Devotions for Sankofa Class

Every Monday night, I go to one of my favorite classes – Sankofa: Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation. Each week, a student opens us with devotions that are based on what we’ve been learning in the class, and this week is my turn. I have several thoughts floating around in my brain for what I’d like to share so I’m going to try to use the blog as an avenue to work those out.

I think I’ll read from two passages, Matthew 12:49-50 and I Corinthians 12:25-27. I’ve included them below if you’re not familiar with them or don’t want to run and grab your Bible to look them up. It’s the passage where Jesus says that his mother, brothers, and sisters are those who do the will of God and the passage where Paul talks about the church as the body of Christ. I think that these are two very important passages when thinking about racial injustice (or any injustice for that matter).

We recently read a book for Sankofa called Being Human by Dwight Hopkins. In it, Hopkins writes about the concept of one human race. For Christians, because of Jesus’ redefinition of family, not only are we a part of one human race, we are part of one Christian family. This has both global and local ramifications. The Anglican woman living in poverty in Kenya is my mother; the Christian women murdered in Iraq last week are my sisters, and the African-American pastor living with the realities of racism on the south side of Chicago is my brother.

When one considers the concept of the Christian family, one cannot hold on to ignorance and apathy about the injustice throughout the world. These things are happening to members of my family! This should not only awaken us out of our apathetic, ignorant slumber, it should spur us on to action.

Paul’s metaphor of the church as the body of Christ is equally powerful when considering racial injustice. No one part of the body is greater than the others. No one part is deserving of more concern than the other parts. How can I enjoy luxurious living and the benefits of white privilege when other parts of the body suffer poverty and injustice through systemic racism? Does that not then imply that one part is better than the other? How am I affected by the sufferings of my sisters and brothers in Christ? Paul said, “when one part suffers, all the parts suffer.”

That line has really stuck out to me the past week, “When one part suffers, all the parts suffer.” It rings in my ears when I hear of various injustices throughout the country and world. Do I have any idea of what that means? To be so intricate a part of the body of Christ that when one part anywhere throughout the world suffers, their pain is my pain, their sacrifice is my sacrifice, their poverty is my poverty?

In the Sankofa class, we recently finished another book called Understanding and Dismantling Racism by Joseph Barndt. In it, he writes not only of the devastating history of racism in the US but the ongoing destruction racism still causes. When you look at the economic, education, housing, social services, and criminal justice gaps between white people and people of color, racism is as destructive a force in our society as it has ever been. I’ve been shocked to learn about some of these things in my class. Ignorantly, I thought racism was an evil of the past. I’m afraid it is alive and powerful.

So when we see how racial injustice affects our sisters and brothers in Christ, when we hear of how members of our family are being persecuted and murdered for their faith, when we look at the vast inequality between the rich (us) and the poor, let’s take these verses to heart and perhaps reevaluate some things in our lives.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Peace.

Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Matthew 12:49-50

…so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
I Corinthians 12:25-27

Seminary is hard. Seminary is challenging. Seminary is awesome.

I sort of feel like my first few months of seminary have been spent learning how to go to seminary. There's a ton of reading, studying, and writing that goes into seminary. And it's best not to get behind. One day in my New Testament class, our professor asked us how we were all doing. We had a big quiz that week as well as a ton of reading and other assignments. The class responded that it was a lot of work and we were all exhausted. His response was, "Well, yeah. Seminary's hard." Then he encouraged us that our studies are so important. In three short years, we are being equipped for a lifetime of ministry. What we do here is in many ways more important than law school. What we learn will influence ministries that will have eternal significance. So yeah, seminary's hard, but that's the way it needs to be.

It's also super challenging. I'm finding myself challenged and stretched in so many ways. My Sankofa: Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation class has confronted me with the many ways that racism still permeates our society as well as the ways I have contributed and benefited from it. My New Testament class has challenged me in so many ways to live out the teachings of Jesus. Just last week we talked about money and the rich young ruler. Our professors paper on this topic is titled, "Jesus and Money - No Place to Hide and No Easy Answers." He challenged us with the statement, "If you want to really know somebody, find out where they read Scripture literally and where are the places where they say, oh that one doesn't really count." Money is one place many Christians do that.

It's also challenging to keep a balanced life in seminary. I haven't been to the gym in months. Some weekends, I forget to call my family. Since so much of my life is spent studying the Bible, it's easy to forget to spend devotional time in the Bible and in prayer. But we have chapel twice a week, and it's edifying and refreshing to the soul. When our professors open class in prayer or a hymn, it's not just a superficial exercise; it is deep and real.

