Episode 71: Praying Out Loud
Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works.
Amity: Less than a week after President Trump formed a Justice department task force fighting Anti-Chrisitian Bias, Reverend Dr. William Barber II - a founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, National board member of the NAACP, and MacArthur Fellow - was arrested for leading a public prayer. The Rev. Dr. and two others were arrested for “crowding, obstructing, and incommoding.”
The prayers started out quietly and as the ministers began to raise their voices they were told to leave or suffer arrest. Rev. Dr. Barber had been at the capitol all day, part of a rally held behind the Supreme Court. That rally, organized by Repairers of the Breach, a national team of organizers, religious leaders, artists, strategists and advocates centering and elevating leaders who have been directly impacted by systemic injustice. focused specifically on how budget cuts would impact women and children. The interdenominational speakers included Jewish, Muslim, and Christian leaders as well as the president of the National Urban League and a representative of the Institute of Policy Studies.
According to a written statement, the rally was meant to draw attention to, “... immoral budget cuts and proposed budget cuts being pursued in Washington D.C. at the expense of the poor, working people, children, women, and families.”
Lemuel: Jesus taught that religious faith was a private experience, not a public one. In Matthew 6:5-6 he rails against public demonstrations of faith.
Amity: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have their reward in full. But when you pray , go into your room, close your door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Lemuel: That scripture, cited often against the demonstrative prayers of conservative and evangelical ministers, is being turned on Reverend Barber, and his associates.
There is a larger consideration here. That this prayer meeting was a form of protest directed at the policy makers who are ruining people’s lives. As we stress here, Jesus’ message, the only message of Christianity, is redemption and salvation, and mercy.
Jesus was baptized by his cousin, John in the Jordan river, and went into the wilderness, there tempted by the devil. He came out of the desert, wandering into his dusty childhood town. He has been tempted and proved, fined down by severe abstention, blasted by the merciless sun, his eyes blazing with purpose. He attends the Sabbath service, as is asked to read the scripture that day.
Amity: “ …the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, he found the place where it is written: “The spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Then he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone on the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” - Luke 4:17-21
Lemuel: This is the message. This is what this meeting was meant to do, and why these prayers were offered up.