Faith For Justice

View Original

Renewal Week Eight

LIBERATION LECTIONARY

Healing in History

“We can together change the world. We are all threaded together like a huge tapestry of humanity. And we forget that we are interconnected. We think and we are taught to think of history as a set of separate decades and separate moments. History is a continuum…this is very important. To heal the very wounds of your own life so you can serve.” - Ericka Huggins, member of the Black Panther Party

Daily Readings from Psalm 104 and 126

Sunday Psalm 104.19-23 You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. You make darkness, and it is night, when all the animals of the forest come creeping out. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they withdraw and lie down in their dens. People go out to their work and to their labor until the evening.

Monday Psalm 126.1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.

Tuesday Psalm 126.2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

Wednesday Psalm 126.3 The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.

Thursday Psalm 126.4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb.

Friday Psalm 126.5 May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.

Saturday Psalm 126. 6 Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying the fruits of their harvest.

*The Negeb, or Negev, is an ancient region which had terracing technology used for conserving winter rains, making it a thriving agricultural area with vast irrigation centers. Every season when the rains came, the watercourses (the pathways which guided the streams) were refilled. So the water, which brought all the provision and prosperity to the region, was literally re-stored.


Reflection: The Future of Healing

“Memory as medicine” is what we hope for when we dig into our history and the histories of people who overcome oppression around the world. As we prepare for a month of honoring Native nations (November is Native Heritage Month), we want to highlight the beauty of healing in teaching and learning Black heritage with Black youth, especially young people who need emotional healing. 

When the Black Panther Party was founded, the phrase “for Self Defense” was in their name and healing was their intention. And in the Chicago chapter, there was an emphasis on healing in the community through public access to healthy meals for nourishment, and access to books for continuing education. This initiative struck many onlookers as different from other Civil Rights movement organizations. For the Black Panthers, healing was related to community safety and provision, to racial justice and to youth advocacy.

Today, young people around the world are learning about the challenges and victories of Black liberation movements, and seeing themselves as important parts of the future of freedom. This can have deep meaning for young people of faith as well. As more historical and ongoing hurts surface in the conversation of healing injustice and supporting abundance in our communities, people of faith must come to terms with how often Christians have been participants in people’s pains. Trauma does not live and die in history. The truth about the past will always weigh heavily on everyone whose destinies it has touched, and present sufferings might continue to be stacked upon it.

We people of faith, people of God, have a choice in light of the liberation movements that are holding us accountable. We can decide to work for real renewal that does not deny pain. We can follow the faith formation of a God who says “Those who sow weeping will reap in shouts of joy.”  Instead of ignoring our tears, the Lord sees us as watering the seeds of hope for the future. May we see our way to do the same. 

For this week’s reflection, we highlight sections of the works of Dr. Shawn Ginwright, who brings a new pathway to trauma-informed attentive instruction and care. Dr. Ginwright is Associate Professor of Education, and African American Studies at San Francisco State University and the author of Hope and Healing in Urban Education: How Activists are Reclaiming Matters of the Heart.

Dr. Ginwright emphasizes key points in his work on healing-centered engagement, which is focused on young people and invites participants and practitioners to imagine community care beyond being trauma-informed.

· Healing centered engagement is political.

· Healing centered engagement is culturally grounded and views healing as the restoration of identity.

· Healing centered engagement is asset driven and focuses on the well-being we want, rather than symptoms we want to suppress.

· Healing centered engagement supports care providers with their own healing.

“This process highlights the intersectional nature of identity and highlights the ways in which culture offers a shared experience, community and sense of belonging. Healing is experienced collectively, and is shaped by shared identity such as race, gender, or sexual orientation. Healing centered engagement is the result of building a healthy identity, and a sense of belonging.

Healing and well-being are fundamentally political not clinical. This means that we have to consider the ways in which the policies and practice and political decisions harm young people. Healing in this context also means that young people develop an analysis of these practices and policies that facilitated the trauma in the first place. Without an analysis of these issues, young people often internalize, and blame themselves for lack of confidence. Critical reflection provides a lens by which to filter, examine, and consider analytical and spiritual responses to trauma. By spiritual, I mean the ability to draw upon the power of culture, rituals and faith in order to consistently act from a place of humility, and love. These are not cognitive processes, but rather ethical, moral and emotional aspects of healing centered engagement.

