Lent 2019 - Isaiah 58 for Lent

April 15, 2019

Dear Allen Temple Family and Friends,

Our Lenten Series continues this week with the theme of Reconciliation with Reverend Phil Bowling-Dyer.

Blessings to you!

Reverend Dr. Jacqueline A. Thompson

Senior Pastor Elect

In the summer of 2004, I attended a seminar on reconciliation in a town in the Midwest. On a Thursday afternoon, the twenty-five of us watched a documentary that addressed the current economic discrepancies between American Whites and Blacks, ascribing a significant share of it to the racist use of the American G.I. Bill. After WWII, while 60%+ of White solders were aided by the US government to purchase homes, less than 5% of Black soldiers were given the same opportunity. One of our White participants had a shocked look on his face – HIS father had purchased their family home with funds from the GI Bill. He expressed how embarrassed and ashamed he was that so many others were disqualified from this opportunity solely based on their ethnicity. “How can there be reconciliation when so many of our systems are racist to the core? Why would Black people want to be reconciled to this?” With tears in his eyes, he turned to me and asked, “Phil what am I to do?”

I don’t remember how I answered him, but I do know that Isaiah 58 has something to say about the issue. According to this passage, our “seeking the Lord” and “delighting in his ways” cannot be divorced from our “unloosing the bonds of injustice,” “sharing our bread with the hungry,” and “serving the afflicted.” There is no real line between the earthly and the heavenly, the secular and the sacred - our reconciled relationship with our Creator is intricately tied to our reconciled relationships with one another. If we separate these spheres of the realities, we are tagged as “rebellious”, and are neither “seen” nor “noticed” by God.

Based on Isaiah 58, if I were back in the basement conference room of that Midwest hotel in 2004, I would tell my friend to both receive God’s grace and consolation AND to dedicate himself to fighting for just laws and practices that serve the historically disenfranchised—those in his local community and those across the nation.

In this Holy Week, as we bridge Palm Sunday and continue to prepare for Easter, let us remember to both ground our spirituality with right activity AND to elevate our activity with Christ-honoring spirituality. The New Testament scriptures make no distinction between “righteousness” and “justice;” the Greek work “dikaiosune” contains both concepts hand-in-hand. And as we seek God’s face, let us seek a wholistic and all-encompassing faith that truly reconciles us to God and us to one another.

For further reading:

• Matthew 5:23-26; 18:15-17
• Acts 3:19
• 2 Corinthians 5:18-21
• Ephesians 2:15-18; 4:32
• Romans 5:10; 11:15
• Hebrews 12:14

Reverend Phil Bowling-Dyer serves as a diversity trainer and a chaplain for college and university students and faculty. He and his family have been part of Allen Temple for more than twenty years.