For the Unity of the Church...

Lectionary text from Philippians 1:3-6

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

“Why would people want to change the Discipline?” At that time I thought it was perfectly reasonable for my church to say that gays and lesbians were people of sacred worth, even if their behavior was “incompatible with Christian teaching.” I was 19, in college, and asked this question in my United Methodist campus ministry office.

Pam looked up at me from her administrative work and said very plainly, “Andy, not all Methodists believe homosexuality is a sin.”

This began in me a 15 year journey to where I am now, with many people shaping my convictions along the way...

• Pastors like Rev. Tom Price who told me when he was young he was quite convinced gays and lesbians were living in sin, but the older he got, the less certain he was of such things. And like Rev. Bill Yeager who asked me if I really thought it was God’s plan to create gays and lesbians in God's image and ask them to live a life void of intimacy with the person they love.

• Theologians like Justo González who taught me that when we fail to listen to minority and oppressed voices we miss the fullness of what God has to say.

• Bishops like Melvin Talbert who told me I have a moral obligation to be obedient to the Bible, even if that means ignoring unjust, discriminatory laws of my church.

But most of all, it has been the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people in my life who have shaped my reading of scripture…

• Seminary colleagues like Chase Bannister who asked me quite pointedly, “If you are empowered in any way whatsoever and believe injustice is afoot, would you stand trial on my behalf—in the service of my ordination (and one day, my marriage)? Would you speak so boldly that you're censured, dismissed, or defrocked? If you live in fear, why do you still live there? Would you stand trial for me and my kindred?”

• Like clergy who faithfully serve and seek to serve our churches—living and loving in secret, prevented from their full humanity by the fear of being outed and persecuted. Some named, some unnamed, many more silently walking away from a vocation they were called to by God.

As I have wrestled with how to read scripture, the extra canonical stories of these people’s suffering has shifted my lens. As I have sought to practice orthodoxy (right belief), their witness of love and orthopraxis (right practice) has shaped my ministry more than anything else.

LGBTQ people have taught me what the unity of the church really looks like… a commitment to life together, even with people who disagree, so that we might all see, hear, feel, and taste the fullness of God’s love. I have continued to be made into a disciple of Christ in that I have found Christ in the suffering, hope, and resurrection living in the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer people in The United Methodist Church.

I have seen Christ more plainly in two specific gay men: Robert Jackson and Tim Leslie. Individually they have each taught me so much about loving others, and together, in their love for one another, they have shown me what God’s love looks like for the world.

So for the unity of the church, I will continue to bear witness to how their love has changed my life, and in turn, I will stay committed to showing others how wonderfully inclusive the fullness of God’s love really is. I am committed to unity, even if that means ignoring unjust, discriminatory laws of my church to do so. When the story of our church is told, it is those abolitionists who fought to undo an institution of slavery, it is those who kneeled in protest of a segregated church, it is those women who continued to preach yes to a church who told them no to their call—it is these people who are the true builders of unity. Unity is built more by those who do the right thing, serving as midwifes to labor our church into a new future God is constantly re-creating.

I am committed to unity, which is why I will officiate weddings for all couples ready to together be a living, outward, and visible sign of God’s love. I am committed to unity not to protect a broken institution called The United Methodist Church, but because it is the best way I know how disciples are made and moved on into perfection—in life together, one with another. I am committed to unity so that oppressed, rejected, Christ-occupied people like BJ and Tim can continue to make disciples of us people who think we have it all figured out.

Philippians 1:9-11
 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Prayer for those preparing to be stoned

Acts 7

51”You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. 52Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. 53You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.” 54When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. 55But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56“Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. 58Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died. 

O God, you can’t make this stuff up. Sunday’s lectionary text is the stoning of Stephen. Tomorrow, another one of your chosen prophets goes before the masses.

When Mary Ann sits before the Southwest Texas Board of Ordained Ministry, like Stephen will she find stiff-necks, uncircumcised hearts, and closed ears? Will she encounter prophet persecutors, betrayers, and murderers? 

O God, fill Mary Ann with your Holy Spirit, just like you did for Stephen. May she too see and feel your presence. 

