Setting the Inner Compass – Christmas

AN INTERACTIVE JOURNAL ON CHRISTIAN SOCIAL JUSTICE

DECEMBER 23, 2020DECEMBER 23, 2020

 

 COLUMN

 

BY DAVE BROWN

Reading poetry is one of the ways some of us nourish our faith, a way we set or reset our inner compass and stay focused on the big picture, on the spiritual journey. I know that is true for me. In this monthly column, ‘Setting the Inner Compass,’ I share some of the poems I find nourishing to the soul.

In this column, I share four poems related to Christmas. Christmas is a social/cultural and spiritual celebration. Culturally, Christmas is a worldwide celebration of light in darkness, gift giving and gathering in community. Jesus may be part of these festivities or not. Often, he is just a prop. In my area of the country, church attendance has dramatically declined. The segment of the population who do not identify with a religious tradition, the spiritual but not religious, continues to grow. Yet the decline in church attendance and growth of the “nones” has had no impact on holiday festivities. Christmas lights abound on my non-church going neighbors’ homes. The need for a mid-winter celebration makes sense. It’s a good thing.

In the Christian household, Christmas is about more than gathering together, gifts, and colorful lights. It is about Jesus and incarnation, the word made flesh. I celebrate Christmas believing that the center of my tradition is not a book, or a doctrine or four spiritual laws but a person, a person who lived a life full in God. Christmas invites us not to look up but to trust the way of Jesus and look around at the sacred in the midst of life. Christmas invites us to make flesh in our lives the good news of liberation and compassion we encounter in Jesus’ life.

The four poems I selected for this column play with that theme. The first is a nativity prayer by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a monk mystic and founder of the abbey of Clairvaux (1090 -1153). “The work of Christmas” is by Howard Thurman, author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader (1891-1981). I know little about the poem “Che Jesus” except that I like it. All I could discover is that it appeared in the form of a printed and anonymous sheet in a large factory center of the city of Córdoba, Argentina at Christmas 1969. The last poem, “Candlemas,” is by Denise Levertov. I found it in her wonderful anthology of poems on religious themes, The Stream & the Sapphire. By the time she died in 1997, Denis Levertov had published more than fifty volumes of poetry. She identified as a Christian late in life, at the age of 60. In 1989, she joined the Catholic church after moving to Seattle.  

Merry Christmas.

Peace,

Dave

The Poems

The Nativity Prayer of St. Bernard of Clairvaux

You have come to us as a small child,
but you have brought us the greatest of all gifts,
the gift of eternal love.
Caress us with your tiny hands,
embrace us with your tiny arms
and pierce our hearts with your soft, sweet cries.

The Work of Christmas by Howard Thurman

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
      To find the lost,
      To heal the broken,
      To feed the hungry,
      To release the prisoner,
      To rebuild the nations,
      To bring peace among all,
      To make music in the heart.

Che Jesus       Anonymous

They told me that you came back to be born every Christmas.
Man, you’re crazy!
     …with the stubborn gesture of coming back every Christmas
     you are trying to tell us something.

That the revolution that all proclaim begins first of all
in each one’s heart,
That it doesn’t mean only changing structures but changing
selfishness for love,
That we have to stop being wolves and return to being
      brothers and sisters.

That we…. begin to work seriously for
individual conversion and social change
that will give to all the possibility of having bread,
education, freedom, and dignity.

That you have a message called the Gospel,
And a Church, and that’s us –
A Church that wants to be servant of all,
A Church that knows that because God became human
one Christmas
there is no other way to love God but to love all people.
If that’s the way it is, Jesus, come to my house this Christmas,
Come to my country,

Come to the world of men and women.
And first of all, come to my heart.

Candlemas by Denise Levertov

With certitude
Simeon opened
ancient arms
to infant light.
Decades
before the cross, the tomb
and the new life,
he knew
new life.
What depth
of faith he drew on,
turning illumined
towards deep night.

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“The Nativity Prayer” by St. Bernard of Clairvaux is not copyrighted and found in many publications.

“Che Jesus” by anonymous 

“The Work of Christmas” by Howard Thurman, from Howard Thurman’s The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations is used by permission of Friends United Press. All rights reserved.

”Candlemas” by Denise Levertov, from BREATHING THE WATER, copyright ©1987 by Denise Levertov. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. 

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Rev. Dave Brown is a writer, creator/host of Blues Vespers, one of the PNW Interfaith Amigos and former pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Tacoma WA. He serves on the PCUSA Education Roundtable. (dbrown7086@aol.com).

