Dear Beloved Earthlings,
Black Lives Matter! White Silence is Violence! I Can't Breathe! Alerts for a planetary movement inspiring millions to protest systemic and structural racism and white supremacy. Teaching and preaching about our history of slavery and genocide is what God calls us to do. The communion of saints, living and dead sustain, guide and bless us, people like Christian ministers, Rev. Dr. Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, leaders of the Poor People's Campaign, A National Call for Moral Revival. They led us virtually last Saturday during the March on Washington. All those who shared their stories give us hope and strength. Millions of people marching and protesting in the streets give us hope. Standing in solidarity with all those who suffer is what we are called to do as people of faith. The five demands of the Poor People's Campaign in the Declaration of Fundamental Rights and Poor People's Moral Agenda include, 1. Systemic Racism 2. Poverty and Inequality 3. Ecologic Devastation 4. War Economy and Militarism 5. National Morality. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. decades ago called us to look more deeply at the economic injustice of American Empire that spends most of its money on the military.
Jesus and many prophets in the Bible were poor people in solidarity with poor people and told the truth about structural dominant over systems of oppression like the Roman Empire. The current global crisis is too overwhelming for many of us without prayer and our connections to communion of saints living and dead. Biblical prophets like Jesus are with us. For me, being a Christian means standing in solidarity with those who are tortured and murdered and working against the powers and principalities of oppressive systems. Code Pink is a universal signal in hospitals that a baby is being kidnapped. It is past time we respond to the Code Pink alert here in the United Sates and around the world and act with the passion of a healthy animal instinct, in order to stop the kidnapping and murder of Black Lives. These children of God, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many more need for us to awaken and be in a state of ALERT. Our history is full of the oppression of the vulnerable and when our justice work feels overwhelming, we need to be reminded that we are not alone, for God and the communion of saints are with us. Living saints in our midst include those who founded Code Pink an organization working against the war economy and militarism of the American Empire and its support of apartheid in Israel www.codepink.org
Hagar was the slave girl of Abraham and Sarah, thousands of years ago as told in the Bible story of Genesis 21:5-21. Abraham raped his slave Hagar and their son was Ishmael. The first born son in the ancient world is supposed to inherite Abrahams blessing. Instead Abraham took Hagar and Ishmael to the desert to murder both them. The horror of the history of slavery and genocide must be faced and named before it can be healed. Only in telling the truth of our history can we stop living in denial and change our present and future. The Truth and Reconciliation movements around the world give me hope.
The first time that God speaks directly to anyone in the Bible is to Hagar, an Egyptian slave girl as she weeps watching her baby die in the desert. An Angel of God reveals to Hagar where water is located and saves their lives. "When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt."
Ishmael became the father of the religion of Islam and his mother is the mother of Islam. God listened to to the cries of hagar and Ishmael and today is listening to the cries of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and all who are being tortured and murdered. We pray for planetary solidarity and a robust new religious faith to rise. In the words of Rev. Barber, "Yes, we must radically transform policing in America. But we cannot stop there. We must transform the pervasive systems of economic and carceral injustice that are choking our common life. American democracy cannot breathe. Only by acting together can we save our common life."
Church for Our Common Home gives special thanks to Angela Garcia-Sermeno, a talented artist and designer who gifts us every week with a feast for the eyes, an unusual and beautiful order of worship. Please click on the page belowin order to see art work by Hildegard and Angela! We love and appreciate you Angela. You are an Angel in our midst. Dostoevsky wrote, "Beauty will save the world!" and we have never needed beauty more than now. Thank you! Please join me, Angela and the communion of saints every Sunday, 5 pm PST and this Sunday on "Code Pink and a Communion of Saints" on Zoom! Be sure to check out what Angela has created just by clicking on the picture immediately below and scroll down the many pages. You won't believe how beautiful it is, filled with art work and photos and when you scroll to the end you will see a photo of our beautiful Angela in pink, channeling Frida Kahlo!
Sending love,
Rev. Bonnie Minister Church for Our Common Home Co-President UUSCM www.uuscm.org Affiliated Community Minister First UU Church of SD