Half-Steps & Full-Steps.
As a white man, I will never fully understand some of the painful realities that people of color deal with. But as a follower of Jesus, having an interracial marriage, and being friends with many who have experienced race-based discrimination, it weighs heavily on my heart.
This weekend someone asked me how we are to respond to events like Charlottesville. This is how I’m processing it. It’s not polished or perfect, but I feel like it’s important to share.
Many are speaking out against the violence in Charlottesville, which I am grateful for. Sometimes things seem so obvious that we forget that we need to actually say them out loud. I was reminded how critically important it is for us to say the words, though, on Sunday when I was standing in front of my church. The words that I prayerfully wrote down Saturday night were clean, Biblical, appropriate. But Sunday morning, when I had to say them out loud in front of people, they felt inadequate. It just didn’t feel like I could say enough.
Pointing out the wrongs or the evils that we see around us is a half-step, but it’s only when we simultaneously move towards what is right is when we make a full step. Doing one or the other is nice and has good intentions I’m sure, but often doesn’t cause us to change. While it may look good, it probably won’t do any good. We have to name the wrong and move towards the right. Speak boldly against injustice, and also speak to what the better world is.
So yes, condemn evil and hate when we see it. Also, we must intentionally live our lives and speak in the way of love.
It should be easy for us to condemn evil when it escalates to the point of violence like we’ve seen recently, but do we also condemn and actively fight against the tiny seed of evil that is inside each one of us? We readily condemn the full-grown monster of white supremacy, but are we allowing it to exist in it’s infancy in each of our hearts?
Supremacy in any form goes against all that Jesus taught and called us to, yet it seems like we only call it out when it reaches it’s ugliest levels. We all this seed to take root in our hearts in smaller, “acceptable” ways.
While it is good and right to condemn the evil that we have seen, we are not allowed to call out the white supremacy we see in people until we’ve looked internally first at the plank of supremacy in our own eye.
Jesus commands us to love one another (John 13:34), which we take pretty seriously. Jesus commands us to put others before ourselves (Mark 9:35, 10:21, Matthew 5:41), which we try to do from time to time. And then he even invited us to give our lives for others (John 15:13), which we conveniently like to assume he just meant figuratively.
Viewing, treating, or believing anyone other than you is less-than you is directly opposed to the message of Jesus. He was always looking for ways to acknowledge and lift up outcasts on any side. He stood against racial, religious, and gender biases in his conversation with the Samaritan woman (John 4). He stood against political divides when he served a roman centurion (Luke 7:1-10). He even stood alongside the traitors that took advantage of their own people (Luke 19:1-10).
The one person who actually was supreme (Colossians 1:15) and had every right to live that way instead chose to spend his life releasing his privileges.
Supremacy in any form would be absurd to Jesus, so lets work against it in every form; including the way it rises up inside each of us.
So, back to the beginning, a half-step would be to condemn the evil spirit of supremacy, and the full-step is for us to lift others up. What does it look like to lift others up? Man, that might just be the fun part. But I’m not sure I’ve got time for that now.
So...would the Spirit continue to transform my heart and yours, as well as our churches and communities, as we have the same attitude as Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:5-11
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.