02-28-26

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
February 28, 2026
We are at the end of Black History Month, and I am grieving the recent death of Rev. Jesse Jackson. Though some are quick to dismantle his entire life’s work because of an affair, I am not willing to dismiss everything. Don’t get me wrong, I was both disappointed to learn of the affair and felt he should step down from all of his activism work. However disappointed I might have been, I appreciated the way his ministry had continued the trajectory of Dr. King’s witness. What I mean about the ‘trajectory’ is that both Rev. Jackson and Dr. King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, were by the 1980s very vocal in their support of LGBTQ rights. In fact, they believed that had Dr. King not been assassinated, he would have been actively supportive. Of course, there were many who were (and continue to be) adamantly opposed. I remember hearing Coretta Scott King speak in the mid-90s, and because she spoke strongly as an ally, there were demonstrators from the Westboro Baptist Church (the church that does hateful demonstrations at funerals for LGBTQ people and military personnel). As I was standing in line to go inside and hear Coretta Scott King, and folks from Westboro were spewing all kinds of hate, the guy right behind me said, “I haven’t been a strong supporter of gay rights, but I sure don’t want to be associated with those idiots. It’s probably time for me to step up and be supportive.” 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ was and is Good News, and central to that Good News is the notion of inclusion, embodied in Jesus himself. In his three years of ministry, he couldn’t demonstrate every example of the ways we should be including those who would be excluded in human history, but his life launched his movement on a trajectory that is always stretching to the next thing. Of course, we need to be real and honest about our history - the church was the strongest voice in support of slavery and racist segregation. Christianity encouraged and gave its blessing to child brides, and still is doing so in some settings. The followers of Jesus were the preachers of Manifest Destiny, the idea that gave permission for the genocide of indigenous peoples. And it was Christianity that deemed those who dabbled in herbal remedies, such as echinacea and willow bark, to be witches. And of course, some of them were killed for their so-called sorcery. To be truly transparent, I have used both echinacea and willow bark, so do what you feel is necessary. And let’s not even get started on the church’s so-called Biblical defense of women as second-class humans. 

Do you understand why it’s important to read scripture as a signpost that points us toward greater inclusion, liberation, and compassion? There are things in one moment of time that are simply not apparent, yet in time, they will not only come to light but their injustice will become glaring. Too many people are looking for a religion that requires no thinking, only an unchanging checklist of dos and don’ts, based on a teacher’s specific words in a specific historical moment. Instead, I can look at the fullness of the Gospel and see in the teachings and actions of Jesus a pathway that is not limited by the historical moment and all of its biases. One thing we can celebrate is that, in each of the earlier mentioned exclusions, subjugations, and outright hatefulness, there were always followers of Jesus who offered an alternative and dissenting voice. Their very different vision was based on where the Living Christ and Holy Spirit were guiding them on a steady forward-thinking journey with Jesus.

Continue to nudge me, O Gracious God, toward a deeper understanding of the Gospel Jesus preached and lived. I’m not looking to be a first-century Christian, but a twenty-first-century follower of the Living Christ. May I gain more clarity about the trajectory of the Jesus story for this moment and the next. Amen.