Light in the Darkness

The work that I do as an adviser to the USDA Coalition for Minority Employees, Justice for Black Farmer Group, developing the documentary along with Shoun Hill, and engaging in other ways within the Black Farmer Movement are so central to who I am as a human being that it is difficult to tease them out. My desire is to be a good ally in this work. 

Richard Rohr says that there are six types of liberation: inner, cultural, dogmatic, personal, spiritual, and liberation for "infinite mystery." His note on personal liberation from the "system" rings true, though he and I may see things differently. 

Then, at this time of the year, the season of Advent, we are focusing on light, the light that shines in darkness, the light of the world, the light that came into the world, the light which was the Christ child, and how our world did not understand it, and still has not yet responded to it, yet it is still there for our engagement. Yes, Jesus entered the world, and light shone all around Him, and the light shines on and in us to let us know where we can be cleansed, purified, and made righteous and justice oriented. 

How do these connect is the question of the morning. It is dark here in the neighborhood as I glance out the window. My desk lamp over to my right illuminates this room. Down on the street on the right, the neighbor's Christmas lights have shone all night and they dispel a bit of the darkness. In front of our house, we have a laser light that shines images that move at rapid speed on the outside of our house. Inside, we have various things that attract the grandchildren, the Christmas tree, the little stations that have lights inside them, the music box that they all love and claim for their own, and other displays that capture their imagination. 

The world of injustice in a dark world. Various offices that symbolize institutions of power and privilege overshadow the lives and efforts of Black farmers. The politics of the day is dark and foreboding as we anticipate the transition from one administration to another, and yet within the new administration that we are relatively optimistic about there is darkness. One of his nominees led an agency full of darkness that wounded people, overshadowed people, took the land away from people, left people bereft of their livelihood and identities, protected the brutality of the powerful against women employees. We could go on and on about the darkness. 

For me, there is great symbolism in the moment and the MOMENT of the Black Farmer Movement. I think it is no accident that we are advocating AGAINST a nominee at this particular time of the year. Sure, it is a part of the election and transition cycle of things. I am struck, however, by Advent. Advent shapes the protests in a different direction. We are not just working AGAINST a nominee. We are working FOR people who work for and are recipients of services and programs within that department. 

Not only do I need liberation from various thing like Rohr suggested, including myself, but there are many good people who deserve to be liberated from that which has held them enslaved since 1862. Lincoln's "the peoples' department" has become "the last plantation." The plantation is run predominately by white people appointed or hired by a white government with programs and services designed for white people. 

If indeed Jesus came to liberate us from our darkness, and to bring the true light into the world, then that is the cause of righteousness, the cause of advocacy, the cause of protest, the cause of demanding change at the highest levels of the land. 

So, I do not separate my faith as a human being from my work and engagement as an advocate. As I invite the Christ child into my world here in a week, I invite, no, I demand that institutions of power and privilege change and permit the light to shine in the darkness of their halls and smoke-filled, back room deliberations that marginalize generation after generation after generation of Black farmers and their families. 

That intersection of the light of the gospel and the darkness of institutions is the world in which I reside. It is oftentimes an uncomfortable place and space. At other times, it is one of immense joy and satisfaction. 

I invite both. To do otherwise would be less than human. 

Wright Hits Back with Data on Vilsack Nomination

 

Where we Stand: Justice Act and Vilsack

 

A Few Annotations as to Why Biden's Nomination is a Bad One for Black Farmers

The following links and comments are all pertinent to the Vilsack nomination for Ag Secretary by President-Elect Joe Biden. As much as I wanted trump out and Biden in, and as much as I wanted Perdue out as Ag Secretary, this decision is a clear betrayal of rural America, Black America, and Black farmers. Joe Biden can do better. I am not convinced that he was fully informed ahead of time as to the baggage that Vilsack bore. If he didn't he should have. Those who vetted Vilsack did not do a good job of vetting, or, Mr. Biden simply ignored the obvious. We will not stop even though his nomination is in place. We will fight even if he is confirmed, but we will also advocate for justice until we have no more breath in our bodies.  

https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/12/biden-vilsack-usda-agriculture-shirley-sherrod/

