A Word from Laura: In Search of Liberation
I’ve always given thanks February is the shortest month. Each year a small part of me worries the month will never end, that it will always be cold, that the bulbs will never get to bloom, that Groundhog Day will become Groundhog Month, in the spirit of the Bill Murray movie. This year, as much as any, we have plenty to grieve and “winter” through, and now must include those experiencing Texas power outages in our prayers.
Yet here we are, over halfway finished with February and already in Lent. I am grateful for the fun and community that happened this past Sunday night during the virtual Valentine’s/ Mardi Gras games, led by Bill Rappolt and Will Ramsey. The spiritual connection during the post-worship virtual fellowship with members of Western and Northminster was an all-time Ash Wednesday highlight. And I’ve just learned that this week, often known for the Presidents’ Day holiday, also brings the birthday of two of my favorite women writers who are also both African-American: Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde. February does bring gifts, and I would be remiss if I didn’t add Black History Month!
Knowing that we would be in the month of February, with the additional challenges of physical separation and economic uncertainty this year, I remain cautiously excited about the bible study resource some will be using, Lent of Liberation. I have chosen to use the accompanying scriptures and sermon prompts as a guide for preaching. In this resource, the author, Rev. Cheri Mills, juxtaposes narratives of those escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad with stories from scripture, trusting that the truth of these stories, read through the light of scriptures, will undergird a call to the liberation for all God’s people.
Mills’ approach to bible study is not one I’ve used before, but it’s one that’s important for all of us right now. She reminds us in the introduction that there can no peace without justice and no justice without the truth of our history and past, alongside the present. As the spiritual director at Simmons College, an HBCU in Kentucky, Mills understands white supremacy as an ideology that shapes our dominant culture and attitudes and therefore as a spiritual opportunity to confront how each of us may have participated in racial injustice.
Ultimately, this ideology that privileges white people, while designed to oppress and control Black and Brown people, deprives all of us of our full humanity. When we hear the truth of our past and the truth that each of us is created in God’s image, we recognize that our liberation is bound together.
Preaching through this Lent, I will not claim to be an expert, but a co-learner on this path, seeking God’s Spirit at work. I look forward to wrestling with what God might say through scripture, to considering Jesus’s words to us through the voices of others who come from backgrounds different my own, and to listening and hearing what the co-leaders of our bible study and you have to say. We have work to do as a congregation, challenging and liberating. We will need to be grounded in the mutual love and shared commitment to each other espoused by Jesus himself.
This February now more than halfway over, as Lent begins, I encourage you to remain connected to God and to each other through Western. Join us on a journey, this Sunday with the theme, “The Truth Will Set Us All Free.” May it be so!
Towards liberation, this Lent and always,
Laura