25 Steps Toward Justice

Learn, reflect, pray, act, and be transformed this Advent.  

Exploring issues of injustice—and their toxic effect on our world—can be uncomfortable. But we believe that God Emmanuel, who sends us as his agents into the world, will accompany us with his boundless grace, reminding us that we "belong to God and the Spirit in us is far stronger than anything in the world." (1 John 4:4)

Day 17: LEARN

I have been back home (from the Freedom Road Pilgrimage) 5 days and I’ve been thinking about being a witness. My NRSV bible describes a witness as “someone or something that bears testimony to the truthfulness of a statement or to the occurrence of a happening.” More specifically I’ve been thinking about being “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). On the pilgrimage I came to the realization that it’s not just my cloud - my dead people - but THE cloud of witnesses. I came to this during our first full day in Montgomery, AL. I’d had an inkling, a whisper from God days before during my run: The cloud of witnesses - the ones I know and the ones I don’t. Pay attention to the witnesses from the places I will spend time in, the sacred ground I will walk on. Those witnesses will guide me, remind me to be humble, to listen and sit with discomfort.

The morning of the first day we pulled a “bone” from a basket and drew a paper with a name and the date and place of their lynching (some just had “unknown” written where the name should’ve been). “Cotton,” March 28, 1906. Murdered in Carrolle, Louisiana. “Cotton.” I wondered what his given name was. I held the “bone” all day through The National Memorial for Peace and Justice (the lynching memorial) and The Legacy Museum. I felt it an honor. One of the witnesses. “Cotton.”

The second day we picked up another “bone.” This bone symbolized the bones of each of us on the pilgrimage. We need to carry one another. We spent the morning at the Alabama River where enslaved black people were dropped off boats at the dock and sent to warehouses and the auction block in the middle of the city. I noticed the clouds … witnesses. I am not alone.

Later that day I read the name of The Reverend Bruce Klunder at the Civil Rights Movement Memorial. He was killed April 18, 1964 protesting the construction of a segregated school in Cleveland, Ohio. Another witness. And an honor to read his name aloud. The Reverend Bruce Klunder. 

As I look back on our freedom road pilgrimage while moving forward with new life (like the Sankofa), I have come to the understanding that I was in the presence of a “living” cloud of witnesses. We heard the prophetic voices of Gabrielle Daniels, EJI (Equal Justice Initiative); Bob Zellner, SNCC; Charles McLaurin, SNCC, COFO; The Rev. Cleophus Smith, AFSCME Local 1733; Gail Floyd-Tyree, AFSCME Local 1733 and Venneikia Williams, Faith for Justice and Wanda, our joy-filled, joyful guide at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. A living cloud of witnesses.

So, what do I know for sure? I know that the “great cloud of witnesses” consists of ALL those who have gone before us. They are watching. When I listen, when I pay attention, I receive guidance, strength, and wisdom. And as I remember the faces and hear the words in my head of the living cloud of witnesses, I know hope, I feel stronger, I can speak truth and I edge closer to being fully human.

Written by Melinda Mackey-O’Brien, a member of Lake Burien Presbyterian Church & Participant of the Freedom Road Pilgrimage “The Gospel and Politics of Race” in July, 2019.

REFLECT

1. What/Who is a "bone" that you can pick up today, to consider and give witness to their life?

2. James Cone stated, "Theologically speaking, Jesus was the 'first lynchee,' who foreshadowed all the lynched black bodies on American soil. He was crucified by the same principalities and powers that lynched black people in America. Because God was present with Jesus on the cross and thereby refused to let Satan and death have the last word about his meaning, God was also present at every lynching in the United States. God saw what whites did to innocent and helpless blacks and claimed their suffering as God's own. God transformed lynched black bodies into the recrucified body of Christ. Every time a white mob lynched a black person, they lynched Jesus. The lynching tree is the cross in America." Before forming a response, sit with Cone's words and listen to this "witness."

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God."  Hebrews 12:1, 2

UPCOMING EVENTS