Vilsack is the same guy who worked under President Obama for two terms. He is pro-big ag at the expense of small family farms, his support of corporate interests rather than workers in the meat packing industry, his support of pesticides at the expense of peoples' health, and his woeful narrative around civil rights for Black farmers and women employees is criminal. 

https://thecounter.org/tom-vilsack-biden-usda-civil-rights-betrayal-lawrence-lucas/

This article gets personal. Lawrence Lucas and I have become partners in the effort on behalf of Black farmers. We talk several times a week. I have listened to him, and he has listened to me, and we have supported each other during the heavy days of the effort. He led the way to push back against Elizabeth Warren's support of the heirs property factor as key to land loss. She listened to us, developed an expansive Black farmer policy, and spearheaded The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2020 before handing it off to Cory Booker. Lawrence was at the helm of that movement. I have watched him work. I have experienced my grief and angst alongside his. You will find his narrative of betrayal deeply compelling. 

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/09/black-farmers-tom-vilsack-agriculture-usda-biden-cabinet-444077

You'll find several of my friends quoted in this article. You'll find several quoted who will appear in the Black farmer documentary. Yes, we are seething over this nomination. 

https://thecounter.org/usda-black-farmers-discrimination-tom-vilsack-reparations-civil-rights/

This expose by Nate Rosenberg and Bryce Stucki reveals the truth behind the Vilsack administration. No, the Vilsack administration did not settle scores of civil rights complaints. No, civil rights complaints did not fall to an all-time low. No, the USDA did not reduce disparities between Black and white farmers. No, the number of Black farmers did not increase. No, the Pigford Settlement did not close a painful chapter in the USDA's history of discrimination. 

They Kingdom Come in Heaven and in Mississippi and Alabama and Arkansas

On this Thursday morning during the season of Advent, my reflections turn, given my readings, toward Jesus incarnate in my life and work, and the place and space of God in the misguided creation that is our world.

The people with whom I am involved are Black farmers. They know their history and that history is one of oppression and subjugation at the hands of the powerful and privileged. Advocates like me are deeply involved

The stories are full of pain and suffering. They tell of staying up all night and watching lest the sheriffs come and remove them from the land. That has happened. I remember at this moment Eddie and Dorothy Wise. In the case of one in which it did not happen, she had a psychotic break. Loss of land, loss of livelihood, are real to these people. White people, uninformed as they are, come along and insult them by saying, “They must not be good farmers.”

The truth is that all advantages at the county committee level belong to the white farmers in terms of programs and services. When a Black farmer finally gets his operating loan and it is too little and too late, and the white farmer’s crops are already growing, that’s discrimination.

And, as President-Elect Joe Biden goes about the business of selecting his cabinet members, one he is making is strongly opposed by Black farmers and advocates. Vilsack had his chances for eight years, and during those two terms, Black farmers were woefully mistreated. The investigative reporting of Nate Rosenberg and Bryce Stucki confirm what we knew all along. When stories from within the USDA, plus the statistics, all converge with the dominant narrative of marginalization, that seals the deal for me.

So, what of meditation in this world of conflict and rage? I have always been at odds within myself, the part of me that is strongly oriented toward justice and that part of me that yearns for quiet and contemplation. When I am out there, writing, speaking, advocating, researching, attending meetings, and such, is Jesus there? Does Jesus attend with me and through me in those settings? How can I step out of justice and into contemplation? What are the mechanisms and personality traits and spiritual gifts that allow that to happen? Are they perhaps two aspects of the same spiritual gift?

The Christ child is soon to arrive with his parents in Bethlehem. Our children are soon to hear the gospel narrative read from Matthew and Luke. We are already listening to the songs on our XM radios as we travel about.

I want my soul to be prepared for His coming. I want His coming to be transformative in my life. On the day in the near future and on this day, today.

Black farmers deserve justice. I do not want Vilsack to be reappointed. I experience vicariously the rage of the people in these moments. I experience my own anger, disgust, nausea, and bitter frustration and powerlessness over this decision.

