A question of justice

It has been a difficult week, not just in the United States but for our world. 

The death of George Floyd following his arrest in Minneapolis on 25 May, has forced every one of us to ask questions. If you are anything like me, some of those questions will have made you feel uncomfortable.

Am I part of the injustice?

Am I doing enough to seek justice?

I have wrestled with these questions, and more.

I have prayed.

I have spoken with family and friends.

I have wondered whether I should be more vocal in my thoughts.

I have considered posting on social media.

One of the things that stopped my doing the last of these, was the privilege and responsibility I have as the pastor of our church. That, of course, doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t speak out for justice; in fact, quite the contrary. However, I am aware that when I speak out, my words need to represent all of the beautiful and messy diversity that exists in our church family.

This thought process made me ask another uncomfortable question; about whether I truly understand what it feels like in our church family, to be anything other than a white, middle classed male. I can guess of course… but the reality is that I can never truly know.

I have spoken recently about being an accessible church. As we’re discovering in this time of lockdown, the Holy Spirit is already moving amongst us as we explore what it means. 

As I ponder these questions, sparked by the situation in the US, I sense that the Holy Spirit is calling us to something even deeper; something more far-reaching; even world changing.

I was privileged in my time at World Vision to work with an incredible lady called Chine McDonald. She leads Christian Aid’s public engagement work, and in reading her blog yesterday I was reminded of a term used in the Zulu language – Ubuntu: “I am because we are”. I could try and explain it to you, but I’ll leave that to Desmond Tutu, the chairman of the famous Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post–apartheid South Africa. He does it so much better.

“Ubuntu. It speaks of the very essence of being human. When we want to give high praise to someone we say, Yu, u nobuntu; hey, so-and-so has Ubuntu. Then you are generous, you are hospitable, and you are friendly and caring and compassionate.  You share what you have. It is to say, my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.  

We belong in a bundle of life. We say a person is a person through other persons.

It is not I think therefore I am. It says rather: I am human because I belong, I participate, and I share. A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self–assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are.”

When I read these words, I have an urge to turn to the scriptures and find their equivalent. The Bible will say the right thing, surely.

Yet the verse I am called back to time and again, are the words of Jesus in Luke 4:18-19, the setting out of his ministry:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

In the week following Pentecost, that moment when we celebrate God’s gift to us of the Holy Spirit, we must once again be reminded that we have been given the Spirit because. 

Because we have been called to be good news; to declare God’s freedom; to bring God’s love and healing; to be part of God’s kingdom coming on earth as we set the oppressed – whoever they may be, whoever you may be – free.

Church, we need to ask the uncomfortable questions.

We need to be committed to Ubuntu.

We need to be committed to doing whatever it takes to be part of setting the oppressed free; those in our midst and those further afield. 

It’s time to listen and follow the call of the Holy Spirit.

Steve Wood, Minister