Laws That Bind
Good afternoon people of Louisville and beyond,
One of the things I appreciate about my current season of life, is I keep increasing how much I read. Something about the time after college and after grad school, my reading for pleasure dropped off. Which sequentially impacted my reading for work as well. However, something has shifted for me, and I keep increasing my reading - fiction books, nonfiction books, historical documents, and more. And, the more I read, the less I'm able to differentiate between reading for pleasure and reading for work. It all feeds me.
My words seem to be failing me today. Reading the words of others is resonating far more than my own. The optimist in me hopes that it is the practice of listening in a different format growing within me. The pessimist in me doubts they're related at all.
One of the books I'm reading is /Sapians: A Brief History of Humankind/ by Yuval Noah Harari. I'm completely enthralled by it. I had no idea so much of our current scenarios were impacted by the Agricultural Revolution 12,000 years ago.
In his book Harari talks about how humans are consistently seeking to separate into groups, label, and craft hierarchies. History and contemporary times show us doing it over and over by race, religion, castes, gender, sexuality, and more. Despite our patterns, habits, and maybe human-nature, many have taught that division and hierarchies are often detrimental to large groups of people and shifting cultures and societies to minimize - or even eliminate - these power and privilege differentials is better for all. One of those teachers was Jesus...and it got him executed. Peter and Paul, although dramatically different in their leadership styles, calls, and audiences, were also imprisoned and executed for this messaging. A more contemporary example was the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
In fact, one piece of his pastoral teaching came from a jail cell, just like the Apostle Paul to the people of Galatia. To the clergy of Birmingham, Alabama, (read it here or listen to it here) King wrote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." He, like many before and after, taught us that even those in power and privilege are less than their greatest selves if others are being oppressed to maintain unjust systems, patterns, and behaviors.
What landed Jesus, Paul, Peter, and Martin in jail? What pushed each man to the point of sacrificing comfort and their freedom? Maybe the better question is: is there a good reason to break the rules or the law?
King believed the church had a call to live lives that followed the models of Jesus, Paul, and Peter. He also wrote in his letter from the Birmingham Jail, "Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists."
That's a tough pill to swallow as a leader within today's church even if this letter was written 56 years ago. Join me Sunday, July 21st. Perhaps we as a body of Christ will stir some creative juices that align us more with Jesus, Paul, Peter, and Martin instead of the recipients of King's letter in Alabama.
Peace and love,
Rev Elizabeth
revelizabeth@louisvilleumc.org
303-335-0781 (text or call)
Pronouns: she/her/hers