Discussion Questions

Think about the phrase: “I am more than what happened to me.” Let it question our collective approach to trauma and hurt. What does healing-centered mean to you? What blind spots do we have in our approaches to supporting young people who experience trauma? How might the concepts which are enshrined in our language limit rather than create opportunities for healing? What approaches might offer “disruptive” techniques that saturate young people with opportunities for healing and well-being? How can individual Christians and people who belong to the church move toward healing-centered engagement? How does this impact our theology?”

Sources: Article from Dr. Ginwright // Article in The Conversation on EJI’s Memorial as part of “memory as medicine”


Prayer & Meditations

Prayer for Ending Trauma - by Daniela Sanchez
“We ask that you open our hearts to respond to the needs of all our refugee brothers and sisters from Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Nigeria, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Gambia, Congo and Angola that arrive in Ecuador, fleeing violence, fear, angst and solitude. Lord Jesus, bless all of our earth. Help us to be builders of justice and peace, to extend our hands and our hearts toward people with so much need. May your Spirit continue pushing and encouraging us to sow seeds of joy, peace and love, to make this world a place in which all people can live together in harmony. Where there is resentment, teach us forgiveness and reconciliation, exchange our hate for love and our indifference for an attitude of service. This we ask in Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Meditations: October Memories in Black History

Perhaps one of the most overlooked features of using history to help us pursue healing is to realize that we all need accountability, we all need community, and none of us can do it alone. There is no perfect pathway, and that might hep to reduce the anxiety of our adventures in renewal seasons (year after year after year). How does history heal us? It humanizes us. Let’s look back on a few Black history events and meditate on the ways they have changed our hopes for future renewal.

10.15 1966 Founding of the Black Panther Party  Founded for the power of the people, the Black Panthers served their communities and endured almost constant threat from the FBI. Amidst a complex story of relational struggles and internal misalignment, mixed with mounting infiltration from federal agents, the party ended their work in official capacity in the 80s. Learn more about the Black Panthers with these video resources. Kids interview former Black Panthers // Crash Course series video on Black Panthers

10.23 1733, Observed Birthday of Lucy Terry Prince (true birthdate unknown)

Kidnapped as an infant during the transatlantic slave trade, Lucy was a prolific poet. She was the first Black woman to be a published poet in the United States. Though only one poem survives, Lucy is known for other works of advocacy.  In 1803 she successfully argued an appeal of a land case before the Supreme Court in Vermont. Learn more in this PBS profile page

10.23 1940 Birthday of Pele Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known widely by the moniker Pelé, is the most popular Brazilian football (aka soccer) player and possibly the most famous football (aka soccer) player of all time. He led his team to triumph in the World Cup. Pele is often viewed as controversial for movement-minded people, because he has not used his fame to uplift Black Brazilians and fight for racial justice. Learn more from this Atlanta Journal Constitutional Article . And check out the documentary on him via Netflix.

10.23 1952 Birthday of Sabrina Sojourner, the first open lesbian to be elected to the United States Congress. Having been elected by 83 percent of the vote. Learn more on this African American Registry Profile. She is also a woman of faith. Sojourner is a Cantor in the Jewish Tradition, and is honored as a Jewish Woman Activist here.

10.26 1911 Birthday of Mahalia Jackson One of the most famous voices of United States history and Black history around the world. Mahalia Jackson is a strong voice of faith and justice. She is the title character and central subject of Mahalia: a feature film on Amazon executive produced by TV journalist Robin Roberts. She was also recently honored with a dramatization of her life, Remember Me, which can be viewed on Hulu. Learn more about her life of activism in this article on Black women sheroes.

Oh Lord, help us to find healing in Black heritage. Show us the medicine of memory in these stories of your children. Lead us oh Lord, so that our Spirits follow you, the God in whom all freedom is formed. Let our hopes for renewal begin and end in you. Amen. Ashé

In your meditations this week, discover the pathways of healing that are available in Black heritage. How can the memories of these powerful people become medicine for our renewal? What complications haunt their histories, yet stand to make them more human? Learn more about these finite figures at the links above.


Sources

for Daniela Sanchez’s Prayer: Mennonite Collective of Canada

Artwork: Gbolahan Ayoola