And if she should feel the blows of stones thrown her way: words of discrimination, judgment, and fear… then O God, may we witnesses join with Stephen in this prayer: “do not hold this sin against them.” 

We know you transform stones cast in fear into stones that roll away. God, will you once again turn death into life?

A prayer for God to teach me what it means to be an ally

Praying the lectionary before the ordination interview of Mary Ann Barclay.

Psalm 116

I love God, because God has heard my voice and my supplications.
Because God inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on God: “O Lord, I pray, save my life!”
Gracious is God, and righteous; our God is merciful.
The Lord protects the simple; when I was brought low, God saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest, for God has dealt bountifully with you.
For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I walk before God in the land of the living.
I kept my faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”;
I said in my consternation, “Everyone is a liar.”
What shall I return to God for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on God,
I will pay my vows to God in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of God is the death of his faithful ones.
O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on God.
I will pay my vows to God in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of God, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise God!

O God,

Hear the cries of my gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer brothers and sisters. You know the hell they have been put through these past 42 years… seeking to be faithful to you, having no choice but to follow your call on their lives to serve in your church as elders, deacons, lay persons. 

You God know what their journey has been like. You are one who came to walk among us to teach a new way and yet you were ridiculed, called names, doubted, rejected by the established church. Because of your faithfulness to your calling, you had unspeakable violence done to you, so perhaps you, better than most, relate to the violence and harm done today against LGBTQ persons: physical, spiritual, emotional, personal, institutional, visible, and hidden. Whoever wrote this psalm knew you to be a God who saves: gracious, righteous, merciful, protective, abundant, deliverer—even a God who wipes tears and unstumbles feet. 

God, it sounds like this psalmist knew you as the Great Ally. God, in my privilege, I admit I do not fully know this pain that you and others suffered. Teach me how to be an ally—to stand with my LGBTQ friends, so that they may too boldly proclaim with the psalmist that 

they WILL lift your cup of salvation at your table,

they WILL make their ordination vows to you in the presence of all your people,

they WILL serve your people. 

God, I think this is what it means to praise you with loosened bonds. Amen.

Prayer for when we dismiss the outpouring of God's Spirit as drunkenness

Acts 2:15-18

15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

O God,

Even these many years later, it seems we are still making assumptions and judgments about the people on which you choose to pour out your Spirit. On Pentecost you reminded us that you would use sons and daughters, old and young, slave and free, to speak words of truth into our world—an abundant outpouring not restricted by our discriminatory tendencies. Yet, we your church, have spent the last 2000 years foolishly busying ourselves deciding who is in and who is out when it comes to receiving your Spirit and ministering to your people. You even went to the extent of coming to us in the flesh, choosing outcasts, sinners, enemies, and those not even allowed in the temple to be your disciples and lead your church. Why God do we still not get it? Why are we so focused on trying to restrict and be gatekeepers of the outcasts you continue to douse with your Spirit?

We are good at baptizing your children. We are good at making communal vows to raise that child in the faith. We are good at helping that child when they come of age to confirm the promises made on their behalf at their baptism. We are good at helping that young person have space to hear your call and respond to it. We are good at it unless you created them gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer—if that is the case we are not so good. We abandon your LGBTQ children called into ministry.

Like the witnesses of that first Pentecost who dismissed your Spirit as drunkenness, we make judgmental assumptions about your calling on people's lives. Forgive us, we pray. Help us see people like Mary Ann Barclay as you see them. Help us keep the vows we made at her baptism. Help us help her be faithful to her calling to serve your church. Help the Southwest Texas Board of Ordained Ministry be faithful to their task. Amen.

. . .

To take part in the prayer vigil before Mary Ann Barclay's ordination interview, click here.

Mary Ann Barclay deserves better.

My friend Mary Ann was reinstated in her United Methodist ordination process in Southwest Texas yesterday. Even though she was approved by her church and a district committee, her conference board broke their own rules by voting her out without ever interviewing her. Her bishop, after over 6 months, finally overturned their discriminatory action, granting her the right to an interview.

