The course description reads, "Christ wanted the various segments of his Church to be one. What makes this so difficult? Why, as martin Luther King, Jr. observed, is Sunday morning at 11:00 the most segregated hour in America? This course will explore some of those things that keep us separate: race, class, language, theology. It will offer some ways to overcome those divisions together."
The teachers are also very interesting: one black male pastor who is also an adjunct professor at Howard University's School of Divinity; and one white male pastor who directs a ministry that helps people develop relationships across the barriers that separate the inner city and the suburbs.
Isa, my Salvadorean housemate, and I are taking the class together. I already really appreciate our friendship and perspectives about overcoming divisions in our personal lives and in the church. I hope that the class will help strengthen our conversations about racial healing and multiculturalism in the church.
We spent the first class reflecting on Jesus' prayer for the unity of the church in John 17. And throughout the course we will be reading from various pieces of MLK's writings and from Henri Nouwen's Life of the Beloved.
As I was reading the King assignment, I found tears in my eyes just reading the account of what was happening during the Montgomery bus boycott. My emotion sprung from the realness of it all. The injustice was real, the danger was real, and the hope was real. My tears are also for how much needs to be done still. But mostly, I felt a compelling sense to reach for that kind of reality in my life. It sounds trite or cheesy, but I do want to be a part of something that creates a positive change in the world now. If need be, I want to have something worth being in the line of danger. I don't want to shrink from things that matter.
It's true that there are no momentary decisions. The decision that MLK, Ralph Abernathy, and Robert Graetz made to ride the first integrated bus together as two black and one white man, that decision was not made in a moment, or an hour, or even a day. That decision was made long before the bus boycott ever began, when all of those men decided that they had principles that they intended to stick to throughout life. And when the time came again and again to stick to those principles, no matter the outcome, they continued to do so.
I hope my mundane and ordinary decisions of today are the kind that lay the pathway for difficult decisions in the future. And I feel encouraged to continue being/be more involved in movements for social change. I love reading King because he's so solid, not judging or preachy to people who aren't involved, but strong and honest and faithful to his calling. He was good at leading and inspiring because he was true to himself, his faith, and following Christ.
What is the Montgomery bus boycott of today? I feel this realness as I'm learning about racial healing, planning for intergeneration conversations and leadership development in my church, and participating in demonstrations of peace for Darfur and Iraq. It's good to recognize the places in my life where I feel that I am truly following Christ. I also feel that community and simple living are life-giving in light of my faith. Little by little, I pray that my life is coming closer under the love of God and God's call on my life.
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