So, until I discover something else, my prayer will be “come Lord Jesus into my life and heart and as I work on behalf of your people, shine the light of transformation on me and in me and through me such that your will is done and not mine, and that your Kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven, in Washington DC and in Grady, Arkansas, and in Columbia, Mississippi. And, like the persistent widow, I know what I want. I know what the people want and what they do not want. While we protest and write and protest some more, we will plead with you, and we will in the words of the text, ‘wear you out with our coming’ so that your will and ours will align.”

What About Joseph?

On this Wednesday morning of the season of Advent, I am pondering the story of Joseph, Jesus' father. We know very little about him. He was there for a while and then he was gone. 

Mary was there at the beginning, the middle, and the end of Jesus' earthly life. She is honored among all women, and rightfully so, but what about Joseph? 

Perhaps out of our own fatherhood narratives, we can surmise some things about Joseph. No doubt he was a man of faith. In the Jewish tradition of things, he and his Beloved were engaged to be married. Was it arranged? Did they choose each other? Did they have eyes for each other and request of their parents to arrange the marriage? 

We know that they were "engaged," or "betrothed," to use a Bible word. 

We suspect that he was older than Mary, and we for the most part think that Mary was a teenager. 

We know that out of the blue, Mary gets a visitation from Gabriel who tells her extraordinary news. How then does Mary communicate this extraordinary news to the man to whom she is engaged? 

As a righteous man who did not want to embarrass her, he decided to divorce her quietly when he found out that she was pregnant, but then an angel appeared to him and told him some extraordinary things as well: stay with her, the pregnancy is from the Holy Spirit, name him Jesus, and he'll save his people. And he did not have sexual intercourse with her until after the baby was born. 

And so he honored Mary and the words from the angel. 

He shows up at the Temple when Jesus is eight days old, according to tradition. Then, when Jesus is 12 years old, they both appear again the gospel narrative going to and from Jerusalem when Jesus decides to hang out with the teachers of the law. Later, Jesus is noted as "Mary's son," or "the carpenter's son." 

And then Joseph disappears. Where did he go? Did he die early? Did he pass on to glory after he and Mary birthed several more children? 

We can ponder the influence that Joseph had on Jesus as an infant, a child, a teenager, and then as a young adult male in the Jewish tradition of things. 

Maybe he led by example as to how to be a man, a father, a husband, a productive citizen. 

Maybe there were times in their carpentry business when he showed Jesus how to build, cut, saw, splice, and set prices for his labor. 

Maybe he showed Jesus how to be an honorable husband and father. Maybe he showed Jesus how to be an honorable business person. 

Surely he brought stability into their home. Stability that a man of faith brings into a home with a wife who is a mother of several, and as a father to several children. 

Did he, as did Mary, ponder things and store them up in her heart? Was he prone to making sense out of things, or was he a man who simply went about his business doing what needed to be done without the effort that contemplation brings? 

If the gospel narrative is a stage play, Joseph plays a supporting role. Mary and Jesus are lead actors. Joseph gets a key role for a short duration, and then with no explanation he is gone, though through the words of others we know that he and Mary had other children. 

I wonder sometimes if he understood that Mary would be much more central to the story of Jesus than he would, and if that was ok with him.

I think his influence on Jesus continued all the days of Jesus' life. I think he was a good man, a faithful husband, an attentive father. I think his faithfulness to Jehovah was displayed in the biblical text as he heard the words of the angel of the Lord and then went about doing them.

Without getting much credit, he simply did his job. 

Perhaps that is the ultimate that can be said of any of us, "he simply did his job." 

That will be enough. 

Into the Crises of Our Lives

The Gospel of Luke has a curious pair of accounts of Gabriel entering the world of human beings. Imagine that, an angel bursting in on our human existence. 

Zechariah was an old man, and his wife, Elizabeth, was an elderly woman, and, yet, the angel told him of their coming child.. His response may be typical of a man. Perhaps he was looking for data or information when he asked, "How can I be sure?" So Gabriel told him how he could be sure and to add to it, being mute until the child is born. 

Mary was a young woman, perhaps even a teenager, when the angel appeared to her. Her response may be more typical of a woman, "How will this be?" Gabriel explains how it is to be. 