So ultimately, seminary's awesome. I love all my classes. Yes, they're hard, but that's what we all signed up for. I've already learned so much and can't wait to learn more. Learning Greek is awesome; there's something amazing about reading a passage in the Greek text. Seeing the narrative of church history through the centuries is fascinating. Finding myself challenged and convicted in the middle of a class is a beautiful experience. This is why I am here. To be challenged, encouraged, and prepared for ministry. I'm so incredibly grateful for this place already.

So now that I've procrastinated my studying with this blog post, I'd better get back to work. :)

Finally, A New Post

I think it’s time to resurrect my blog. As you can tell, I didn’t quite make my blog through the Bible in 90 days goal. Nor did I make the read the Bible in 90 days goal. I’m still working my way through, just at a much slower pace.

I’d like to continue blogging through the Bible, but I think that will become just one of a few different types of posts and be a bit less frequent than it was initially. I really enjoyed blogging as I read through the Bible because it helped me to think through many passages in ways that I hadn't before. I'm hoping to post a few times a month on that topic.

Since I’ll be starting seminary classes August 30, I’m thinking this blog can also serve as a great place to process and share the various things I learn in my classes. I’m also thinking it will be a great venue to share other various thoughts and general news with my friends.

I’ve already finished my summer Greek course, and it was amazing. It was really intense to cover two semesters of material in six weeks, but I loved it. The language is fascinating, and it’s so exciting to be able to read (albeit at a very elementary level) the Greek text of the New Testament. This past Sunday I took my Greek NT to church with me and was actually able to follow along as the pastor read the text for his sermon from Ephesians! It was pretty exciting. I’m really looking forward to Greek Exegesis in the Fall where I’ll learn a lot more about the Greek language.

This Fall I’ll be taking Interpreting the New Testament I, Christian Heritage I, Introduction to New Testament Greek Exegesis, Spiritual Journey, and Sankofa: Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation. I’m super excited to start classes and will do my best to share the cool stuff I learn. I can't promise I’ll post super consistently, but I'm hoping to be much more consistent than I have been.

Peace.

Entry 32: II Chronicles 7:11 - II Chronicles 23:15

So I didn't quite make my blog through the Bible in 90 days goal. I got busy, fell out of the habit of daily blogging, and, as you can see, it's been quite a while. I would like to continue blogging through the Bible though, so I'm back. I can't promise daily entries, but I'll try to blog as often as possible. Here goes.

The reading for today's entry includes one of the verses that I often hear quoted at the National Day of Prayer, local community prayer breakfasts, and similar events. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” My blog today is on why I don't think this verse applies to those events and shouldn't be used there.

First of all, let me acknowledge that there are timeless truths in this verse. It is good and we should humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn from our wicked ways. However, this promise of God to hear from heaven, forgive national sin, and heal a nation was to a specific nation at a specific time in history in response to a specific event. If we read 2 Chronicles 7:13, we see the context, "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people...” This promise is to Solomon and the Israelites so that if they turn away from God and He punishes them by causing drought or locusts, they can and should repent and He will forgive them.

Am I saying that we shouldn't gather corporately to do all these things? Of course not. But I think it is dangerous for us to take a conditional promise that was made specifically to the nation of Israel and apply it to our own nation. The United States is not a theocracy, established by God to be a light to the world, and the national promises to the nation of Israel do not apply to us.

I think this is a danger we have to be aware of when reading the Old Testament. Some of the promises of God in the Old Testament can't be taken out of context and applied to us directly. However, we can gather truths about who God is and how He responds to his people from these passages. For example, in this passage we see the forgiving grace and mercy of God. That is something that applies to us today and something that we can cling to. What I don't think we should do is post II Chronicles 7:14 on a banner and quote it as a promise for national revival. I do think we should pray for these things, but I also think we shouldn't quote the Bible out of context.

What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree vehemently? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The next entry will cover 2 Chronicles 23:16 2 Chronicles 35:15.

Day 31: I Chronicles 23:33 - II Chronicles 7:10

Quick summary: Names, names, and a lot of names. Temple building preparations, lots of details about the temple, and then it's done. I think these names and details were probably of more interest to the original readers. They could read and say, “Oh yeah, I remember those great Kohathite musicians.” Or, “You know son, Jeduthun was your great-great-grandfather.” It's like the credits at a movie or the masthead in a magazine. It's important, but it means more if you have a connection with the people listed.

One very interesting thing that I learned in today's reading is that Solomon is not the one who came up with the plans for the temple. David prayed and asked God if he could build the temple. God told him that he couldn't because he is a warrior and has shed blood. However, God gave David the plans for the temple and he is the one who drew up the blueprints. He also used his resources to provide a lot of the gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, etc. for the Temple. I never caught that before. I thought Solomon took care of all that. Nice job, David.

Solomon had a pretty decent theology on God's transcendent and omnipresent nature. Twice he declares that no one can actually build a temple for the Lord to dwell in because the highest heavens cannot contain Him.