Starry Black Night: A Womanist Advent Devotional - 3rd Mid-Week Devotion

AN INTERACTIVE JOURNAL ON CHRISTIAN SOCIAL JUSTICE

3rd Mid-Week Devotion

NOVEMBER 16, 2020NOVEMBER 19, 2020

 

 STARRY BLACK NIGHT: A WOMANIST ADVENT DEVOTIONAL

 

BY DESTINI HODGES

Psalm 125; Malachi 3:16-4:6; Mark 9:9-13

In our Christian structured Bible, we know Malachi to be the last book of the Old Testament. The hermeneutics of this text is known to be one of fire and brimstone as Malachi foretells to the people what our Heavenly Creator states, “surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day is coming will set them on fire” (4:1). God instructs Malachi that God “will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the [God] comes.” At the same time the Mark passage tells us that Jesus instructed, “Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him” (9:13). The message was clear, the time was approaching, but were the people ready?

As we are preparing and waiting for the season of Advent, we are also facing a dual pandemic of COVID-19 and systemic racism. Although the race pandemic is not new to our society, COVID-19 forced our country to notice the racial tension that has been structurally oppressing people of color, particularly Black women, since the constitutional foundation of our country. The United States of America received a similarly fire and brimstone message like the one that Malachi told the people of Israel; it was blunt, direct and in their faces, but were they prepared to listen?

While many have the luxury to work from home; they have received the message of the racial, social and economic injustices that many Black woman face in America.  They have received the message as they turn on their evening news every night to hear skyrocketing statistics of COVID-19 disproportionally affecting people of color, especially Black women. They have received the message while enjoying their morning cup of coffee, being forced to wrestle with the tragic deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery while reading their morning newspaper. Meanwhile, not printed in the national paper at the time of her death was the story of Breonna Taylor:  an unarmed, law abiding, Black woman murdered while sleeping in her bed. They are brutally faced with the message being ever so clear every time they handed a Black woman cashier their money at the grocery store, conveniently waited in their cars as Black women brought them their takeout dinner; and as a Black woman placed the must have bread maker that you ordered from Amazon on your front porch. Exhausted, tired, and putting their families at risk for the sake of your comfort; they do it all with illuminating crinkled eyes and with a smile covered by a mask to keep you safe. Despite all of the misfortunes that Black women are faced with, we too are waiting and preparing for advent and believing in the message of hope.  

As we reflect on the current state of the world and with further reading and close evaluation of the Malachi and Psalm text, there is a clear message of hope. God uses Malachi to state that he will send the prophet Elijah before the day of judgement to turn the hearts of the people (Malachi 4:4-6). Psalms 125 comforts us by stating, “those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround the Jerusalem, so God surrounds the people both now and forevermore” (Psalms 125:1-2). This is God’s promise to us to stay faithful during our season of preparing and waiting. As we lament the current condition that Black women are faced to endure during the dual pandemics, we are hopeful because we know that “the scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted of the righteous” (Psalms 125:3).

Most importantly, many across the United States received the message and instead of ignoring it they reacted. This was evident when many had the luxury to stay in their homes, they responded to the message by pouring into the streets in droves demanding justice for Breonna Taylor. While some read their morning papers with their families at breakfast, they engaged in the hard conversations around race, gender and class disparities due to COVID-19. Lastly, there were some who responded to the message by turning their homes into justice advocacy offices by writing letters to their elected officials, donating money to cash bail funds and educating others through social media.

We have big challenges to face not only as Black women, but as a society. Our faith needs to be justified by our actions this Advent season. We cannot only wait, but we need to be actively preparing ourselves because we know how the story begins and the good news that is yet to come.   

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Destini Hodges is the Interim Coordinator for the Young Adult Volunteer Program for the Presbyterian Church (USA) where the organization provides services opportunities to young adults ages 19 to 30 for a “year of service for a lifetime of change”. She is currently a first year Ministry of Divinity student at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Being a lifelong Presbyterian from Capital Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, PA; Hodges has served as a Ruling Elder, a member on Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concern’s, a member on Mission Responsibility Through Investment and as the Diversity Coordinator for the Presbyterian Women of Carlisle. Graduating with her bachelor’s degree in political science from Pennsylvania State University has shaped her to be a public servant at an early age. Her passion for youth and young adults led her to run for office in 2011 for the Harrisburg School Board at the age of 20 where she was selected and served for four years and later ran for Harrisburg City Council in 2016 where she was elected and served until accepting the position with the Presbyterian Mission Agency in World Mission. She has sat on a diverse fashion of local boards such as the Junior Board for YWCA of Harrisburg and Young Professional Louisville Urban League.