For both of them, these had to be earth shaking experiences and revelations. 

We admire Mary and perhaps see in her something in ourselves, or perhaps we simply see in her one of the ultimate mysteries of the universe. Seldom do we speak with admiration of Zechariah. Maybe we need to spend more time studying and thinking about him. 

In both cases, the angel of the Lord burst in upon their lives. Were they in crisis? Were they going about doing their routine activities? 

We are in the middle of several crises: health care with the pandemic exploding around us, racial unrest, governmental chaos between parties and the current president and the president-elect, and economic as people cannot go to work because of shut downs. 

And, I am mindful of my friends in the Black Farmer Movement. In 1920 there were approximately 920,000 Black farmers farming roughly 17,000,000 acres. Right now, there are roughly 35,500 Black farms with roughly 4,600,000 acres. Someone deep inside the current administration said recently that there are 17,000 Black farmers on the verge of foreclosure. They are living on the edge, hopeful that The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2020 will bring them relief. 

How will God burst into our lives with these crises (and perhaps even more, with personal, family, and others) going on around us? Will God ease into our chaotic lives? Will God burst into our lives? 

Or, will we realize that God has been with us all along? 

The coming of the Christ child in the manger in Bethlehem is revealing to us. We have heard it our entire lives. We hear it anew each year. We rehearse the stories of the gospel writers and perhaps finding something new each time, or maybe we find old things made new each time. 

There is no better time for God to make an appearance in the form of a baby than right now. Now is a very good time for God to burst into our world, to rattle our existences, to show Himself to us, than right now.

We are raw, unsettled, troubled, wounded, fearful, and wondering what this time and these events are all about. We could use some good news. In the midst of our friends dying of COVID, we need good news, the birth of a child to give us hope. 

In the midst of our chaos, we yearn for peace and calm and stability. That can come with the baby in the manger in Bethlehem. 

That is when our deepest selves and our deepest yearnings meet up with God's deepest longings for us. 

At Just the Right Time into Our Messiness He Comes

Any number of descriptions could easily fit our world. The place we inhabit is messy. Read any newspaper, listen to any news broadcast, skim through any Facebook page, and there you'll have it. We are a mess. Our world is littered with people impacted by poverty, racism, brutality, utter disregard for whoever is not in the favored group, antisemitism, anti-lgbtq sentiments, anti-women disrespect, and so many others, too many to list. 

And, yet, it is into this world that we invite the Christ child to come. We yearn for His appearing. We long for the story to be told and retold. We eagerly await the story through the eyes of our children and grandchildren. We yearn with hopefulness for our own engagement with the story from Bethlehem, the angels, the shepherds, the wise men, and the hope that His birth brings. We are touched by the music of the season. 

Yet, our world still groans in its incompleteness. We have not yet become what we are intended to be. Our brokenness displays that groaning. What is not unbroken these days: individuals, families, churches, our understandings of ourselves. And yet, it was into a somewhat similar world that Jesus appeared. While the sacred text says that "in the fulness of time," or "at just the right time," or at a time of "pax romana," Jesus came. That world into which He appeared had its conflicts: Jews versus Samaritans, Jews versus Romans, Romans versus whatever other countries, rich versus the poor, even intra-theological groups within the Jewish population with their conflicts. Yet He came. As a child. In an unpretentious way. He lived for a while amongst us. We, His own people, did not recognize Him. Thankfully some of us did. 

There is comfort in His coming. We long for peace. We long for wholeness. We long for struggle and strife to cease. 

And there are those moments in which we stop, breathe, surrender, and out of that comes the wonder of the new creation. The beauty of the Christ child. The peace that only He can bring. That understanding the God came to us. God came to us in all of our brokenness. God did not come to us because we had our houses in order. No, God came to us even when our houses were in disarray.  We are incomplete. 

Still, God comes to us even as our houses are in disarray. Such is the way we live. Such is the way society unfolds. And, still God comes to us. 

Our world's state of disarray, chaos, confusion, suffering, pain, distress, and all clearly display that the world groans for His appearing. Some day He will appear ultimately and we'll experience the new heaven and new earth. 

