Making a Miracle

On Sunday morning, I arrived and walked into the Chapel just in time for the processional hymn to begin. My messenger bag made a loud thump on the wooden pew as I hurried to settle in; I had planned to go to the library following the service. I secured my coffee mug, that I had snuck in, in the corner at the end of the pew and picked up my bulletin and began to sing along. I noticed as the Priests slowly made their way down the aisle of the church, that there was a guest priest walking along side of the Chaplin and associate Priest. I concluded just by watching the guest, that he was beaming with joy and his face was lit up, he seemed very loving, approachable, he carried himself with an abundance of peace and selflessness. Once the procession arrived at the altar, I noticed that he was dressed different than the other two priests and wondered what occasion would have him wear the puffy white blouse and brightly colored vest. This guest was Bishop Curry, he is an African American Episcopal Bishop from the diocese of North Carolina, he had been invited by the chapel to come meet the community and preach.

                The Bishop was given the difficult task of preaching a sermon on the scripture found in the book of Luke 16: 1-13, The Parable of the Dishonest Manager. The focus of his sermon was that God is in the business of “taking a mess and making a miracle.” When the Bishop summarized the parable, he compared the rich man and manager in the story to the white slave owner and African American slave in our country’s history. The manager in Luke’s parable would have been considered a slave to the rich man within that culture and time. He talked about the socio economic atmosphere of our country during the time of slavery. How the rich continued to get richer and the poor continued to get poorer. The Bishop compared the debt of the manager and the rich man’s debtors to the inescapable debts that permeated the African American race. He explained, that Jesus’ commending of the manager for redistributing the debts owed by his debtors in the favor of the manager was an exaltation and  Jesus praised him for his creativity. The rich man’s manager had figured out a way to be liberated of his debt. “God will liberate the weak from the injustice of the strong.” (27)  

“When Israel was in Egypt’ land,

Let my people go;

Oppressed so hard they could not stand,

Let my people go;

Go down Moses, ‘way down in Egypt’s land.

Tell ole Pharaoh

Let my people go.”

 Some of these Old Testament stories of people bound in slavery in Egypt are some of the first stories that the African American slaves learned about in America and these stories acted as seeds of new beginnings of the black Christian faith. (44,Paris) The manager from Luke’s parable had taken the mess that he was in and made a miracle. Bishop Curry also made reference to the tales of Br’er Rabbit. James H. Cone wrote that, “the tales of Br’er Rabbit and his triumphs over the stronger animals actually expressed black slaves’ conscious hopes and dreams of overcoming the slave masters themselves.” (56)

 In the book, “God of the Oppressed,” the author, James H. Cone paints the pages with descriptions and a contrasting of ways that black and white people think about God. (14) The thesis for his book states, "that one’s social and historical context decides not only the questions we address to God but also the mode or form of the answers given to the questions.” (14) Through his writing he describes how he is met with much opposition from white and black theologians. Cone introduces us to black theology and the liberation that came from the relationship and devotion by the African American to the heart of black theology, Jesus Christ. He walks us through some core characteristics of the black church; black prayer, humor, the Blues, spirituals and gospel songs, preaching, listening and emotionality.

One of the arguments against black theology that sought to undermine its central claim was that, “if God is liberating blacks from oppression, why then are they still oppressed?” I believe this question leads us into the heart of the metaethical problem. Cone answers this question by saying, “there is no answer to the problem of theodicy! Faith is born out of suffering, and suffering is faith’s most powerful contradiction. This is the Christian dilemma. The only meaningful Christian response is to resist unjust suffering and to accept the painful consequence of that resistance.”(x) I believe that the dichotomy that theodicy produces to be fascinating. If faith to some degree with certain people is produced through struggle and suffering then “we” must put the time in to explore the sources of people’s suffering. Cone articulates that with Jesus at the heart of black theology, we must ask, “What has Africa to do with Jerusalem, and what difference does Jesus make for African people oppressed in North American? “ (15) Jesus and the resurrection are the ultimate symbols of hope. Life’s hardships produce the desire and necessity for faith, while the resurrections that black Christians experience and identify each day, give them the strength to persevere and the steadfast hope to know that Jesus Christ is here among us.

As I sat with a priest one morning, I brought up the problem of theodicy. She thoughtfully responded that she did not have the answer to our world’s great travesties and sufferings but that she would share with me a story from a book she was reading. She was reading the biography of a holocaust victim. The victim depicted life within a Jewish concentration camp. There was one particularly devastating moment in the book where the writer is witnessing the torture of a child, the child was being hung and the community of people were made to watch the treacherous event. My priest said that the man in the story with a sorrow that is incomprehensible and hopelessness that penetrates down to the bone, leaned over to the woman next to him and said, “where can God be in this place.” The woman responded, “God is there on the platform, God is with the child.”

Going forward, I would love to spend time in a third world country learning about Christian theology through the immersion of a different culture and inter relational experience. Specifically I am interested in researching Christian theology in South America, Latin American Theology. I would like to learn about the development of and sustainability of faith in the context of people living in very urban environments and indigenous people living in the most rural villages in South America.

 

 

Works Cited:

Cone, James H. God of the Oppressed. Orbis Books, 1997.

Paris, Peter J. The Spirituality of African Peoples. Fortress Press, 1995.