Blogging the Festival - Barbara Lundblad, "What's a White Person To Do?"

One of the lectures I attended at the Festival of Homiletics was given by Barbara Lundblad and was titled, "I Haven't Been to the Mountaintop:  What's a White Person To Do?"  She began by telling a Fred Craddock story about how he had attended the opening of an African-American Church in Atlanta and at the reception after the service a 6-year old black boy came up to him and asked, "Are you a mean man?"  The boy's father later apologized to Fred and said that some days were so hard that he just came home and spoke his mind and that his son had heard him say things.

Barbara asked, "Does my whiteness make me mean?"

She asked a lot of questions and she shared a lot of statistics, specific statistics that I did not write down, about slavery and "ghetto loans," about "mud people" and banks targeting black churches, about bills that address the issue of reparations but never make it out of committees, about red lines and people as assets.  Some of what she said I knew.  Some I didn't.  She was observing the things that she did not know.  Things that make you scream or weep or both when you do know.  She said them without passion, as observation, not scolding.  She suggested that as preachers we need to expose and envision - to tell truth, not to shame people.  She said we can expose by simply turning on the tv or internet and sharing what we see.  We envision by speaking about how things can be different.

Barbara told the story from Dr. Howard Thurman's book, With Heart in Hands, in which he explained to his daughters that they couldn't swing on certain swings.  "At present, only white children can play there.  But it takes the state legislature, the courts, the sheriffs and policemen, the white churches, the mayors, the banks and businesses, and the majority of white people in the state of Florida – it takes all these to keep two little black girls from swinging in those swings.  That is how important you are!" She talked about how stories are more powerful than statistics - and I know that to be true.

Barbara said we need to lift up how the little things matter, and she even made some suggestions about little things that we can do, and I know that's key.  It's the seed planting that Jesus talks so much about in the gospels.  But when I hear news like what came from Charleston today, I weep, and I want to fling the seeds away and scream.  It seems like it takes so long for the seeds of kindness and justice and mercy to grow while the seeds of anger and hatred and violence sprout and spread so quickly.  I'm reminded of the Indigo Girls again, "Darkness has a hunger that's insatiable, and lightness has a call that's hard to hear."  I try so hard to stay positive in what I write on social media, but my heart is sick of all this violence.  It is so hard to keep from giving in to despair, especially when I hear people suggest that the solution is more guns.  Yes, I'm sure that's what Jesus would do.  I'm angry and I'm sad and I'm heartbroken, and I know I need to do something, but I feel so powerless. 

How long, oh Lord, how long?  How long will we as a people refuse your promise of abundant life for all?