Unbound - Setting the Inner Compass- Advent 2020

AN INTERACTIVE JOURNAL ON CHRISTIAN SOCIAL JUSTICE

DECEMBER 14, 2020DECEMBER 14, 2020

 

 COLUMN

 

BY DAVE BROWN

Reading poetry is one of the ways some of us nourish our faith, a way we set or reset our inner compass and stay focused on the big picture, on the spiritual journey. I know that is true for me. In this monthly column, Setting the Inner Compass, I share some of the poems I find nourishing to the soul. My theme in this column is Advent. I’ll have a special Christmas column next week.

The poets I read respond to the Christian season of Advent in a variety of ways. Some pick up on the themes of the four Sundays in the season (Hope, Peace, Joy, Love). Others work with the theme of incarnation. Some pick up on the themes of pregnancy, birth, and new realities. Others don’t deal with the spiritual or liturgical rather they respond to the changes in the natural world, the coming of winter.

I have a long list of my favorite advent poems. The list includes:
Lisel Mueller’s poem, “Hope” and Emily Dickinson’s poem that shares the same name, Mary Oliver’s “Mysteries Yes,” “I looked up” and “Oxygen,” Madeline L’Engle’s “The Risk of Birth,” Linda Pasten’s “Noel,” Todd Outcalt’s “Advent,” “She Said Yeah” by Kathleen Norris and “The Mosaic of the Nativity” by Jane Kenyon. That is just a few.

Advent is a season of anticipation. Waiting for a birth, waiting for something new to be born. Personally, Advent 2020 finds me with a mix of anxiety and anticipation. I feel anxious and uneasy about what is happening in our polarized and potentially violent nation. I am anxious as well about what our community and church will be like in a post pandemic world. Yet, along with my anxiety, I have a deep sense of anticipation. I feel like something new is waiting to be born within my own life. And I feel like something new is going to emerge in the Christian household. Advent: a season of anxiety and anticipation. On to the poems.

The first poem by Edwina Gateley, captures that sense of anticipation, something new ready to emerge. Ms. Gateley is a remarkable woman. Check out her website. Edwina is currently writing, leading retreats for abused and marginalized women, and serving as “Mother Spirit” for Exodus, a program in Chicago for women in the second phase of recovery from prostitution.

In Mary Howe’s “Annunciation,” I wonder if the poet is writing in Mary’s voice, or as someone who has had her own mystical encounter with the sacred? Or both? Could it be anyone’s words? Finally, “On the Mystery of the Incarnation” by Denise Levertov captures mystery of the Christian affirmation that in Jesus, the Word was made flesh.

Peace,

Dave

Beginnings by Edwina Gateley

Beginnings—
just tiny stirrings
which disturb our even surface,
prodding us into new and different shapes…
claiming their place

on our horizons—
stretching us

where we would not go—
yet we must.
Driven by life forces
deeper than our dreams,
we dare to rise
and grasp towards
the new young thing—

not yet born—

but insistent—
like a tight seed bursting
for life,
carrying within it
all the power
of a woman’s
birthing thrust.

Annunciation by Marie Howe

Even if I don’t see it again — nor ever feel it
I know it is — and that if once it hailed me
it ever does–

And so it is myself I want to turn in that direction
not as toward a place, but it was a tilting
within myself,

as one turns a mirror to flash the light to where
it isn’t — I was blinded like that — and swam
in what shone at me

only able to endure it by being no one and so
specifically myself I thought I’d die
from being loved like that.

On The Mystery of the Incarnation by Denise Levertov

It’s when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
the taint in our own selves, that awe
cracks the mind’s shell and enters the heart:
not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form
but to this creature vainly sure
it and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly failure to evolve) entrusts,
as guest, as brother,
the Word.

CREDITS
“Beginnings” by Edwina Gateley from her book, There Was No Path So I Trod One (1996, 2013). Used by the author’s permission.

“Annunciation” from Kingdom of Ordinary Time by Marie Howe. Copyright © 2008 by Marie Howe. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

”On the Mystery of the Incarnation” by Denise Levertov, from A DOOR IN THE HIVE, copyright ©1989 by Denise Levertov. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. 

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Rev. Dave Brown is a writer, creator/host of Blues Vespers, one of the PNW Interfaith Amigos and former pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Tacoma WA. He serves on the PCUSA Education Roundtable. ( dbrown7086@aol.com).

