Daily Lenten Interruption - 5th Sunday in Lent

Fifth Sunday in Lent - "Submitting"

March 29, 2020

In the article Pastor Taylor quotes in today's sermon, Drew G.I. Hart suggests that white people, and particularly white Christians, need to voluntarily choose to forgo opportunities and positions of power and leadership in order to create the change that is needed in the church and in broader society:

"Within the Church some folks might need to do the truly hard work of demoting themselves, turning down decision-making opportunities, and refusing to accommodate majority white strongholds around the table of power-brokers. It requires a boldness to agitate the powers that be in the Church towards the embodiment of Galatians 3:28 . The clash and confrontation that flows out of following Jesus, makes taking up the cross visible and concrete when we risk our own well being more and more, prophetically calling the Church to be the called out ones."

― Drew G.I. Hart

“Beyond a White Privilege Model”

What is your emotional response to this suggestion?

What are the differences between voluntarily giving up power and being forcibly or systematically kept out of power?

How is God inviting you to respond?

Prayer

Most high God, you urge us to advocate for justice for the widowed and the orphaned. For our contemporary times, one form of oppression is against people of color through white privilege. Open our eyes to the impact racism has on the widowed and the orphaned...the African American woman brutalized by police...the Mexican American student being told derisively to go back to Mexico. Use us to face white privilege and dismantle racism. Amen.

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We provide these daily Interruptions to you for each day of Lent, as we journey together in the Spiritual Work of Resisting Racism. Believing that God is active through a variety of voices and media, we trust the Holy Spirit to aid our reflection and transformation. If you’d like to share these reflections and experiences with others, please do so on our private Facebook group . If you’d like to reflect further with a pastor, please email us at [email protected] or [email protected] .

First United Methodist Church

1201 Lavaca St.

Austin, TX 78731

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