago, Illinois              

Shot by policeman Dante Servin after Servin confronted a group of people in a local park. A directed verdict found Servin not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

November 23, 2012, Jordan Davis, Jacksonville, Florida  

Shot by software developer Michael David Dunn over an argument over loud music. Dunn was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.*

November 29, 2012, Timothy Russell, Malissa Williams, Cleveland, Ohio

Both were shot during a car chase, each being hit more than 20 times. 13 policemen fired 137 shots into the car; the car chase stemmed from police thinking they were being shot at by the car's occupants, but no gun was found in the car and the sound was later determined to be due to the back-fire of the Chevrolet Malibu. Policeman Michael Brelo was charged with voluntary manslaughter, but was cleared in 2014. The judge found that because other policemen had also fired, it was not beyond reasonable doubt Brelo was responsible for killing the duo.

April 30, 2014, Dontre Hamilton, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

Shot by policeman Christopher Manney, when a fight broke out when Manney attempted to frisk Hamilton. Although he did not face criminal charges, Manney was fired from the police.

April 30, 2014, Eric Garner, New York City, New York       

Died from a chokehold by policeman Daniel Pantaleo as well as the police's compression of Garner's chest. Garner was being arrested on the suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes. A Grand Jury declined to indict Pantaleo for Garner's death.

August 5, 2014   John Crawford III, Dayton, Ohio

Shot by policeman Sean Williams when police answered a 911 call alleging a man waving a gun in a Walmart store. Crawford was holding a pellet/BB gun being sold in the store itself. A grand jury declined to indict any policemen, but the United States Department of Justice is investigating.

August 5, 2014, Michael Brown, Ferguson, Missouri        

Shot by policeman Darren Wilson on a street. Wilson confronted Brown from his cruiser as Brown was suspected of committing robbery minutes earlier. They struggled through the window of the police vehicle, where Wilson shot Brown, who fled with Wilson pursuing. When Brown turned around, Wilson shot him multiple times in the front. Both a St. Louis County grand jury and the United States Department of Justice decided not to charge Wilson.

 August 11, 2014, Ezell Ford, Florence, Los Angeles          

Shot by policemen Sharlton Wampler and Antonio Villegas, who confronted Ford as part of an "investigative stop". While one officer was in "violation" of LAPD policy, charges have not been filed.

 November 22, 2014, Tamir Rice, Cleveland, Ohio             

Shot in a city park while playing with a toy pistol, by policeman Timothy Loehmann. A grand jury will decide whether either Loehmann or his partner Garmback will be indicted.

 April 4, 2015 Walter Scott, North Charleston, South Carolina       

Shot by police officer Michael Slager during a traffic stop. Slager was charged with murder*after a video surfaced showing him shooting Scott multiple times from behind while Scott was fleeing.

April 12, 2015, Freddie Gray, Baltimore, Maryland            

Fell into a coma while being transported by police after they arrested him. Gray died a week later of injuries to his spinal cord. Charges have been filed against 6 policemen after a medical examiner’s report that ruled Gray's death a homicide.*

Police investigators say a lot of things. 

“The only way I can describe it, it looks like a demon, that’s how angry he looked. He comes back towards me again with his hands up.” Darren Wilson

“Shots fired, male down. Black male, maybe 20, black revolver, black handgun by him. Send E.M.S. this way, and a roadblock.” An officer in Cleveland, Ohio after 12 year old, Tamir Rice, was shot for playing with a toy pistol in a public park.

“A statement released by North Charleston police spokesman Spencer Pryor said a man ran on foot from the traffic stop and an officer deployed his department-issued Taser in an attempt to stop him. That did not work, police said, and an altercation ensued as the men struggled over the device. Police allege that during the struggle the man gained control of the Taser and attempted to use it against the officer. The officer then resorted to his service weapon and shot him, police alleged.” This is what came of an investigator’s report after the death of Walter Scott before the video surfaced that showed Spencer Pryor shooting Scott. Walter Scott, who was unarmed and fleeing, was shot in the back from a distance of at least 15 feet. After Scott was fatally shot, the video appears to capture Slager planting an object next to the dead man’s body.

