Wonder Wednesday May 5,2021

What are you doing?

Hi friends! Love you guys so much! Sometimes I get to Wednesday and don’t have a thought to share. I’ve been writing a lot about how the church is complicit in racism as well and have to actively do something about it instead of ignoring it. We can’t ignore 400 years of oppression any longer and I’m worn down. Writing this eight page paper has been an enlightening experience and I’ve also have taken a lot of thought of the second part of the paper: propose a solution and a counter argument. This leads me to my religion class yesterday. We went through the book of James and this letter packs a punch, especially today. There’s so much good stuff in this book but we’re gonna look at some verses in James 2 and 5.

The beginning of James 2 is about not showing favoritism. The next part is James telling his audience if you tell a person who’s starving and naked “go and peace, we warned and your stomach is full” that doesn’t make sense. “Faith without works is dead.” This has to be used with proper context. Faith alone saves but faith on the inside of us has to come with some sort of action. Because we have been given such grace, we have to be willing to share it without judgement. James says it’s foolish to not realize faith without works DOESNT work. Even demons have faith that God is real and they’re afraid. What happened to our actions to walk in the sandals of Jesus and go where he went. Jesus fought for racial justice so why are we sitting idly by and looking the other way. Christians baffle me sometimes.

Let’s look at one more place. John chapter 5, starting at verse 13. If anyone needs prayer then pray for them. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

‭‭James‬ ‭5:16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The only way we can heal from the ties that bind us is to confess to one another so we can be healed. God has already forgiven us so what’s left is reconciliation to each other. Fixing systemic racism in out churches just isn’t a one and done solution. It’s a daily practice. We have to go to the well with Jesus. Let’s go again, again and again. He’s there walking you through it.

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