Starry Black Night: A Womanist Advent Devotional - 2nd Mid-Week Devotion

AN INTERACTIVE JOURNAL ON CHRISTIAN SOCIAL JUSTICE

2nd Mid-Week Devotion

NOVEMBER 16, 2020NOVEMBER 19, 2020

 

 STARRY BLACK NIGHT: A WOMANIST ADVENT DEVOTIONAL

 

BY KARYN BIGELOW

Psalm 27; Malachi 2:10-3:1; Luke 1:5-17 

As I reflect on the Advent scriptures for this day, the theme of a path prepared jumps out to me. I find this idea of the path to be challenging. As a Black woman, 2020 has been exhausting to say the least between the global pandemic (and the consequential deaths), scarcity of food and basic needs, massive job loss, policy brutality, political divisiveness and civil unrest. With all of the chaos of this year, the impact has not been felt equally. Black Americans have been disproportionately impacted by all of these things. The path toward freedom, peace, and Heaven on Earth feels so much further away. How sweet it must have felt for those who knew about the coming of Christ!? How wonderful it must have been to know that the event they and their ancestors waited on was almost over?

In Malachi, it is promised that the path was prepared for Elijah, “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”(Malachi 3:10)

Despite the promise of the arrival of a savior, it did not happen right away. Israelites waited for 400 years —they were in a holding pattern. Multiple prophets spoke of the one to come and life went on as they waited. As we meet Israel in Luke 1:5-17, they were in an in-between moment. In between the promise from God and the fulfillment of that promise. In between oppression and liberation. In between the mundane and one of the greatest events in history. Zechariah was told by an angel of the Lord that his wife, Elizabeth, would give birth to a child who would prepare the way for the Lord. (Luke 1:5-17) Very few people knew at that time that Israel was moments away from their generational prayers being answered.  

Like we see in scripture of the nation of Israel, generations of Black people are connected through a threading of prayer, traditions, stories of joy, and stories of trauma. Black Americans whose ancestors were forcibly brought over to the US through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade were in essence put into exile and slavery from their homeland. Since then generations of Black people have been in this “in between” of waiting from bondage and freedom. And right now the fruition of freedom that we have waited for feels so far away. 

Despite how hard this year has been, I trust that God is present in the midst of the chaos and the time will come for victory. I imagine that Israelites felt like this after hundreds of years of waiting and being separated from their land. For generations, they experienced land of plenty and it was taken away. They had moments of conquering and then seasons of being conquered and experiencing exile. Several times Black Americans have had comparable feelings and experiences as the nation of Israel in scripture.

When we pray and wait for a prayer to be answered, we may cry and plead to God. We may have moments of doubts, moments when our hearts can grow weary in waiting. We may have moments when we wonder if God even has heard us. And wonder, where is the God of justice?(Malachi 2)

Reading the three scriptures from today was a much needed reminder that the waiting will one day end. There is a time for everything and every matter under heaven. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.(Ecclesiastes 3)  All of this pain and sorrow will end one day. It will be replaced with justice and righteousness. 

I want to leave us all with this charge of knowing that when we are in the in-between moments of transition, we may not know what is going to happen and understandably it gets scary and frustrating. But we cannot let it stop us from hope and action. Know that God is God and is at work, even when we can’t see it in all moments. In this season of Advent, let us wait on the Lord and long for the time to where we “will see the goodness of Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13)

As we wait in this season ponder these things. Where do you see God acting in the world? Where do you see hope? How can you take action to help goodness come to the land of the living? 

Prayer

God—our creator, redeemer, and sustainer, many of us are in a season where many people have heavy hearts and sorrow, instead of feeling the joy of this season as we celebrate the birth of Christ.
We pray for the time to come of sweet justice and peace.
Oh God, how we pray that in this season of waiting on the Lord that justice and righteousness will come to pass in the world. We can’t see where the path ahead is taking us, but we know you are on the path with us. In Jesus name, Amen. 

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Karyn Bigelow is passionate about sustainability and food security. She is currently a research analyst and project manager at Bread for the World Institute. In this role, Karyn researches the intersection of climate change and food security. While in seminary, she conducted research on environmental justice issues and the intersectionality of food security and womanism. Karyn serves on a steering committee for the American Baptist Churches’ Creation Justice Ministries. She previously served on the Board of Directors of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was a junior fellow with Green Faith. Karyn holds a Master of Divinity from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and a bachelor’s degree in social relations and policy from the James Madison College at Michigan State University.

