Reflection Roundup: Joining
Each week we gather news stories, notable pieces, and other important items for Christian leaders today. As always, listening broadly draws together differing perspectives from which we can learn but may not concur. Here are 10 things worth sharing this week.
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1. Christianity Today has several affiliated podcasts, one of which, Steadfast With Sandra McCracken, recently offered a compelling conversation on the active life of the Trinity within our daily work and prayers. There’s always learning when listening folks converse about concrete experiences with the work of the abstract entity that is the Trinity, but McCracken’s conversation with David Kim and Amilee Watkins, “Patience in the World of Immediate Gratification,” tips refreshingly into how to hold space for the work of prayer. “May we be excited to see God’s work played out over time.”
2. The situation in Israel and Palestine weighs heavily as global citizens throw up their hands in exasperation, wondering if there will ever be a solution. The editors of the Christian Century, while slow to speak on the topic, unpack the elements of a two-state solution in “Is there any hope for a just peace in Israel and Palestine?”
3. As Jemar Tisby says, “Racism does not go away. It just adapts,” and this is the danger of which we must remain mindful, Dan Bouchelle says in his piece, “Aren’t We Making Progress Overcoming Racism?” for his blog for Mission Resource Network. The obvious pit to avoid would be anyone looking around and attempting to pat themselves on the back. The less ubiquitous yet vital element of continually advocating for change involves resisting the urge to gauge progress based on single stories. All must continue to listen, prayerfully asking the Lord for ears to hear all the stories and experiences the generous choose to offer, and maintain the sense of urgency toward responding in concrete ways.
4. “Healing in Colour: Stories of Race, Faith, and Mental Health,” an offering of Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA), presents the viewer with a bit of honest reprieve from all of the locations within our lives where we are required to “show up” and perform. Within the article describing the expressive, creative media is a link to the exhibit itself, a generous online offering of the Dal Schindell Gallery in partnership with Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries, on display through June 11.
5. It’s helpful to see and hear what others are doing, and the Multicultural Alliance, located in Fort Worth, Texas, is industriously facilitating conversations surrounding issues of faith and race. This recent news story highlights recent programming surrounding their mission to “build inclusive communities” and to practice interacting without harsh judgment or subconscious bias.
6. “Christian faith drives two leading advocates of Tulsa Race Massacre justice,” reports Bobby Ross Jr. for the Christian Chronicle. Representative Regina Goodwin and Senator Kevin Matthews “attend the same predominantly Black church, near where the 1921 mob violence occurred,” and here they discuss “the role of faith in their advocacy.” According to Goodwin, “Faith tells us that we’ve got a God who is in control of all the madness. So when we can’t figure it out, when we can’t correct the wrongs, God ultimately is going to have the final say.” Ross also highlights 107-year-old Viola Fletcher, a survivor of the massacre who has shared her story of survival while imploring a congressional subcommittee for justice.
7. University professors Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry have collaborated to write “The Growing Anti-Democratic Threat of Christian Nationalism in the U.S.” for TIME, addressing recent political events and ideologies with the unsettlingly familiar notion that “history might not repeat itself but it certainly does rhyme.” Christian nationalism is a real phenomena, easily misunderstood as it cloaks in church-garb. Whitehead and Perry give the reader a good handle on the gravity of the situation and the direction Christian nationalism desires to take our democracy – one that drowns out important voices.
8. Therese Taylor-Stinson describes what she means when she says every breath is a prayer for her. “My crisis had silenced me, but through my breath I have found my way back. Sometimes people say, ‘Pray for me,’ and I have to find words, but for me, words are the least dense prayer that I know.” In her interview with Christian Century’s senior editor Amy Frykholm, “Centering the sacred work of spiritual direction for people of color,” Taylor-Stinson admonishes that “we would understand everything that has happened thus far as reasons to pay attention.” Author Taylor-Stinson is the managing member of the Spiritual Directors of Color Network, Ltd., which she founded in 2008; her writings include Kaleidocope: Broadening the Palette in the Art of Spiritual Direction.
9. “Why does it seem like God doesn’t answer our prayers sometimes?” If I’m bluntly honest, it’s because I don’t get my way according to my timeline. May this gentle sermon, an admonition of Pope Francis, serve as a reminder from a different voice that perhaps God listens to our honest prayers. We know God has the final word, but “the penultimate is very hard, because human sufferings are hard.” Yet Christ, as part of the Omega, is familiar with our suffering.
10. In The Pastor in a Secular Age, Andrew Root writes of the importance and impact of the pastor’s presence alone as a representation and embodiment of the very presence of God in the life circumstances of God’s people. Watch as one family exemplifies this truth to the glory of God.