Until then, we anticipate His coming in the Christ child, and that eases our pain and suffering, even if just momentarily. Within His coming is hope. Grace. Mercy. Love. 

And we act accordingly. We offer hope, grace, mercy, love, a helping hand to the marginalized, the lonely, the left out, the kicked to the curb, those with whom we disagree theologically or politically, not because we within ourselves have the power to do so, but because it was into our brokenness and chaos that the Christ child came once, and then again, and then again, and He comes yet again. 

Therein lies hope for the world and for all of us who live in it. 

"Holy One of Israel, as we await the coming of the Christ child at this holy season, lead us out of our chaos, confusion, and mistreatment of our sisters and brothers. Lead us and guide us toward respect for all humanity for even as we differ, we are much the same. Come into our disordered world, lives, spaces and places. May your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We eagerly away once more the coming of the Christ child who will ease our suffering and sooth our prejudices and grace our lives so that we can offer grace to others. Amen." 

It's Friday Here in the Land Before that Great Gettin' Up Mornin'

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that too many Christians think about Heaven and not as much time about doing right here on the earth. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against going to Heaven, I'm just like the song, "everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now." I am not drawn theologically to think much about Heaven. It'll take care of itself. 

I do think a lot about what's going on in the world and about the varied responses of Christians to it all. 

Richard Rohr in his book, Dancing Standing Still, addresses "three basic levels of social ministry," as comparable to a flood. At the first level, we rescue people from drowning, giving them food, lodging, clothing, funds for their rent. At the second level, we show people how not to fall into the river, providing education and support and healing. Therapy is one of those gifts. At the third level, we address the problems that prompted the flood in the first place by shoring up the dam, reforesting the landscape to avoid runoffs and the like. Advocacy and legislation fit here. 

He says that these things could be analogies for doing good in the world. We all have different gifts, and our obligation is to do something for the world, at least in one if not more of those levels. Feed the poor, teach and heal the wounded, and develop policies that prevent such from happening. 

All of this is laid alongside what Paul and Peter the Apostles have said about the second coming in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Peter. Perhaps put a different way, some of us remember singing the song, "There's a Great Day Coming," with its lyrics, "There's a great day coming, there's a great day coming by and by, when the saints and the sinners shall be parted right and left, are you ready for that day to come?" and then there's a bright day coming and a sad day coming, both with the question, "are you ready?" 

Then, there is that wonderful song, "In That Great Gettin' Up Morning." You've heard it. Maybe by Mahalia Jackson? "Let me tell ya 'bout the comin' of judgment; (fare ye well, fare ye well); let me tell ya 'bout the comin' of judgment; (fare ye well, fare ye well), God goin' up and speak to Gabriel...." Mahalia was the best, but Jim Chester of Memphis Harding Academy also does a stirring rendition. 

How to place all of this during this season of Advent is the question. The Christ child is coming, so how should I live? The Christ child is coming, so how shall it shape my engagement with the world? 

Here at this house, we do social justice stuff. My Beloved cooks food and serves people. She loves her grandchildren with a grand sort of love. She sews masks, yes, those kinds of masks, to keep us safe and others safe in this pandemic. She sews fidget blankets for alzheimers patients and she sews fidget squares for restless children in elementary schools. 

Here at this house, I write and I consult. The invitation to serve as "advisor" for the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and the Ag Coalition is important to the cause of justice and to my soul. Working alongside Shoun Hill as "co-producer" of "I'm Just a Layman in Search of Justice: Black Farmers Fight Against USDA" is a heart touching, soul shaking, and, hopefully, change making effort. Engaging with staff members of Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker around The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2020 has been an amazing experience for a whole bunch of reasons. Serving on the board of BFAA is important to me. Collaborating with people like Jillian Hishaw of F.A.R.M.S. is important to me as well. 

So, I'm not really worried about going to Heaven. I'm not really living my life because of Heaven. I'm living my life in a way that flows out of the gifts God has given me in a variety of efforts to serve people here in this life. 

