Resist the Cross?
THE INVITATION:
We invite you to:
Gather with friends and people you trust
Help each other make it through life
Be courageous in sharing, compassionate in responding, and creative in your resilience together for the good of all.
CHECK IN:
How is it going?
How can we help each other?
Who else do we need to think about and pray for today?
Consider this:
Dr. James Cone worked to resist dominant and corrosive understandings of Christianity. He wrote the following about white criticism of black resitance movements:
It is surprising that it never dawns on these white religionists that oppressors are in no moral position to dictate what a Christian response is. Jesus' exhortations to "turn the other cheek" and "go the second mile" do not mean that blacks should let whites walk all over them.
Cone, James H. Black Theology and Black Power. Seabury Press, 1969, p. 32.
In this video clip, he roots this understanding of resistance in a specific understanding of the cross.
Discuss:
What news stories of injustice most make you respond with something like “Oh, Hell, NO!”
What news stories of resistance most make you respond with something like “Oh, Heavens, YES!”
In Luke 23:26-28 Simon of Cyrene is seized and the cross of Jesus was literally laid on him. He is a person of color conscripted to carry the very instrument of Christ’s crucifixion. How does the phrase “resist the cross” make you feel in light of this story?
In that same passage, Jesus seems to point our attention away from the cross and it’s violence against him. Instead he says “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” How does focusing on the suffering of others, as Jesus instructs, help us resist oppression?
RESPOND:
At the end of Dr. Cone’s address he thanks the church people who are working to end the suffering of others. He thanks them for their role in resisting the injustices that cause such suffering. Send a message to the church person in your life who most embodies this call to resist evil and oppression!
