Hello friends!
I know I’ve been quiet this last month since I shared my last screensaver. At first it was coronavirus and having all my children at homem but the last few weeks it has been the protests in our country following the murder of George Floyd on May 25. I’m sure that you’ve followed these events, even if you’re not an American.
I have been even more burdened for my country, by our violence and oppression. By our blindness. I’m burdened for my church family. I’m burdened for my city.
A friend suggested the book of Amos, the book of the shepherd turned prophet with a message about the justice of God against oppression:
“Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see the great tumults within her, and the oppressed in her midst.” “They do not know how to do right,” declares the LORD, “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”” (Amos 3:9-10 ESV)
“”I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:21-24 ESV)
I know I’m still playing catch-up since there’s nothing new about the work of anti-racism. There’s no room for self-righteousness here, only confession, humility, and steadfastness.
I long to see the white church be courageous in confronting personal and systemic racism, but I think we have to examine some gaps in our theology.
I grew up in churches that taught the Gospel, but our engagement outside the church was limited to inviting people to church or summer VBS or some evangelism acitvity (all good, by the way). I don’t even know if my churches ever had a food pantry. The only social cause we talked about was maybe pro-life positions or supporting poor people in other countries (also good). That’s it.
I had no idea how to do anything in the political sphere other than vote Republican. I’m not arguing for any party affiliation–I think both have their issues–but what I am saying is that I didn’t know what my Christianity meant for civic engagement. And honestly I’m still learning what that means.
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (Jas 2:14-18 ESV)
I think there’s a gap between my faith and my works, if I’m diagnosing myself here. The AND Campaign calls this orthodoxy (right doctrine) and orthopraxy (right application of Biblical justice in society). Soong-Chan Rah calls this the “declaration of the Gospel” and the “demonstration of the Gospel” (from his book The Next Evangelicalism).
(To learn more about this, I just ordered Compassion (&) Conviction: The AND Campaign’s Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement by Justin Giboney, Michael Wear, and Chris Butler.)
Do you identify with any of this or are these just the struggles of a Southern-Baptist raised kid? I’d love to hear from ya!
One more note if you’re looking to follow some people on “the socials.” I just started following Dr. Anita Phillips on Instagram after seeing her as part of this conversation with Dr. Tony Evans (a must-watch!). I’m soaking up her wisdom watching one of her front porch IGTV lives right now, and it’s SO GOOD. I love hearing this Jesus-loving Black woman speak into our times, from the perspective of a therapist, pastor’s wife and professor. I think you’ll appreciate her.
You can click on the images below and save to your phone as a screensaver.
USAGE NOTES: All artwork and photos are copyright Marydean Draws. These printables are free for your personal, school, ministry, or church use. If you share this, please link back to this post and not the PDF file. Please do not repost on another website. For other uses, please contact me.
