Streams of Mercy
It’s time for truth telling. I grew up in the mountains of southeastern Kentucky playing cowboys and Indians and I always wanted to be a cowboy, because they won. I didn’t understand what we’d done to native Americans until years later. We played Civil War and our neighborhood clubhouse had a Confederate Flag on the wall. We took turns being Yankees and Rebels. We didn’t know what the fighting was all about, hadn’t even a clue about slavery; we were just playing a game. After the events of this past week, I understand that I’m only just beginning to understand, and may never fully understand what’s been going on all these years.
It’s time for truth telling. I never heard of Civil Rights until I went to college in 1966, and I couldn’t understand why the black student body withdrew and shut us out when we tried to grieve with them in the days after Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. I didn’t hear of Emmett Till until I was at a Montreat Conference in the 90s, and later read with members of the presbytery, Tyson’s book Blood Done Signed My Name. I participated in a seminary webinar “White Picket Fences” and heard it said that white people are trapped in a history they don’t understand and until they do, they can’t be free of it; that we must learn how to shift our white privilege to help those victimized by systemic racism.
It’s time for truth telling. Only this past week did I learn about Juneteenth, the oldest known celebration honoring the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Federal troops rode into Galveston, Texas, to announce that the Civil War had ended, and slaves had been freed- two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
It’s time for truth telling. Whatever news media we trust, it’s difficult to hear complete truth. In the midst of so much to divide us, together we must find the pieces of truth to build trust and work together to build a more just and loving world. We must make tangible, intentional steps together, and work together within our spheres of influence and beyond, as we wrestle with the state of our common life.
It’s time for truth telling. Day by day we're becoming more and more aware of gross economic and social injustices in the world and of deep and festering systemic racism. Many of us are beginning to see new truth and to come to deeper understandings.
If taking down a monument, or changing the name of a building in the center of a city, or the name of a school or street eases the pain and suffering of others, then let’s work together, peacefully, to get it done, and pray for deep and lasting change in our hearts toward one another.
It’s time for truth telling. As the PCUSA General Assembly is meeting virtually this week, Stated Clerk J. Herbert Nelson opened the session with these words: “We’re not here by accident; we are here in this place, this time and this moment as a witness to the broader reach of faith.“ Nelson remembered the African Americans wrongfully murdered in recent weeks, and went on to say, “We have to remember that this did not start yesterday; we have to get off of our blessed assurance to do something about this.”
It’s time for truth telling.
We know what Jesus asks of us- “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31)
We know what the prophets say – “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24)
We know what God requires of us – “to do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with God.” Micah 6:8)
In all the truth telling of these days, may we all live into the truth and freedom of the new thing God is doing among us.
Elizabeth