Starry Black Night: A Womanist Advent Devotional

AN INTERACTIVE JOURNAL ON CHRISTIAN SOCIAL JUSTICE

2nd Sunday of Advent

STARRY BLACK NIGHT: A WOMANIST ADVENT DEVOTIONAL

 

BY GAY BYRON

Mark 1:1-8 (NRSV)

1:1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
1:2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way;
1:3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'”
1:4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
1:5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
1:6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
1:7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.
1:8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

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Advent marks a time of new beginnings. Although this four-week period of watching and waiting occurs at the end of the calendar year in December, it is the beginning of the liturgical calendar. It is the Christian “New Year” when we focus on birth and new beginnings, which the life of Jesus brings into the world and into our lives.

The lectionary reading for this week, Mark 1:1-8, introduces John the Baptizer and alludes to the prophet Isaiah’s reference to a voice crying out in the wilderness (Is. 40:3). In both texts, the setting is away from the crowds, away from the hustle and bustle of life, and away from traditional and “acceptable” ways of doing things. In the wilderness, John is considered a wild man — wearing camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and eating locusts and wild honey. Yet beyond how he looks, it is the words coming forth from his mouth and the actions he takes with his hands in preparation for “the one more powerful” than he, that matter. It is John’s words and his deeds that are worthy of our devotion during this season of Advent.

For as the Scripture says, John came preaching a baptism of repentance. Beyond the quote from the prophet Isaiah in the Markan text (vv. 2-3), there is something symbolic about being in the wilderness. The wilderness is a place of testing, a place of struggle, a place for divine encounters, and a place to release those things that keep one separated from God. The wilderness motif is central for womanist theologians and biblical critics. Going back to the groundbreaking book by Delores S. Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (1993), womanist interpreters look for models of survival, wholeness, and agency in biblical traditions and in real, lived, experiences of Black women. Hagar is considered a paradigmatic figure of one who was in the wilderness with her son Ismael and found a path into a new world of possibilities (Gen. 16:1-16; 21:9-21).

Though the text does not identify who the people are from the Judean countryside or in Jerusalem who came out to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist, surely we can imagine that women were lined up to confess and repent of their sins and to experience forgiveness through the ritual of baptism. This going into the wilderness is not a sign of weakness. At some point in life, we all have wilderness experiences. The words and deeds of John the Baptizer, a prophet of his time, remind us that there is a way through the wilderness.

In every generation, God calls prophets and leaders who are willing to go out into the highways and byways, the back roads, and the wilderness places in people’s lives to let them know that what they are experiencing is not the end. They remind those who will listen that God always has the final word. Prophets speak to everybody and they are charged to raise their voices whether the people are listening or not. They speak to the downtrodden, they speak to the elite, they speak to adults, and they speak to the children. They speak across generations, finding a way to reach souls that are drifting and longing for a deeper plunge into the life of the Spirit.

So, it is a sign of humility and trust that in order to receive the great promises of God, seekers  must first renounce worldly passions, renounce the ways they have colluded in the sinfulness of their day, and renounce the interlocking systems of oppression that keep them trapped in bondage. All the people coming to John for this baptism of repentance were going into the wilderness to find a way through some type of wilderness experience impacting their lives. Ask yourself, what type of wilderness are you experiencing?  Is it a moral wilderness, an economic wilderness, an ecclesial wilderness, a vocational wilderness? Resources like The Desert Mothers: Spiritual Practices from the Women of the Wilderness (Mary C. Earle, 2007) or Womanist Interpretations of the Bible: Expanding the Discourse (Gay L. Byron and Vanessa Lovelace, [eds.], 2016) help to open up spaces for transformation in whatever wilderness experience you may be facing.

During this season of Advent — as we seek the peace of God and as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the coming of Jesus, find some time to go into your wilderness place. Find some time to dwell in the desert. You may not be able to go out to a physical place, especially in light of travel restrictions and social distancing practices brought about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But this season of Advent is an opportunity to cultivate new spiritual practices and find a renewed sense of purpose in your life.

This season of Advent is also an opportunity to connect with contemporary prophets, those in your own community or those in other spheres of influence whose voices are crying out in the wilderness, “prepare the way of the Lord.” One such prophetic voice is the Poor People’s Campaign, a movement seeking to build a moral agenda rooted in a framework that uplifts the deepest moral and constitutional values to redeem the heart and soul of this country. They declare that the moral public concerns of our faith traditions are how our society treats the poor, women, LGBTQ people, children, workers, immigrants, communities of color, and the sick. They advocate for peace within and among nations and the dignity and respect of all people. They are ultimately consumed with repairing the moral infrastructure of this country. Rev. Dr. William Barber, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Rev. Alvin Jackson and other leaders of this prophetic movement could be viewed in the same way that John the Baptist was viewed back in his days in the wilderness. They are making a national call for a moral revival in this country. They are saying, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt. 3:2). Many people may be thinking they are out of sorts and unrealistic to run what they call a “Poor People’s Campaign.”  Yet as we bring closure to the unforgettable Year2020, a year of protest and pandemic, now more than ever we need a message of repentance for all who are willing to get involved and do something different to shift the injustices and the immoral acts that are taking place against the poor and disenfranchised in this country.