Many are saying that this decision just delays the inevitable—in a year she will meet with her conference board and they will vote her out. But I don’t think it will be that simple.

The individuals on this board now have to see Mary Ann as a person: read her writing, listen to her story, and look into her eyes before they will be allowed to deny God's call on her life. 

It is one thing to vote out an abstract lesbian, it is quite another to enter into another’s life and tell them to their face that they were wrong about their calling. To do that, board members of Southwest Texas will have to decide to ignore their conscience and the Holy Spirit.

History books will record Mary Ann’s name alongside Anna Oliver and Anna Shaw... both denied ordination in in the 19th century on the grounds that "there is no place for women in the ordained ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church." 

Mary Ann’s persistence and confidence in her calling to a church whose discriminatory clergy rules deny her entrance echo those in history who applied to colleges, sat at lunch counters, and kneeled in churches… even though they were not allowed to do so by law. As Anna Oliver said in1880 when seeking ordination alongside men:

I am sorry to trouble our dear mother Church with any perplexing questions, but it presses me also, and the Church and myself must decide something. I am so thoroughly convinced that [God] has laid commands upon me in this direction, that it becomes with me really a question of my own soul's salvation. If [God] commands me to just the course I am pursuing, as only they that do [God's] commandments have right to the tree of life, I have no alternative.

Mary Ann has no alternative than to follow God’s call on her life to minister in The United Methodist Church. My hope is that board members will have no alternative than to follow the Spirit’s call as well.

Today changes everything

Today is so familiar.
Today two men in Birmingham refuse to give up their spot.
Today the opposition continues to blast their harmful water hoses.
Today Methodist bishops call on a colleague to stand down.
Today fear and bigotry fall victim to love and justice.
Today is so familiar.

You rocks cry out.
You rocks who have remained silent.
You rocks petrified by the fear of retribution and revenues.
You rocks stoned on the drug of appointment ladders.
You rocks threatened by ecclesial Pharisaic control.
You rocks cry out.

Today God is doing a new thing.
Today changes everything in The United Methodist Church.
Today a United Methodist bishop joins two grooms into one.
Today "Dearly Beloved" is spoken, and Beloved Community is made real.
Today Joe and Bobby are a sign of God's love changing the world.
Today God is doing a new thing.

Today is so familiar.
You know how today ends.
Today changes everything.

Same-sex couple to wed at RMN convocation—others invited to do the same

Originally published on RMNBlog

They met while in seminary. “Seeing her was the first time in my life I was taken aback by someone’s presence. I instantly thought who is this woman,” said Mary Ann Kaiser. That was the beginning of a love story between Mary Ann and Annanda—a journey that is leading them to the wedding aisle at Reconciling Ministries Network’s convocation Labor Day weekend.

“Choosing to get married isn’t all about us. It is a response to God’s call on our lives to be one,” said Annanda Barclay, second year seminary student currently serving at Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas. “It is a spiritual act. Civil rights are a beautiful thing and should be realized for all couples, but marriage is rooted in Christ’s expression of love. We now get to be a sign to the world of what that love looks like, in our love for each other.”
“We are crazy in love, still making each other blush,” said Mary Ann Kaiser, a youth director and justice associate at University UMC in Austin. “I know this feeling won’t be there forever, but as we bind ourselves to one another through this sacred ritual, we commit to spending a lifetime learning how to love this other person—pushing, challenging, and helping to grow into the women God has called us to be. Marriage is our answering the call to use our love to do good things for the world together.”

Both women feel called to ordained ministry. Mary Ann, a frequent contributor to RMN’s blog, is seeking to be a Deacon in The United Methodist Church, and is passionate about the intersections of church and society. Open about her relationship with Annanda, Mary Ann’s UMC District Committee on Ministry in Austin recently voted to pass her through to interview with the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry. Annanda, called to parish ministry, is passionate about developing new churches that are diverse. “As an African American, queer, woman, in a church that is predominately white, I feel called to stand in the intersections of race, ethnicity, age, socio economic status, and sexual identities, celebrating with them all as one worshiping body.”