Heaven will take care of itself. It is earth and its people that I am concerned about. It is those people who have been kicked to the curb for centuries, whose stories go all the way back to the shores of Africa, it is farmers who can trace their ancestry back in clear, precise ways to slavery and then to freedom. Those are the people and that is the movement for which I pour out my life in this life. 

I hope and pray that we all do the same. I know some folks who do: Spencer Wood, Gary Grant, Lawrence Lucas, Lloyd Wright, Marti Oakley, Michael Stovall, Richard Chowning, Basil McClure, and many, many others. 

Yes, there's a better day a comin', and I want it to be in this life and in the life to come. 

Jesus coming. He is coming soon. The stable is just over the horizon. 

Praying in This In-Between Place and Space

In this peculiar day of the Advent season, I am pondering “living in between.” We are living within several “in betweens.” We live in between creation and the ultimate redemption. We are living in between now and the coming of the Christ child. We are living in between normalcy and the return to normalcy, if there is to be such a thing.

Some of God’s children live with a strong eye toward the end times. Some even say that the madness of the world includes multiple signs that we are living in the end times. If we read the book of 2 Peter, then perhaps we can realize that we have always lived in the end times. The living part just gets stretched out.

If indeed we are living in between, especially in between now and the coming of the Christ child, how would the Holy One of Israel have us live? Live and do what? Live and think what? Live and reflect upon what? Live and dream of what?

The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2020 was submitted earlier this week by Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. Some people are huge fans of Senator Booker and some are repelled by his name. For me and my house, we honor and respect him because he has his heart in the right place. That place is recovery of the Black farmer from decades after decades of discrimination, heart break, and land loss.

So, this morning in the spirit of Advent, and in the reality of living in between now and when the Christ child is born, and in that in between space of when the Bill will be signed into law, I offer this pray:

Lord, lead me to see people who will vote for or against this bill, those who are about history of discrimination and those for whom it is a non-entity.

Lord, lead us to understand the depth of the pain of those families who struggled and lost their farms, and those who are living in fear that even now, they just might lose their farms.

Lord, lead me to a greater sensitivity of what it means to be Black in America.

Lord, lead us to a great sensitivity of what it means to be a Black farmer in America.

Lord, lead me to see the log in my own eye before I point out the speck of racism in the eye of another.

Lord, lead us to be instruments of peace in a polarized world and to reach across whatever isles are created.

Lord, lead me to see the humanity and goodness in people with whom I have many philosophical and theological differences.

Lord, lead us to speak with courage in these perilous days, and to back up that speech with action.

Lord, bring forth hope upon our land that we may live and celebrate as a united people.

Lord, bring forth honesty and faith and resilience to all people so that we can live in harmony with one another.

Lord, prompt all of us to see the coming of the Christ child as a pivotal moment to grab hold of hope.

Lord, prompt the season of the year to bring about all manner of acts of kindness and generosity upon all of us.

Lord, prompt us to respect all of your children, every color, dark or light, because we are all precious in your sight.

Hope for Perilous Times and the Holy Spirit

This morning, my Advent readings ventured into two spaces: the role of the Holy Spirit in the Civil Rights Movement and the apocalyptic language of Jesus in the gospels. As many who follow me here, know that Charla and I have been involved for years in the Black Farmer Movement. This "church" to which we belong is composed of God-fearing, God-loving women and men who believe that all of God's children should be treated fairly and equitably. They, in my opinion, and we, in my opinion, are prompted by the movement of the Holy One of Israel. Therein lies our hope for change which is stirred these days by The Black Farmer Justice Act of 2020.

On the other hand, out of the darkness of captivity, God's people developed an "apocalyptic language," which Jesus used in three of the gospel narratives. Looking deeply into the meaning behind this type of language lies the "death" so to speak of "optimism," as optimism is pitiful in the face of pandemics and deaths and destruction and all, this according to one theologian this morning. On the other hand, in the midst of the storms of life, we can engage hope, live in hope, live through hope, and have a hope that transcends and rides with us through life's challenges which can be overwhelming.

So, this morning, I engage the power of the Holy One of Israel, and I engage in hope. Therein lies the ability to live and be productive for another day. The Holy Spirit and hope. I love those two notions.