Holy Disruption and Easter

What shall we do with ourselves? Back in the ‘60s, most of us white folks did not have a high regard for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We especially did not like him when he troubled us around Civil Rights, plus the poor, and then the Viet Nam war.  Today, we have a national holiday named after him, though most folks I know simply take it as a day off and not a day of service or a day to march or protest or whatever.

He was a “holy disrupter” whether at the National March on Washington in 1963 or in his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” or in Memphis. His church, the National Baptist Convention, has pushed him out.  White folk and black folk bought into the move slowly mentality.

Change is painful. Black folk I know want it now. White folk I’ve known for years say that it just takes time. Don’t ruffle our feathers. Bull Conner attacked our sensibilities during that time in Birmingham with those dogs and water hoses.

Black folk are supposed to stay in their places. It’s always been that way since slave days.  It was that way during Reconstruction. That way during Jim Crow south and north. Sadly, in many places that way now.

Jesus was that way.  He upset the political powers of the day. We watched “The Passion of Christ” last night. It lined it out pretty well in all of its political maneuverings and back channel operations and even in the broad daylight.

Pontius Pilate understood what was up.  Our Supreme Court has known what’s up.  The leaders of that day demanded crucifixion. While the SCOTUS in the ‘60s got it right, but it may be unraveling before us. Redlining must stop.  The birth to prison pipeline must stop. Prison sentences for people of color that are far greater than for white people committing the same crimes must stop. The inequalities of wages must be addressed.

The woman who hosted Jesus in Luke 7:39, who insisted upon anointing His feet with oil was transgressing the norms of the day. This woman and other women, and men, crossed political lines in joining the cause of Christ. In that day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  In our day and age, we have elected an immoral man who runs the office of the presidency in a way that gives him and his family economic preference while farmers and others are paying the price for his ill-advised policies.

In the gospel, we read again and again of stories of people who were difference makers alongside Jesus in His ministry.

In our own lives, we have difference makers.  For Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and perhaps now for us as we’ve seen the movie, “The Best of Enemies,” Ann Atwater can be a difference maker. For me, Mr. Washington was a difference maker.  In my city today, Rayce Guess is a difference maker.

Perhaps I am way out of the loop, but I wonder if the clergy in my city are behaving like the clergy in Birmingham during MLK’s time? Or, perhaps they are making differences more than I realize.  I know that by and large, ministers in my denomination are more interested in Jesus from the pulpit than Jesus in the political sphere.

Jesus was motivated to challenge the status quo, not for the sake of upsetting the status quo, but for the sake of the Kingdom.  Apparently, so was Ann Atwater, and so are the folks with the Poor People’s Campaign. Jesus rattled the cages of those who marginalized people and privileged the wealthy against the poor.  The prophets did the same.  Check out what those guys said.  Their words were inflammatory.

Personally, I cannot buy in to the story of Jesus of Nazareth without buying in to the stories of His followers. Mary of Bethany was a holy disrupter as was her Lord.

I’d like to meet a current day “Mary of Bethany” of Luke 7. Who is she in Denison, Texas? Who is she in your community?  I know some of them. They are contributing as we speak to the Black farmer documentary and are encouraging their friends to contribute. The contribute time and money to that cause and to other causes as I follow them on Facebook.

I want to be a “Holy Disrupter,” and I’d like for you to join me in that effort, not for the sake of disrupting without a cause, but for the sake of disrupting for important causes.