“To be clear, to be church is to proclaim the politics of Jesus,” said Rev. Starsky Wilson, pastor of St. John’s United Church of Christ.
“Over the last few weeks in our city we have been afforded the opportunity to proclaim Christ’s politics in public. We have proclaimed that we should be a community undivided.”
The pews of the church were filled with guests who came from around the nation to demonstrate with the people of Ferguson for the sake of justice for Michael Brown by way of Black Lives Matters rides two Sundays ago.
“We got a glimpse and a chance to see what it’s it is like to be God’s beloved community in the streets and in the sanctuaries,” Wilson said.
He was speaking of the diversity among those who continue to protest for justice in the wake of the shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown.
“We’ve had a chance to see the politics of Jesus played out in it’s radical, revolutionary and realistic form,” Wilson said. “The real deal is that no matter what people tell you, no matter what church looks like and how it usually feels, Jesus’ politics are both radical and revolutionary.”
The Black Lives Matter riders had come to experience and practice what Wilson described Jesus’ politics to be – an attempt to overturn systematic oppression and replace it with a community structure that is beneficial for all.
In a sermon that felt as much like a history and political science lecture as it did a spiritual message, Wilson gave the Black Lives Matter riders a back story on the political climate in the life and times of Jesus and laid out how Christ’s ministry coincided with the current situation in Ferguson.
“He lived under Roman occupation and there were militarized forces in his neighborhood,” Wilson said. “Jesus lived under an elite priestly system that turned the temples over to Rome to exact taxes on people that kept them oppressed. These priests were in bed with the Roman establishment to keep people poor.”
Wilson used Luke 4:14-18 as his scriptural frame of reference for his message.
“We don’t call it taxes today,” Wilson said. “We call it profiling and being ticketed for driving while black. Somebody got here today and didn’t know that there were three arrest warrants for every household in Ferguson. We are also talking about ticketing that targets people disproportionately and has them under the burden of warrants.”
Wilson also spoke of the element of crime that came as a result of the social climate in the time of Jesus.
“It was noted that there were people who were so poor, that they decided to act out against the system by looting people who came down the pathways in Galilee,” Wilson said. “Crucifixion was an execution reserved for insurrectionists and rebels. Jesus was not killed between two thieves, but between two looters or ‘social bandits.’”
The context of the sermon seemed to suggest that the intention of Christ’s ministry was as much to free a people from being targeted by those in power as it was to provide spiritual cleansing and renewal through faith.
“There are those who have attempted to forget in what Dr. Obery Hendricks calls ‘political docetism’ – denying the political nature of Jesus’ life, so that you may deny the political nature of his ministry,” Wilson said. “They suggest that Jesus was more concerned with individual morality than he was with social justice – that he was more concerned with inward evil than systemic than systemic evil and oppression. Jesus’ political climate is our political climate, and therefore we must not forget the revolutionary reality of our religious roots.”
Open House at Second Presbyterian
An Open House will be held Sunday, September 14, 2014 at Second Presbyterian Church, 4501 Westminster Place (at Taylor) in the Central West End, to mark the beginning of the new church year of Christian Education for both children and adults.
Leah Gunning Francis of Eden Seminary will preach during worship, and a Dixieland jazz trio will play during and after worship. Immediately following 11 a.m. worship, an ice cream social will be held in Niccolls Hall at the church. Members of Second Church will also offer tours of the historic sanctuary, designed by renowned architect, Theodore Link, who also designed St. Louis’ Union Station.
Sunday School begins again at 10 a.m. for children ages two through 18. Adult Christian Forum Education at Second Church will also resume at 9:30 a.m. in the Portrait Lounge with the topic of “Ferguson: Why did it Happen?”
All are welcome. Free professional child care is provided 9:30 a.m. through the conclusion of worship. For more information, call 314-367-0366 or visit www.secondchurch.net
