2022 LIBERATION LECTIONARY - Black Heritage Month

Black Love Day- Treasures of Darkness

True love does have the power to redeem but only if we are ready for redemption. Love saves us only if we want to be saved.

-bell hooks

Daily Readings, Isaiah 45

Sunday Isaiah 45:1-3 Thus says the Lord to the anointed vessel, whose right hand I have guided to topple empires, to open doors that shall not be closed: I will go before you and level the mountains,  I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness, and riches hidden in secret places, so that you will know that it is I, the Lord, the God of my people, who calls you by your name.
Monday Isaiah 45:4-8 For the sake of my servant, and of my people, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things. “You heavens above, rain down my righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it; I, the Lord, have created it.

Tuesday Isaiah 45:9-11 “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker,  those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’ “This is what the Lord says— the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?
Wednesday Isaiah 45:12-14 It is I the Lord who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. I will raise up a warrior in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the Lord Almighty.” This is what the Lord says: “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of distant lands — they will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge behind you, coming over to you in chains. They will bow down before you and plead with you, saying, ‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other; there is no other god.’”

Thursday Isaiah 45:15-17 Truly you are a God who has been hiding,  the God and Savior of our people. All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced; they will go off into disgrace together. But we will be saved by a God Who offers to with an everlasting salvation; you will never be put to shame or disgrace, to ages everlasting.
Friday Isaiah 45:18-19 For this is what the Lord says— the One who created the heavens, She is God; The who fashioned and made the earth, She founded it; God did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited— God says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to your descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.
Saturday Isaiah 45:20-25 “Gather together and come;  assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save. Declare what is to be, present it— let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior;  there is none but me.

“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone are deliverance and strength.’” All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. But all the descendants of Israel  will find deliverance in the Lord: and will make their boast in him.

Music:

Black Heritage Month playlist from FFJ

Reflection: Give Love Words

“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.” Psalm 143.8 

In the book by bell hooks, All About Love, our beloved sacred sage writes:

“When the practice of love invites us to enter a place of potential bliss that is at the same time a place of critical awakening and pain, many of us turn our backs on love.”

We turn and run, fast. Give up on love entirely. I know I do! When was love ever not aligned with some kind of discomfort or fear? Sibling rivalries which show the roots of an envy-mingled respect. We all know parents who spend time worrying for children, and people who love parents that never seemed to pay attention to them. We know the fear and sadness of unrequited love; love we walked away from looking back over our shoulder… hoping desperately that the deserted party would give chase. 

And many of us humans know the story of lacking love. Life for many is a long acquaintance with emptiness whose hunger seems fillable, but turns out to have a picky palate. When we hunger only for a particular type of love, we might be turning our backs on that “place of critical awakening” where love’s fullness invites us. The place where love’s bliss is invested so deeply that even our flaws are embraced is also a place of an uncomfortable reality check. When our faith tells us we must be born again, it is the Spirit of love who brings that birth about. 

We are weary from the unloving ways of the world. On both personal and social issues, we are worn out. Black folks are worn out by history repeating itself; feeling fatigue and trepidation at being asked to trust that someday “justice will roll down”. We are worn out by white supremacy, weathered by white privilege. In a whirlwind of confusion, clarity seems far off. If we define love by bell’s standards, most days it feels like we have only each other to trust. 

That is why we listen for ways to trust in God. When enemies surround us, when we are doing our enemies work for them, we can yet trust in the unfailing love of Creator, Redeemer and Spirit God. Much like the Psalmist, we long to be surrounded by a love that fights hopelessness. We want to know a life-giving love, and a love we can entrust our life to. This kind of love satisfies us with clarity: words of truth that we can trust. This kind of love satisfies us with relationships: connections in a community that will nurture and challenge us. More than anything, this love does not die with the temporary affections of the flighty, it does not waiver when people are unfit to offer. 

Love meets us with words like unfailing, trustworthy, rescue and refuge. Love will meet us in the moments when we are running out of reasons to try. And love lifts us, over the eyeshot of threat, to twenty thousand feet above the forest. When all we could see at first was lynching trees, love lingers through the constant sunrises of history to remind us that our destiny is the tree of life.

God is the life tree’s gardener, and God is love. She will show us the way if we entrust our life to her. And She will bring us word of her unfailing love, for it’s been within us all along.

Ashé O.

Prayer: Sing and Pray a Song

Lift every voice and sing; Til earth and heaven ring; ring with the harmony of liberty

The earth is the Lord’s, everything within it belongs to God. God of all voices, you have given us voices for raising our cries for deliverance, uplifting our demands for freedom, raising our songs of joy, and giving voice to the pains and struggles that Blackness has persevered through history. Today, we raise our voices to fill every corner of our worlds with the sounds of Black pride and Black power.

Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies; Let it resound loud as the rolling seas

God’s unfailing love toward those who trust them is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. Lord of rejoicing, let our joy rise high and resound far today and each day. Remind us that our heritage holds more sparks of creativity than stories of cruelty. Turn our mourning into dancing, give us happiness where our sorrows held us down. Give us a new song of rejoicing, and teach us again the songs of old that our ancestors sang in celebration - as an act of resistance.

Sing a song, full of the faith that the dark past has taught us Sing a song, full of the hope that the present has brought us

The LORD your God is among you; and mighty to save. God will rejoice over you with glad hurting, and will quiet you with love. The Lord will exult over you with singing. Great singing God, lift our voices to sing the songs of heaven. Come close to your people when we have no song to raise; when we have little faith to lean on because of our constant doubts; when our hope is reduced by the worries that surround us.  Sing, God of Song, a lullaby to soothe our doubts and fill us with faith. Sing, God of Song, a hymn of hope that calms our fears and bids us cast our burdens upon you. 

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on ‘til victory is won.

Those who are victorious people will march with the Lord. The Lord has written their names in the book of life. Lord of the procession, make us people of movement. Let us sing on when this stolen land steals our song. Let us rise up and press on when it seems the new day will never begin. Let us strive for success, no matter how distant our wins and ultimate victories might seem. 

Amen.