As we see with John the Baptist, it was in raising his voice — calling for repentance,  and in carrying out tangible deeds — baptizing people, including Jesus, in the Jordan River, that we see his true witness come to fruition. Talk is not enough. Being radical and different is not enough. Rather, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God and preparing accessible paths for those who have been left on the margins of society is one way through the wilderness. Come Holy Spirit. May we know the power of water and fire (Mark 1:8; Matt. 3:11).

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The Rev. Dr. Gay L. Byron is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, DC. Her scholarship focuses on the origins of Christianity in ancient Ethiopia. She is the recipient of several fellowships for her research, which identifies and examines ancient Ethiopic (Ge`ez) sources for the study of the New Testament and other early Christian writings. She is the author of Symbolic Blackness and Ethnic Difference in Early Christian Literature (Routledge Press) and co-editor of Womanist Interpretations of the Bible: Expanding the Discourse (SBL Press). Rev. Byron is an ordained minister of the Word and Sacrament (Teaching Elder) in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and currently serves as the Stated Supply Pastor at Northminster Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. She preaches and leads workshops throughout the country for a variety of denominational bodies, and lectures at theological schools and universities on topics dealing with race, ethnicity, and the Bible; African American and womanist hermeneutics; Ethiopic manuscripts; and early Ethiopian Christianity. She holds degrees from Florida State University (B.S.), Clark Atlanta University (M.B.A.), and Union Theological Seminary in New York City (M.Div. and Ph.D.). She has two sons and enjoys sporting and cultural activities.

1st Mid-Week Devotion

AN INTERACTIVE JOURNAL ON CHRISTIAN SOCIAL JUSTICE

Psalm 124

If the Lord had not been on our side—
    let Israel say—
2 if the Lord had not been on our side
    when people attacked us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive
    when their anger flared against us;
4 the flood would have engulfed us,
    the torrent would have swept over us,
5 the raging waters
    would have swept us away.

6 Praise be to the Lord,
    who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a bird
    from the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken,
    and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

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We stand between Faith and Hope in our journey through the Lenten season. To be sure, our Psalm for today lands firmly between the two. Clearly, King David penned this Psalm nearing the end or after a tumultuous time in his life. David faced doubt by those he led. He felt anger towards and from them. The floods he experienced were his war scars. He was always under attack. But if it had not been for the Lord on his side, he would have perished, been swept away, ravished.

This is where Black women in America live. From the very beginning of our time here in America, those engulfed by greed sought the strongest, smartest, wisest, and healthiest of the African women to buy and then entered the women into a harrowing and demeaning stripping of everything for which they were purchased in the first place, thus creating the “mammy syndrome”. The slave owners subscribed to Aldous Huxley’s “One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.” But all along the Black women subscribed to Idowu Koyenikan’s “The mind is just like a muscle – the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets and the more it can expand.” Our faith and our hope were and are foundational in this very belief.

Every industry has fallen prey to what is called “the mammy syndrome.” Stephanie Mitchem describes this phenomenon as ‘the unspoken expectation that Black women can take any position, work, or discomfort and ought to be grateful for a job.”[1] This rang true then by the harsh treatment of working in the fields all day, raising their children (often born of the slave owner by rape), and caring for their families which were often broken apart by a simple sales transaction. Yet, these women performed all the required duties and somehow, by the grace of God, survived. If it had not been for the Lord on their side, where would they have been?

Today, after years of white male activities designed to keep the status quo, and them in power, a Black woman is called in under the guise of progressive change. Her entire staff has been formed and informed by yesterday and those are the true and underlying expectations for today and the future. In order to change that culture to face a brighter, exciting, and promised future, she must decompose the mammy syndrome to journey through to hope.