Reconciling Ministries Network is holding its convocation (ChurchQuake: Embracing Freedom) over Labor Day weekend in Maryland, where same-sex marriage is legal. “We thought it was important to give our community the opportunity and space to commit their lives in covenant to one another,” said RMN Executive Director Matt Berryman. “The RMN community will be gathered for worship, fellowship, and study, and I can think of no better time for a marriage to happen, for couples who have discerned this sacred calling, than when they are surrounded by those who will love and support them into the future.”

Local area Reconciling clergy are prepared to assist couples who have gone through premarital counseling and have determined with their pastor that they are ready for marriage. Couples interested in exploring this possibility should visit http://www.rmnetwork.org/cq13, which will give details concerning appropriate premarital preparations with your pastor, and securing a Maryland marriage license. Convocation leaders will work with the couples to schedule wedding ceremonies when friends can take part. There will also be a celebration at convocation recognizing all same-sex couples who have been married at convocation or before, closing with a gala reception, including wedding cake. RMN is committed to marriage equality and is pleased to provide this opportunity to live this out at convocation.

Mary Ann and Annanda said they chose convocation because community is important to them. “Marriage is not just a covenant between two people and God, but a covenant of the community surrounding them as well,” said Mary Ann. “There will be a day when things get tough, and to know that we have a community who were present on the day we made a promise and who remember the vision that started the whole thing, means we have someone to turn to give us strength. And that same community will help us celebrate for the next great thing—like adopting a child. Marriage is a communal event.”

Even though marriage equality is getting significant attention in the movement right now, both women feel strongly that it is not the most pressing need for the LGBTQ community. “Homeless youth who have been shunned from their families, same-sex, bi-national couples who have no immigration rights—those may not be the primary need of the privileged middle, upper class LGBTQ community, but needs like these are essential to equality,” said Mary Ann. Annanda agreed, adding that they plan to work for LGBTQ equality together as a couple. “Marriage isn’t foremost about us. It is about sharing the abundant gifts we have for each other with the world and community around us.”

Couples interested in exploring the possibility of getting married at convocation should talk to their local clergy person and then visit www.rmnetwork.org/cq13. Be sure to save the date—see you at convocation!

. . .

The Bride: Annanda Barclay graduated from Illinois College with a BS in International Studies and Spanish. She is a seminary student who is passionate about creating new frameworks in church development, so all people are welcomed and valued in the church. Annanda hopes to become an ordained minister in The PC (USA) and is currently an intern at Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas. She is a board member of More Light Presbyterians working for LGBTQ equality in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

The Bride: Mary Ann Kaiser is a recent graduate of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She has a passion for working in the intersections of church and society. Her love for religious approaches to questions of ethics, particularly in the realms of race, gender, and sexuality, led her to internships at WATER (Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual) in Silver Spring, MD and Texas Freedom Network in Austin, TX. She has also worked for the Wesley Foundation and as a hospital chaplain. She currently serves as Youth Director and Justice Associate at University UMC in Austin and is pursuing ordination as a Deacon in The UMC. In her free time, she blogs for Reconciling Ministries Network.

Called to be extremists

Originally published on RMNBlog

Today, on the 50^th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” and on the morning after the act of terror at The Boston Marathon, here are words of intersection… As we hear the word “extremist” being used in the media to describe unimaginable hate, Dr. King's letter beacons us, still to be a different type of extremist.
 
Excerpt from MLK’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail, 50 years later:

Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."  

Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream."
Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." 

Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." 

And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." 

And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." 

And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . ." 

So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? 

In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime—the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. 

The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

Click here to read the full letter.

How the United Methodist Men aren't being very United Methodist

Originally published on RMNBlog



On February 19, Bishop Swanson, Secretary Gil Hanke, and the board members of the United Methodist Men issued a statement which boiled down to three main points:

• Whereas we received lots of angry and hateful phone calls and letters from conservatives following our first two statements in favor of the inclusion of Scouts who identify as gay
• Whereas we value retention and expansion above every other value
• Therefore, the United Methodist Men are calling on the Boy Scouts of America not to change their ban on gay scouts and scout leaders because we need more time.

