Micah 5:2-5a • Luke 1:46b-55 or Psalm 80:1-7 • Hebrews 10:5-10 • Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)
In the scriptural passages from Psalm and Micah, we encounter the honest yearnings and hopeful desires of ancient Israel for liberation from oppression. The former takes the mode of a prayer and the latter the promise of a prophecy. In Psalm 80:1-7, the prayer beseeches God to bring salvation to an afflicted people through the act of restoration. It is important to remember that the focus of this restoration in Psalm 80 is not only spiritual, such as the freedom from sin to experience God’s love in the human soul, but it is also directly about seeking God’s justice in an actual human community. Restoration entailed both reforming impure practices of worship and repairing unjust social structures.
Restoration entailed both reforming impure practices of worship and repairing unjust social structures.
In Micah 5:2-5a, the prophetic message foretells of a just and powerful ruler who will “feed his flock in the strength of the Lord” and ensure that the people of God experience security and peace. As with Psalm 80:1-7, the aims in Micah 5:2-5a address spiritual, moral, social, and material components of life. God’s deliverance entails the provision of both healthy food to sustain human bodies and spiritual food to nourish human souls. The promises of security and peace on earth enable the people of God to construct faithful communities marked by holiness, righteousness, love, and mercy.
As a seminary professor who teaches the history of Christianity in the United States, I am mindful of how Christians in this country have interpreted these and other biblical texts in different and sometimes contrasting directions. Luke 1:39-55 narrates a poignant encounter as two pregnant women, Elizabeth and Mary, support one another as both anticipate the new rhythms, joys, surprises, and challenges of motherhood. Mary praises God and specifically emphasizes the following divine attributes in Luke 1:52-53: God is the One who “has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly” and “filled with hungry with good things.” Just as Mary deliberately chose to orient her faith with these truths about God at the center, Christians in the United States have discerned how to apply the message of Jesus Christ, the baby in Mary’s womb, in their various cultural, racial, and social contexts.
When we speak of deconstructing, or decolonizing, our faith, we are choosing to study how Christians in our past and present ages have interpreted, misinterpreted, and enacted the religion in the churches and contexts they inhabited.
When we speak of deconstructing, or decolonizing, our faith, we are choosing to study how Christians in our past and present ages have interpreted, misinterpreted, and enacted the religion in the churches and contexts they inhabited. In doing so, we find inspiration in the ways that Christians in the abolitionist movement two centuries ago applied the good news of Jesus Christ to pursue a more racially just church and nation. For over thirty years, William Lloyd Garrison appealed to the ministry of Jesus Christ in his abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator (which was in circulation from 1831 to 1865), as the reason why he and others in the movement were advocating Black emancipation. When other Christians criticized him as an instigator of disorder whose activism imperiled the union of the Northern and Southern states, Garrison invited them to open their Bibles and read texts such as Matthew 25 and Luke 4. Garrison insisted that he simply sought to follow what Jesus taught. Garrison believed the presence of Jesus Christ resided within enslaved persons as “the least of these” due to the racial oppressions of slavery, and the abolitionist also contended that he was beckoning Christ’s literal call “to set free those who are oppressed.”
But the work of deconstruction and decolonization also requires an examination of harmful misinterpretations and horrible manipulations of Christianity. Renowned church historian Justo L. González reminds us that we must do more than say that these false enactments of the gospel were not Christian. In addition to comprehending how Christians dared to proclaim vile messages of hate with scriptural texts to justify their evil actions, we must also consider these historical realities: These false Christians believed that they were truly Christian, others believed that they were Christians, and some Christians today belong to the same traditions, and in some cases worship in the same churches, as these terrible ancestors of our faith.
But the work of deconstruction and decolonization also requires an examination of harmful misinterpretations and horrible manipulations of Christianity.
In 1834, one white Presbyterian abolitionist, Arthur Tappan, invited his Black friend, Samuel Eli Cornish, to sit next to him in worship at a church in New York City. Tappan and Cornish were colleagues who served together on the executive committee of the newly formed American Anti-Slavery Society, one of the first national organizations to mobilize and connect activists from various states. Tappan rented a pew as a member of the church where he worshiped, and he therefore sat in the same pew every Sunday. He was also a wealthy merchant, so it is likely that the pew that Tappan rented was in a highly desired area in the sanctuary. Tappan’s family members regularly joined him for worship, and he also sometimes had friends sit alongside him.
Many church members, including several ruling elders, vehemently opposed Tappan for welcoming Cornish to sit in his pew. The state of New York outlawed slavery in 1827, but racial discrimination persisted and even intensified in the years following Black emancipation. White individuals and institutions implemented legal and extralegal measures to enforce racial segregation throughout the state, including in schools, businesses, neighborhoods, and churches in New York City. Predominantly white churches practiced segregation with designated areas in their sanctuaries, such as in galleries above or in rear sections of the main floor, for Black worshipers, and they also served the Communion elements to Black worshipers after all the white worshipers had partaken of the bread and wine that represented the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Predominantly white churches practiced segregation with designated areas in their sanctuaries, such as in galleries above or in rear sections of the main floor, for Black worshipers, and they also served the Communion elements to Black worshipers after all the white worshipers had partaken of the bread and wine that represented the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Tappan deplored the racism that pervaded every part of American life, and he especially detested how churches upheld racially discriminatory practices that stood in contradiction to the liberating message of Jesus Christ. But many white Presbyterians in his own church despised him for having a Black man sit next to him in worship. They rebuked Tappan, and requested that he desist from inviting Cornish, or any other Black worshiper, to sit in his pew in the future. The pastor of the church, Samuel Cox, attempted to serve as a mediator between Tappan and his detractors. Cox asked everyone in the church to consider that the incarnate Jesus Christ was a man of color from Palestine, and the pastor subsequently wondered aloud whether those in opposition to Tappan would also deny this Jesus Christ a seat in Tappan’s pew. Cox’s words further enraged some in the congregation. One local newspaper lambasted Cox for insinuating that Jesus was not of the white race, and white Christians within and beyond this congregation denounced Cox for suggesting that their Savior was a Black man.
Whereas Psalm 80:1-7, Micah 5:2-5a, and Luke 1:39-55 all precede the birth of Jesus Christ, Hebrews 10:5-10 presents a theology of Jesus Christ after his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. The biblical author of the Epistle to the Hebrews chooses to accentuate one component of “when Christ came into the world”: The profession of Jesus emphasizing the importance of doing God’s will over fulfilling sacrifices, offerings, and other rituals. Christians have since interpreted this passage as providing a theological rationale for the discontinuity between Judaism and Christianity in adherence to the liturgical rituals and dietary regulations of the Hebrew Bible.
As the redeemed people of God, we seek to enact the love and justice of God through the work of restoring broken pathways to human dignity and reconstructing our churches and communities to ensure that all may flourish with abundant access to food, clean water, security, and peace.
Another interpretation is for Christians to take seriously the call to discipleship. As the redeemed people of God, we seek to enact the love and justice of God through the work of restoring broken pathways to human dignity and reconstructing our churches and communities to ensure that all may flourish with abundant access to food, clean water, security, and peace. Amen.
William Yoo is Associate Professor of American Religious and Cultural History at Columbia Theological Seminary and author of several books, including What Kind of Christianity: A History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church and Reckoning with History: Settler Colonialism, Slavery, and the Making of American Christianity. He and his spouse, Sarah, a middle school educator in Atlanta Public Schools, reside in Decatur, Georgia with their two teenage children and two cats.
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