Black women will not be swallowed up, ignored, broken, or swept away because each mountain scaled has only served to make her stronger. Her faith is the strongest thing about her and many simply cannot understand why she never falls. She never falls because she stands on the precipice of delight and freedom simply by her connection with the Holy. A Black woman who lives between faith and hope is unshakable, not because she alone is perfect, but she serves a perfect God. She knows that if it had not been for the Lord on her side that she never would have made it. She builds on her personal experiences and calls upon the sweet and enduring memory of her strong mother, grand-mother, aunts, and neighbors. All of them have the expectation that she will call upon the name of the Lord from where her strength will and does come. She knows that in God there is no failure and those who seek to defy her strength and courage will be the very ones who will be gnashed by the teeth of faith and hope and be utterly broken. Those who see and realize the connection will move from faith to hope in a lifted ethereal-ism with the Holy. They will not cling to her but embrace her faith in God from which to glean, grow, and excel.

Black women know the pain of oppression, unrealistic expectations, othering, and emotional poverty. What Black women rarely have is a depletion of the spirit. The Lord we serve is a reservoir for enlightened perseverance. I remember growing up in the Baptist church as a child, listening to the choir sing, “This joy I have, the world didn’t give it, the world can’t take it away.” This joy, inner peace, faith, and hope which reinforces the very fiber of the soul of and for Black women is not of this world. Like King David, our soul support/help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

As you reflect upon this text and this season of Advent, challenge yourself with the following questions, prayerfully, and thoughtfully:

1 – In the perilous and stressful time of COVID and racial unrest, from where is your help coming?

2 – Who have you perceived to be your albatross? How have you embraced the God in that person?

3 – Who have you not seen as one created in the image of God, but a foe?

4 – Where do you currently stand between faith and hope?

5 – How is this stance living out in your life today?

6 – How have you grown through adversities in your life?

7 – How will you grow with any current adversities? Who will you be on the other side?

8 – How are you truly caring for your soul system? Have you taken on too much?

9 – Are you compromising to the point that you can’t hear God’s word?

10 – As we journey towards a new birth, what are you carrying? What will you birth?

Amen.

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[1] Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, Denise Leckenby, Sharlene Janice Hesse-Biber, Women In Catholic Higher Education, Lexington Books, 2003.

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Rev. Amantha L Barbee is the pastor at the multi-ethnic congregation of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church (USA), Decatur, GA. She was the pastor at Statesville Avenue Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, NC prior to her coming to the Atlanta area. She holds a BA from University of North Carolina-Charlotte. She is currently a doctoral student at Columbia Theological Seminary. Her love of music led her to 20 years of service as a church musician prior to seminary studies at Union Presbyterian Seminary where she earned the E.T. George Award for excellence in Homiletics and Worship. She has a Master of Divinity from Union Presbyterian Seminary – Richmond, VA.

Barbee loves the traditions of the church but has a passion for blended and multicultural worship. She served as a program director in an area women’s homeless center prior to her pastorate of SAPC. Rev. Barbee serves the General Assembly for the Presbyterian Church (USA) as the Chairperson of the Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations. Barbee is on the Board of Directors for the University of GA Presbyterian Center. She is the recipient of the 2018 PCUSA Woman of Faith Award PCUSA. She is on the Board of Trustees for Montreat Conference Center and serves on the Strategy Team for NEXTChurch.

Rev. Barbee is the past chairperson for the Charlotte Clergy Coalition for Justice. Rev. Barbee is an advocate for those with no or limited voice and does not shy away from any challenge. Her passion for justice has led her to deep and committed work of leadership in bringing the church outside the building. She has extensive experience in working with clergy from multiple faiths in multiple areas of social justice. Her social justice focus revolves around areas of racial injustice, environmental injustice, physical and mental disabilities and has written a resource for the church to address these challenges. Barbee has extensive training in Anti-racism and anti-bias models for people of faith and the intersectionality of all issues of justice. She has led protests, both peaceful and challenging and her work has been recognized nationally.  

Unbound: Setting the Inner Compass - November 2020

NOVEMBER 20, 2020NOVEMBER 20, 2020

 

 COLUMN

 

BY DAVE BROWN

Reading poetry is one of the ways some of us nourish our faith, a way we set or reset our inner compass and stay focused on the big picture, on the spiritual journey. I know that is true for me. In this monthly column, ‘Setting the Inner Compass,’ I share some of the poems I find nourishing to the soul.

We are approaching Advent. On the first Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of hope. My theme this November is hope. The Merriam Webster dictionary my parents gave me when I entered high school tells me that hope is “Desire accompanied by an expectation of or belief in fulfillment.” Hope is not wishful thinking or optimism. Wishful thinking or optimism is looking at reality through rose colored glasses, ignoring the negative, focusing on the positive.  Hope, Christian hope, is not like that at all. It sees the world as it is: good and bad. Our hope is not based on glossing over or ignoring the hard stuff. Grounded in our faith, we see the brokenness and the harsh realities. Some days it is difficult to feel hope, but we go on. Trusting in the way of Jesus, in God and one another, we work together, believing a better day will come.

