The arc of the universe bends towards justice.
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Price Recipient
Hi friends,
I pray each of you is well and is persisting in staying as safe as you can during this global health & social pandemic that our world is undergoing. There is quite a tremendous amount of unsettling things taking place and you are encouraged to not run away from it. Be bold and be committed to facing the world even when it is much more simple to just hide away. Just like the Apostles in the upper room on pentecost (which we celebrated this past Sunday…you can see my Pentecost message below), they were all gathered in fear but then the Spirit invaded and compelled them to go forward. We must claim this Spirit and enact that Beloved Community.
In this issue of The People’s Priest newsletter, I would like to just share some reflections on things I have noticed recently, provide you with some tangible steps for practicing faith in action, and give you a few updates on things to come.
So, here we go…
There seems to be an ongoing reality in our society that disturbs me, frankly, we have been collectively taught whether consciously or unconsciously, that we must sit back passively without much engagement with the world around us, with the only exceptions being election years or the occasional feel good charity campaigns, which only really produce larger bank accounts for Philanthropists who do not care about such causes unless they can attach their name to them. This is not the way of Jesus nor is it the way of any prophet including the prophets of our times: Toni Morrison, Dorothy Day, Dan & Philip Berrigan, Fred Hampton, and many others.
Thankfully, many prophets have risen up and embodied for us the radical message of the saints of old who confronted social systems that undermined the inherent worth of each person, as well as Mother Earth. It is these individuals, the prophets, who show up, stand up, speak up, provoke, irritate, and condemn. The vocation of the prophet is the vocation of each person. We who have glimpsed & tasted the deliciousness of grace, are mandated to build up a new way of being that prioritizes justice.
Are you standing up for justice?
Are you speaking up for the oppressed and provoking the comfortable?
Are you giving up your desires for comfort in place of the vocation of the prophet?
These are questions I encourage you to reflect upon each day. Embrace the mantle of the prophet and take a step forward when you are called. Christ said:
Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
-John 12: 24
We must let go of our desire to remain a grain of wheat and instead allow ourselves to fall onto the ground and die to our own desires for privilege, power, fame, success, comfort, the need to be right, or wealth, otherwise the harvest of justice which produces the fruit of solidarity, will never come to pass…
Some – a poem by Daniel Berrigan
(to the Plowshares 8, with love)
by Daniel Berrigan
Some stood up once, and sat down.
Some walked a mile, and walked away.
Some stood up twice, then sat down.
“It’s too much,” they cried.
Some walked two miles, then walked away.
“I’ve had it,” they cried,
Some stood and stood and stood.
They were taken for fools,
they were taken for being taken in.
Some walked and walked and walked –
they walked the earth,
they walked the waters,
they walked the air.
“Why do you stand?” they were asked, and
“Why do you walk?”
“Because of the children,” they said, and
“Because of the heart, and
“Because of the bread,”
“Because the cause is
the heart’s beat, and
the children born, and
the risen bread.”
One of the questions I have been asking recently in my prayer is “How much longer?”
How much longer till the lives of black, brown, & indigenous folx are no longer sacrificed on the altars of white supremacy and genocide?
How much longer till we see police brutality as not just brutal but as blasphemous?
How much longer till we overthrow centuries old gender norms that place women below men and prioritizes patriarchy?
How much longer must we breathe in polluted air and drink toxic water?
How much longer till we act up against the heresy that denies the image of God in us?
Martin Luther King said that the arc of the universe bends towards justice, but what is not said there is that WE must bend the arc. If we do not bend the arc, justice will never come.
HOW MUCH LONGER?
Written by Art Hooker (BMI), Ben Hardesty (BMI), Courtney Orlando (ASCAP)
© 2017 Common Hymnal Digital (BMI), New Metropolitan Music (BMI), Benjo Darro Music Company (BMI), Common Hymnal Publishing (ASCAP), Theocentric Music (ASCAP) (admin by CapitolCMGPublishing.com). CCLI 7109361.
We must carry the vision forward. Our prayer lives and worship services must no longer be filled with hands lifted high and move downward, extended forward so we can link together and march forth towards the refining fires of rage. We must tear down visible manifestations of the anti-reign of god, which reinforce the ideas that anyone who is not rich, white, straight or male, are not worthy of being made in the image of God.
No prophets have ever said that rebellion was polite.
Resurrection can not occur unless we have a Good Friday.
The birth of a new child can not occur without a bit of pain.
So, these are just some thoughts for each of you to reflect upon. I will post a video to my YouTube channel this week with more on this reflection. Stay tuned!
If you have not subscribed to my channel, click the picture below...
Updates:
This month is a Pride Month, dedicated to honoring the memory of the LGBTQIA+ Prophets who have helped to bend the arc and pushed us a bit forward as a species.
I have begun offering a weekly pride month reflection called “Out & Proud in Faith”. These reflections come out each Monday @9AM CST on my channel. To see the first reflection click the picture below.
Another awesome thing that debuts today is my video conversation series entitled “Artisans of the Horizon”. This video conversation series is to showcase the prophets, mystics, lovers, dreamers, artists, and activists, who are boldly confronting the now in order to help build the horizon, the world of the future manifesting now.
My first guest is the Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox, a good friend & supporter of my work.
To see that video click the pic below.
Every AOTH video will come out on Friday @12noon CST. If you know anyone who might be a good person to be apart of this series, please send me their info via revjerrymaynard@substack.com
Join me this Monday with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival as we take a day to fast and focus on confronting systemic oppression in the United States.
Click pic below for details.
Also, on June 20th, 2020 the Poor People’s Campaign will be hosting a digital moral revival and national assembly. I will be participating and I invite you to join me! Click pic below for details.
I am here to be YOUR priest, to be of service to you but I am also here to help lead you into the way of justice and peace. Feel free to reach out and rest well knowing that I believe in your possibilities.
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Above quote is from the Afterward that I wrote for The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times.
Stay safe
Listen to the scientists
Listen to the oppressed
Embrace the way of the prophet
Much love and appreciation for your ongoing support and always know I am here for you!
Peace and Good things,
Rev. Jerry