Friends,
Matthew 22:37-38. 37 He [Jesus] said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
Love God, love your neighbor, love yourself. In Jesus’ mind, these are all related.
For the last week, we have been taking time each day to consider racism and our role in it.
It is hard to love our neighbor if we don’t know them. Maybe the first step in loving is caring enough to learn more. I have learned a lot this week. I did not know about the 1921 Tulsa Massacre before this week. When our church sent a mission team to Detroit, we learned about redlining, but I did not know that redlining was used in Des Moines. This week I learned that it was. This week I learned that the GI Bill, that was used by so many World War II veterans to buy homes and attend college, was not as accessible to Black veterans of World War II. I am humbled by how much I have to learn. (If you want to know more about the Tulsa Massacre or redlining or the GI Bill, you can easily research them on your computer.)
I read a lot, and I thought I would suggest books to you about African Americans. I have a number of books about African Americans, but I am surprised by how few are written by African Americans. I think the people best qualified to tell their story are the people who lived it. Here are some books that have been important to me.
Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy B. Tyson.
The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan By Laurence Leamer. The lynching in this book occurred in 1981, long after I thought lynchings were over. Want an ironic twist? My gentle-farmer grandfather told me he belonged to the Klan in the ’20s and ’30s in Iowa. The Klan was harassing Americans of German heritage at that time.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander.
The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas.
Bipolar Faith, A Black Woman’s Journey with Depression and Faith by Monica A Coleman.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.
Detroit, an American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff.
As I type this list, I think about how much these books challenged me and how much more comfortable it is for me to read a book that is written from the white perspective. Reading these books was unsettling, like traveling to a foreign land I didn’t know existed, where the rules were different, where I felt like an outsider. Reading these books challenged my understanding of myself.
So, if you are still reading, thank you for spending this week reflecting on the divisions that have been created by racism. We have much to learn, much to understanding. But learning and understanding are variations of love. And God has given us the gifts of learning and understanding. We are wise when we accept these gifts and use them.
A prayer and a song
Lord God,
There is so much we don’t know about ourselves and others. Maybe we are afraid if we ask too many questions, if we investigate too deeply, we won’t like what we discover. And yet, in these days as the pandemic rages around us, as our streets fill with people calling for justice, you seem to be calling to us all to pay attention, to listen, to learn more, to try to understand. The people kneeling in the streets of our cities have me thinking about Jesus walking the streets of cities so long ago. He talked with people, listened, ate dinner with people he had just met. He spent time walking with others and getting to know them. There was a gentleness about him that I would like to have in this time. Lord, give me the spirit to do that too. And when Jesus knelt and prayed, asked that your will be done. And then where Jesus saw wrong, or suffering, or injustice, people treated as the least, he acted. I will need courage to do that, Lord, but I believe if I want to follow Christ, I need to live as he did.
Thank you, Lord, for this fresh new day. May we all live it according to your will. Amen
The Hymn “Open My Eyes, That I May See”
1. Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee,
Ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!
2. Open my ears, that I may hear
Voices of truth thou sendest clear;
And while the wave notes fall on my ear,
Everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for thee,
Ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit divine!
3. Open my mouth, and let me bear
Gladly the warm truth everywhere;
Open my heart and let me prepare
Love with thy children thus to share.
Silently now I wait for thee,
Ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my heart, illumine me, Spirit divine!
Words and music by Clara H. Scott, 1895
My goodness friends, how I miss you.
Blessings,
Pastor Cindy
Pastor Cindy Hickman
West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Ave
West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
515-279-0826
Worshiping on-line tomorrow morning at 9:30!
One More Announcement: Change of Date!
WDMUMC will be Taking a Knee with our neighbor the Imani Church on Sunday, June 28 at 11:45. (NOTE: THIS IS A CHANGE OF DATE) We will kneel (as we are able) pray and sing. A moment to love our neighbor as Christ asked. More info will follow!
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