Last month, I had just one poem. This month four. The first poem is by Lisel Mueller. In 1939, at the age of 15, with her family, Ms. Mueller fled the Nazi regime and settled in the United States. This background informs her work as an artist. In 1997, Mueller won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Alive Together: New & Selected Poems. In 1981, she won the National Book Award for Poetry for The Need to Hold Still.  Lisel Mueller died this past February.

The second poem, “How to Survive This,” is from Barbara Kingsolver’s wonderful new collection of poetry, How to Fly (in Ten Easy Lessons). One of my favorite writers, Barbara Kingsolver is the author of nine bestselling novels, most recently Unsheltered. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal, our country’s highest honor for service through the arts.

The third poem is by Lynn Unger who was in my first poetry column with her poem “Pandemic”. She shares a brand-new poem in this column.

The last poem by Barbara Crooker veers from the theme of Hope to Thanksgiving, an appropriate way to close a November column. Living in the Pacific Northwest with its short, dark, November days, the closing line of the poem resonates with me, “Though darkness gathers, praise or crazy fallen world; it’s all we have and it’s never enough.”

Thank you to the publishers and to Lisel Mueller and Barbara Crooker for allowing me to share these poems with you.

Peace,

Dave 

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HOPE
by Lisel Mueller

It hovers in dark corners
before the lights are turned on,
    it shakes sleep from its eyes
    and drops from mushroom gills,
         it explodes in the starry heads
         of dandelions turned sages,
              it sticks to the wings of green angels
              that sail from the tops of maples.

It sprouts in each occluded eye
of the many-eyed potato,
    it lives in each earthworm segment
    surviving cruelty,
        it is the motion that runs

        from the eyes to the tail of a dog,
              it is the mouth that inflates the lungs
              of the child that has just been born.

It is the singular gift
we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,
all we know of God.

It is the serum which makes us swear
not to betray one another;
it is in this poem, trying to speak.

How to Survive This
by Barbara Kingsolver

O misery. Imperfect
universe of days stretched out
ahead, the string of pearls
and drops of venom on the web,
losses of heart, of life
and limb, news of the worst:

Remind me again
the day will come
when I look back amazed
at the waste of sorry salt
when I had no more than this
to cry about.

Now I lay me down.
I’m not there yet.

Keeping Faith
by Lynn Ungar

It’s hard, these days, to know what to believe in.
I still pray to Goodness, Truth and Mercy,
but I am starting to suspect there are stronger gods.
and war brewing on the mountain.
Hope is still in the pantheon, but Optimism
slunk off a while back. Joy, and her sister Delight,
still come around, and I leave the door open as I can.
But sometimes its hard for the soul to keep faith.
I am trying to listen behind its high, anxious whine
to prayers of the flesh. Tea, says the body.
Rain, lavender, red leaves, pie. 
11/5/20

Praise Song
by Barbara Crooker

Praise the light of late November,
the thin sunlight that goes deep in the bones.
Praise the crows chattering in the oak trees;
though they are clothed in night, they do not
despair. Praise what little there’s left:
the small boats of milkweed pods, husks, hulls,
shells, the architecture of trees. Praise the meadow
of dried weeds: yarrow, goldenrod, chicory,
the remains of summer. Praise the blue sky
that hasn’t cracked yet. Praise the sun slipping down
behind the beechnuts, praise the quilt of leaves
that covers the grass: Scarlet Oak, Sweet Gum,
Sugar Maple. Though darkness gathers, praise our crazy
fallen world; it’s all we have, and it’s never enough.

CREDITS

HOPE by Lisel Mueller © Lisel Mueller 1996, is from her book ALIVE TOGETHER and reprinted with permission of LSU Press.

How to Survive This is from the book: HOW TO FLY (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) by Barbara Kingsolver. Copyright © 2020 by Barbara Kingsolver. Reprinted courtesy of Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Keeping Faith © Lynn Ungar is used in UNBOUND with the permission of the poet. You can read more of Lynn’s poetry, or purchase her book Bread and Other Miracles, at lynnungar.com .

PRAISE SONG© Barbara Crooker is from the book Radiance (Word Press, 2005) and used with the permission of the poet.

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Rev. Dave Brown is a writer, creator/host of Blues Vespers, one of the PNW Interfaith Amigos and former pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Tacoma, WA. He serves on the PCUSA Education Roundtable. (dbrown7086@aol.com).