I am a member of the United Methodist Men. They helped pay my way through seminary and I witnessed the power of men’s ministry at many of the churches I served. That is why I am deeply saddened after reading this statement over their lack of courage to be United Methodist.

---

You see, even if you agree passionately with United Methodist doctrine and polity, there is nothing in our Book of Discipline that would support young men being excluded from a church sponsored troop based on their sexual orientation.
The Discipline talks about all people being of sacred worth, and calls on United Methodists to be in ministry with all people. My United Methodist Church professes an open table and believes that God and God’s prevenient grace is in and with all people, even before we are aware of her presence. John Wesley believed that fellowship, study, building relationships, and conversation with others could be a means of grace where we are transformed into something new. Jesus showed us what love looked like as he again and again embraced the marginalized.
That is our theology.
It is not our theology to make decisions based on people’s threats of taking their money and leaving… that is the theology of capitalism.
It is not our theology to base our polity on what will attract the most people and retain them… that is the theology of consumerism.
It is not our theology to hinder the access of children and youth… that was the theology of confused disciples who mistakenly believed they were gatekeepers, deciding who could and couldn’t come to Jesus.
The United Methodist Men say we just need more time to preserve retention and expansion of scouting programs in The UMC.
A quick history lesson:

• When Israel was in Egypt’s land, Pharaoh said we need more time… he valued retention and expansion of his empire
• When the Methodist Church was split over slavery, the South said we need more time… they valued retention and expansion of their churches
• When Lincoln was considering The Emancipation Proclamation, white slave owners said we need more time… they valued retention and expansion of their plantations
• When women were fighting for their right to vote in this country, white men said we needed more time… they valued retention and expansion of their power
• When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was sitting in a jail cell in Birmingham following civil disobedience concerning unjust and immoral laws in the Jim Crow South, white pastors (including two Methodist bishops) said we need more time… they valued retention and expansion of the way things have always been
• When the Methodist Church was considering racial integration of our churches, church leaders said we need more time… they valued retention and expansion of their offering plates
• When women were fighting for the ability to live out their Baptisms and faithfully answer their call to ordained ministry, white males said we need more time… they valued retention and expansion of their authority

The chorus of the privileged majority gets sung again and again, “we need more time,” and the latest group to join the refrain is the United Methodist Men. More time means more boys subject to bullying and exclusion. More time means higher rates of suicides among gay adolescents.
But perhaps the most crucial reason we don’t have “more time” is because we need to stand up and be United Methodist Men. We are not a church that has any more time for injustice.

. . .

To read the United Methodist Men's full statement from Feb 19, 2013, click here.

A forgotten Civil Rights hero

Originally published on RMNBlog

If you've never heard of Bayard Rustin you are not alone. But you should know him. Bayard Rustin is perhaps the most significant organizer for social justice and civil rights in American history. He was the man behind Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, teaching King everything he knew about non-violent resistance, civil disobedience, and organizing a movement. Certainly The Movement would not have succeeded like it did without MLK's brilliance, but King would be no more than a prophetic preacher if Bayard Rustin hadn't introduced him to the ideas of Gandhi and given King the strategy to change the world through peace.
So if Bayard Rustin is so important, why has history forgotten him? Why isn't he celebrated? Why was he hidden by The Movement itself?
Bayrad Rustin was gay.

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When those opposed to The Movement learned of Bayard Rustin's sexuality, they sought to use it  against the entire fight for civil rights-- even from the floor of congress. As result, Bayard Rustin worked from the background, hidden from public eye and left out of the history books.There is no justifying the horrible injustice that has been done to Bayard Rustin. However, we can't change what our heroes of the Civil Rights Era choice to do to protect a vulnerable movement. What we can do is reclaim his name, sacrifice, hard work, and character today.

