Being Woke II

"Being aware of what we can all be."

I ended last week’s article with that thought - and I sincerely believe, that in spite of the often challenging nature of life and living, we can yet choose to be what we can be. The thought of what you and I can be is about the potential within each of us. It is a potential for greatness, a potential for being a hero, a hero that fights for the common good, a hero who rights wrongs and pursues justice, a hero of love and compassion. But clearly, one has to be awake to see the potential within themself, and within others. 

Being woke is about seeing that potential in you and others. More to the point, it is about recognizing that others - including those who may or may not be beneficiaries of DEI - can equally function in the same role if given the opportunity. 

A few years ago, we had an election for the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. One of the candidates was Bishop Katherine Schori. She was a woman, and prior to her nomination, there had never been a time where a woman had risen to that level as a nominee. Although the slate had five competent bishops, Bishop Schori was elected on the 5th ballot to serve. I believe the question on many minds during that election was, "If we have had male presiding bishops since the days of Bishop White, what stops the church from electing a female presiding bishop?" 

Do I consider her election as a DEI checkbox? Absolutely not. Her election was a recognition of the church’s awareness that we need other voices and faces that are not necessarily male and White. We need different voices in leadership that also reflect the nature of the entire body of Christ. I am sure that to many of our female clergy, that act of bold recognition was an affirmation of their place in the leadership of the church. 

Right before her tenure was over, the church again took a bold step into the future by electing Bishop Michael Curry as the next presiding bishop. Was Bishop Curry’s election a DEI checkbox? Absolutely not. It was a further recognition of where the church is, that the church was willing and able to embrace its core nature as an all-inclusive body. Bishop Curry’s election confirmed for many clergy of color and many African Americans, including myself, that the there is a place for us in the Church and at the table. For that reason, we must continue to give off ourselves wholly in service to God and Church. 

These two bishops concluded their tenure with remarkable success, tenures that were as successful as any of their predecessors. And for that, I am grateful to those who were awake enough, those who were aware enough, and those who were woke enough to gift our Church with these two remarkable bishops. 

In last week's post, I wrote about two important woke moments in scripture. There are many others - some that I will share next week - but here’s the second one. 

Peter had a vision, and in that vision, and in that vision, a pallet was dropped down from heaven, and on it were different types of animals. A voice accompanied the pallet: ‘Peter, rise, kill, and eat.’ Peter was hungry and the invitation, in fact, was tempting. But Peter, still blinded by the rigors of his faith, rejected this invitation with the message that he hadn’t eaten anything unclean in his life. This happened three times.

Right after the vision, visitors came to the house Peter was staying at, with an invitation from Cornelius - a Gentile. Peter accepted the invitation and went to the home of Cornelius. When he arrived and saw all the people who were gathered at the home, he made it a point to remind them that as a Jew, he wasn’t allowed to visit the home of a Gentile. However, he accepted the invitation because God had shown him that he shouldn’t call anything unclean. 

It was there, in that house, that he heard that God was already manifesting God’s self among these Gentiles. This was Peter’s response to what he heard: “Now I know that God shows no partiality.” That was a woke moment for Peter. 

All along, Peter and his friends had assumed that God only manifests God’s self among a certain group of people. Peter and others had always thought that other folk, especially the Gentiles, did not matter to God and that salvation was meant for only the people of Israel. This realization was a woke moment for Peter. 

As Peter spoke and shared the good news of Jesus Christ with the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit descended on them, and they also began to speak in tongues. How surprising that Gentiles could also speak in tongues!

The interesting thing about this moment of being woke was that Peter embraced the moment and the gift it was. He acted on the moment of being woke or awakened from a thought that was inimical to the very goal of bringing the other sheep who are part of this fold, but are not with the sheep into the fold. 

This incident was an awareness of the nature of the gospel’s intended reach and to acknowledge the sacredness of the moment, which was to be open to an all-inclusive salvation story. Peter then asked this question: "What prevents us from baptizing these Gentiles who have received the message of God?" In other words, what prevents us from bringing Cornelius and his household under the umbrella of God’s redemptive love? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. 

Having determined that nothing prevented their baptism, Peter baptized Cornelius and his fellow Gentiles. This was the first known baptism of Gentiles, and if that was not a woke moment, then I don’t know what is. 

Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote that ‘Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.’ He was right. For, unless you dispute the fact of slavery, its brutal nature, and the long-lasting generational effect on the African- American, you wouldn’t understand why some accommodations must be made. Unless you dispute the fact of discrimination and its damaging effect on the African-American, you wouldn’t appreciate why some accommodations have to be made. Unless you dispute the prevalence of systemic racism, you wouldn’t understand why some graces should be made. Unless you dispute the legacy of a patriarchal, misogynistic society and its effect on women, you wouldn’t understand why women belong at the leadership table. Unless you dispute the challenges that our LGBTQ+ neighbors deal with daily, you wouldn’t understand their simple desire to simply live like everyone else.

Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish theologian, philosopher, and poet, once wrote that, “There are two ways to be fooled: one is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” Do you believe that the injustices noted in the last paragraph are true? If you believe that they are true, then that is your first step towards redemption.

For if you believe in redemption, then your first step is honesty. You must be honest with yourself about the events of the past and our need for redemption. And that, in itself, is a woke moment for you.

If you believe in reconciliation, then the first step is to be awake and aware of the broken lives and communities because of the ills of the past.

If you believe in God’s redemptive love, then, more than your first step of being aware, you must do something about your new awareness. Remember - Peter did something about his woke moment.

If you believe in healing, then you can't possibly reject the ills of the past, or pretend that nothing happened. You have to find a way of addressing it in a way that brings relief.

Being aware is about being woke, and being woke is not only about creating an equal society, it is about righting the wrongs, healing the open wounds, and mending the brokenness of our past.

Being woke is therapeutic - try that medicine and see how relieving it can be, and see what our world and our lives could be.

Manny+

(This is the second of two or three writings on this topic.)