Indeed, some investigations are being carried out with integrity. But what I ask us all to consider is that some, maybe even many, are not.

We can no longer continue to take the blue pill.  We can no longer choose to continue to live in willful ignorance regarding the racism and unjust Systems that exist in this country and across the world. We must take the red pill.  We must seek the truth. We must refuse to look the other when we see injustice.  And really, we need to get over our white fragility. When Neo realized that he lived in the Matrix, and that he had been born into an oppressive System he wasn’t defensive.  He did not come up with reasons as to how he was not part of the problem. Instead, he accepted the reality and became involved in the epic struggle to change it.

So, Speak up! Protest! Tweet, Blog, Keep Facebook feeds filled with stories of why #BlackLivesMatter! Continue to challenge inaccurate and false information coming from investigators and news pundits – the same news pundits who covered the burning of one CVS during the Baltimore riots for a solid week, but report the burning of seven black churches as coincidence. Let's take the spin and spin it back in the direction of truth. Let's hold each other accountable for complacency. Let us seek to understand.  Let us seek ways to be a part of this epic struggle. The truth is out there - if you're willing to see it.

Is it Finished?

Below is the text from Good Friday 2015 in which I participated in the Seven Last Words Sermon at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atlanta, Georgia.

When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30

It is finished.

What did these words mean to the friends and family of Jesus who were standing at the foot of his cross, witnessing his execution? Were the words comforting? Or were they confusing?

These were the last words of the man who said that he came to bring them life, yet he was dying.

It is finished.

All these many years later, these words of Jesus have become overly familiar to us.

We hear them every year as we walk through Holy Week. On Good Friday we remember an equivocal act of love, but on this day that we call good, there is also a tension with which we are called to wrestle or at the very least recognize:

I have been reading and re-reading these words .

It is finished.

It is finished.

But over these past few weeks, when I hear these words, I don’t hear them as a declaration, or a statement of affirmation.

I hear a question.

Is it finished?

Is it finished?

When we stigmatize mental health issues making people who live with mental illness and disabilities invisible, is it finished?

When the planet that humanity was given by the Creator to care for is in rapid degradation because our roles as caregivers are secondary to our roles as consumers, is it finished?

When children of God, freeze to death sleeping on the steps outside of a church because they weren't permitted inside, is it finished?

When violence is glorified in the name of rights, is it finished?

When we refer to people of other cultures, colors, religions, creeds, political persuasion, and sexual identities as those people, is it finished?

When Children of God fleeing war torn countries, or abject poverty, are labeled as illegal because they have the audacity to cross our borders and want what we all want for those that we love, is it finished?

When a nation whose people and leaders claim to worship the Prince of Peace wage war in the name of an Empire, is it finished?

When citizenship in an Empire is valued over citizenship in the Kingdom of God, is it finished?

When we justify our mistreatment and neglect of our neighbors by cherry picking scripture or by turning on the “news channel” of our choice thus allowing vitriol to sooth our collective consciousness, is it finished?

When young black men and women die at the hands of those meant to protect and serve, and those who protect and serve are demonized because they are all victims of a System that functions as if some human lives are more valuable than others, is it finished?

When slavery is as prevalent as it ever was... not only are children of god trafficked in the sex trade, but in this country there is a for profit prison industry that currently has 2 million individuals, mostly men of color, living behind bars, is it finished?

When lawmakers would make laws that allow for discrimination for and the legalization hate in the name of religious freedom and restoration? Is it finished?

When we make politics prophetic and ignore the words of  the prophets?

Word like those from the prophet Ezekiel:

This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

Or the words of Jesus from the book of Matthew:

'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Or the words of Martin Luther from the Small Catechism as he explained the 5th commandment: Thou shalt not kill:

We should fear and love God that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need [in every need and danger of life and body].

Is it finished?

We have come together to remember a man who was executed by the state. Yet, today, men and women are still executed by the state.  Their bodies are strapped to a table so the poison can be  pumped through their bodies until they are dead in the name of justice. I ask you...

Is it finished?