That is why today, I am introducing a petition to President Barack Obama to award Bayard Rustin posthumously with The Presidential Medal of Freedom. We need 100,000 signatures by February 17th, 2013. Together we can help honor a man who gave his entire for the Civil Rights Movement. He deserves to at least stand behind, if not next to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Click the picture below to sign the petition and share this with your friends. Below is a video and other links to more information about Bayard Rustin's life of service.

• Brother Outsider, a documentary about Bayard Rustin's life (airs on PBS 2/3/13, at 8 pm EST)
• A pamphlet written by Bayard Rustin giving final marching order for The March on Washington
• Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin by John D'Emilio

Letter from an Albany Jail

Originally published on RMNBlog

You have probably read his Letter from a Brimingham Jail, but have you read Dr. King's letter from a cell in Albany, GA? In it King makes the argument that when "the non-violent resistor refuses to cooperate with a law that is out of harmony with the laws of God and the laws of morality, he must break the law-- but in doing so, practices civil disobedience and accepts the penalty, thereby practicing moral obedience and transforms the jail into a haven of liberty and freedom."

Over Labor Day weekend Reconciling Ministries Network will be holding its convocation in D.C. themed "ChurchQuake: Embracing Freedom". There is a story in the Bible of Paul and Silas locked up in a jail cell for their civil disobedience. And when they began to sing songs, the earth shook and their chains were released.

I have to wonder if Dr. King had that story in mind when he transformed a jail in Albany into a haven of liberty and freedom.

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Here is the letter, in Dr. King's own typing (from the King Center Archive):

- by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -

Advent and The Holocaust

This article is part of a series of devotions in an online group Advent project.

Female prisoners at forced labor digging trenches at the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. This photograph is from the SS-Propaganda-Album des Frauen-KZ-Ravensbrueck 1940-1941. USHMM (18344), courtesy of Lydia Chagoll.

Advent and The Holocaust don’t normally get put together. However, I figured writing on the eve of the winter solstice (aka the longest night) and the Mayan apocalypse (aka the end of the world), Holocaust imagery might just be appropriate.

Advent and The Holocaust overlap more that you first might think. The story of Jews waiting, longing, hoping, traveling, being housed in deplorable conditions. Will a savior come? It doesn’t seem so as Herod and Hitler massacre innocent children. Murder. Hopelessness. Hate. Fear. A far cry from the peace, hope, love, and joy candles we light on our advent wreath in worship.

Every generation thinks they have it worse than the one before, but the unrest the Christ was born into was a world headed for a spiritual cliff just as much, if not more, than our world today. Those in power are neglecting and causing harm, and so John the Baptist holds a press conference to tell it like it is: 

(From Luke 3) John said to the crowds… …bear fruits worthy of repentance… …Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise. Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

As the people were filled with expectation… …John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

When we read this text, and think about the massacre last week or the one long ago in Germany, it seems as though John got it all wrong. He said the bad fruit would be cut down and thrown into the fire, not innocent children. Where in the hell is God in all of this? Why is evil still winning?

The following prayer was found at Ravensbruck, a Holocaust death camp where 92,000 women and children died.  It was scrawled on a piece of paper near a dead girl. (It is also the text used in a single by Jennifer Knapp for the Martyr Project.)

Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will also those of ill will.  But do not only remember the suffering they have inflicted on us; remember the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering—our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this, and when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have borne be their forgiveness.

Just like Advent again, in the midst of all these questions and feelings of abandonment by God, a child shall lead us. This child’s prayer are Word made flesh: In our suffering, remember all of your children, even those who turn on the gas chamber or trigger a semi automatic rifle. May the fruits we have borne in this suffering—may they be their forgiveness. Sounds a lot like something Jesus would say. Fruit borne in suffering for the forgiveness of sins. Wine poured out for the forgiveness of all. The Christ becoming flesh in the words of that little Jewish girl.

Where the hell is God in all this evil? God is right there in the thick of hell; love conquering death. John tells us, God’s answer to unimaginable evil is Immanuel—God with us. God’s plan is incarnation—taking on flesh and suffering. And fiery furnaces, intended as evil, are transformed into Baptism by fire—God claiming all as God’s children and calling us to bear fruit… that is how the evil in this world is destroyed.