In II Chronicles 2:17-18, we read how Solomon recruited labor for building the temple. Take a look:

17 Solomon took a census of all the foreigners residing in Israel, after the census his father David had taken; and they were found to be 153,600. 18 He assigned 70,000 of them to be carriers and 80,000 to be stonecutters in the hills, with 3,600 supervisors over them to keep the people working.

Am I reading this right? Did Solomon conscript the foreigners as slave labor to build the temple? It's not technically condoned but it's also not condemned. I wonder why or why not. What do you think?

Tomorrow's reading is II Chronicles 7:11 through II Chronicles 23:15.

Peace.

Day 30: I Chronicles 10:1 – 23:32

Today we re-read the story of King David—from when Saul dies and he is made king all the way through to his death. Since I've already commented on a lot of David's life. Today I'm going to focus on one small incident that happened with his mighty men in I Chronicles 11:15-19.

15 Three of the thirty chiefs came down to David to the rock at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. 16 At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. 17 David longed for water and said, "Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!" 18 So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the LORD. 19 "God forbid that I should do this!" he said. "Should I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives?" Because they risked their lives to bring it back, David would not drink it.

I highlight this story because I found it fascinating the first time, and this second time reading it a thought occurred to me. The first time I read it, I thought how annoyed I'd be if I were one of the three, I'd just risked my life to bring David this water, and then he didn't drink it! But this time through I looked at it more from David's side. What sort of evil despot would he be to command his men to fight through the opposing army just to bring him a drink of water from his favorite well? What would it say about his opinion of himself if he were to drink that water? He poured the water out before the Lord to show both the men and the Lord that he valued the lives of his men more than his own comfort. He refused to consume something that could have cost his men their lives.

So here's the thought I had while reading this passage: what do I consume that could have cost someone their life? Or, what do I consume that shows how little I value someones else compared to my own comfort? Think about it. Aren't we doing the same thing as David would have done had he drunk the water when we purchase clothes that were made in sweatshops? When we eat chocolate from coco that was picked by child slave labor? When we eat vegetables picked by migrant slaves in the South?

There are so many unjust systems that we support everyday whether willingly, begrudgingly, or unknowingly. How would things be different if, before purchasing something or consuming something, we thought, what was the cost to the person who provided this? Are we willing to affirm that whatever that person went through is justified because of our desire for it?

Thinking of it that way really challenges me anew to rethink the way that I spend my money and the systems I buy into. Because when I think about it, a lot of times I do value my own comfort over someone else's life. Lord, have mercy and help me to value others above myself.

What do you think? Am I a little off base hermeneutically? Or is this a valid application?

Peace.

Day 29: I Chronicles 1:1 - 9:14

I've decided that these nine chapters are the most boring part of the Bible. It's a really, really, really long list of names. There are short, random stories every couple chapters, including a little story about a man named Jabez. Now I see why The Prayer of Jabez was such a popular book. Maybe the author was doing a verse by verse study of I Chronicles. If so, I'd get excited about Jabez praying a prayer too!

All joking aside, I'd like to make a few comments on The Prayer of Jabez. I know the book came out a long time ago, and the excitement has long since worn off. But there are a few concerns I have with The Prayer of Jabez movement and I think some of them still apply today. But I'll keep it brief since the fad is pretty much long gone.

I really don't see the big deal actually. Some guy prayed a prayer, and God answered it. That happens a lot in the Bible. But that doesn't mean that I should model my prayers after every single prayer that someone prayed. He trusted God, prayed a prayer specific to his circumstances, and God answered him. That's great, and it should encourage all of us to pray. But I think that's the main takeaway here. I don't think it was meant as a model prayer.

When the disciples came up to Jesus and asked Him to teach them to pray, He didn't say, "Haven't you read I Chronicles? Jabez has already modeled for us the way by which we should pray."

I think the big problem with The Prayer of Jabez movement was that people were more excited about the content of the prayer than the God who answered it. As I recall people were really excited to pray for God to "expand their territories". But the thing is that even though He saw fit to answer Jabez's prayer that way, that doesn't mean that He'll answer everyone's prayer that way.

The biggest thing that bothered me about The Prayer of Jabez was how the author made it into a 30 day challenge. Pray this prayer every day for 30 days, and I guarantee you'll see results. I'm not a fan of turning prayer into a risk-free trial for prosperity and blessings.

The fact of the matter is, the Christian life is oftentimes hard. It is marked by suffering and persecution. Yes, there are innumerable blessings to following Christ. But most of them are not material. It's much harder to pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done" than it is to pray "Expand my territory".

I apologize for the rant that was pretty much 8 years late, but given the choice, I'll go with the prayer of Jesus over the prayer of Jabez.

Peace.