Church World Service Bible Study: National City Christian Church

Alton B. Pollard, IIIHoward University School of Divinity

October 21, 2009

Hope and Change in a Hope and Change in a Fragile WorldFragile World

THE EXPERIENCE OF GOD

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens opened...

Luke 3:21-22

THE WILDERNESSTHE WILDERNESS

Then he took him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and he said to him…

Luke 4:9

THE WORDTHE WORDWhen he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read…

Luke 4: 16

THE HOPETHE HOPE

To bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty the oppressed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord…

Luke 4:18-19

THE CHANGETHE CHANGE

The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the good news is delivered to the poor…

Luke 7:22

TO PROCLAIM LIFELIFE IN THE MIDST OF THE CONDITIONS OF DEATH

While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt beside him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her and she will live…”

Matthew 9:18-19, 23-26

TO PROMOTE HEALTHHEALTH IN THE MIDST OF SICKNESS

Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak…

Matthew 9: 20-22

TO BRING LIGHTLIGHT WHERE THE SHADOWS FALL

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying loudly, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he entered the house, the blind men came to him…

Matthew 9:27-31

TO GIVE VOICEVOICE TO THE VOICELESS

After they had gone away, a demoniac who was mute was brought to him...

Matthew 9:32-33a

ALL TO THE GLORY OF

GODGOD

And the crowds were amazed and said, “Never has anything been seen like this...”

Matthew 9:33b

IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITHFAITH

Behold how good and pleasant it is to dwell in Unity!

Psalm 133:1

LET THERE BE LET THERE BE NO DIVISIONNO DIVISION

“When elephants fight it is the grass that suffers”

African Proverb

NO HIERARCHYNO HIERARCHY

“One head does not sit in counsel”African Proverb

“No one is an island”American Wisdom

Let no one think more highly of oneself than they ought to

Romans 12:3

NO DISCRIMINATION OF NO DISCRIMINATION OF GENDERGENDER

“Women hold up (more than) half the sun”“Regular work tires a woman but totally wrecks a man”“If you educate a woman, you have educated a population”

African/American Proverbs

OR GENERATIONSOR GENERATIONS

“Children are the reward of life”“Instruction in youth is like engraving in stones”“When an elder dies a library burns”

African/American Proverbs

OR SOCIAL CLASSOR SOCIAL CLASS“Whenever the church caters to one class it loses the spiritual force of the “whosoever will, let him come” doctrine and is in danger of becoming little more than a social club with a thin veneer of religiosity”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Truly I tell you, just as you did it for the least of these you did it for me.

Matthew 25:45

OR RELIGIONOR RELIGION

“Wisdom does not live in one house”“The earth is a beehive, we all enter by the same door”

African Proverbs

OR RACEOR RACE

“No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.” Elie Wiesel

Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands unto God.  Psalm 68:31

NO STIGMATIZATION“I've been discriminating against gays, and I wanna just … tell my rappers, just tell my friends, 'Yo, stop it.'“

Kanye WestAnd what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:7-9

SISTERS AND BROTHERSSISTERS AND BROTHERS

“Speak truth to power in love and humility”“Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted” “Be affirming of all and alienating of none”

American Sacred Wisdom

IN BELOVED COMMUNITYCOMMUNITY

“We have lost our fear of our sisters and brothers and are no longer ashamed of ourselves. Let us now go forth to save the land. For this is why we were born…”

Howard Thurman

IN UBUNTU… IN UBUNTU… AS ONEAS ONE

“I am because we are…”“A person is born for the other”“A person is a person because of people”

African Proverbs

AMENAMEN