Being Woke IV

One of my many blessings here at Christ Church is the gift of hearing other parishioners tell their stories of a transforming faith. Listening to parishioners like Rebecca, Leah, Jonathan, Lee, Steve, Greg, Kiona (until she became a deacon), and Kathy share their faith, whether at Taizé devotional or on Sunday mornings, brings me so much joy. Not only do I believe that these opportunities nurture our faith, but it also assures all of us that our fellow parishioners are dealing with many of the same issues as we do, our fellow parishioners struggle with faith as much as we do, and the hand of God has been present in their lives, as well - and if that is the case, God’s hand can be present in my life as well.

The truth is, I can preach every single Sunday - but of what good is that? How does that deepen your own faith? How does that build you up? You have to be awake enough to know that God has been faithful to you as he has been faithful to others, God has been merciful to you as He has been merciful to others, God has been generous with you as much as He has been generous with others and that each of us has had an experience with God.

For that reason, the door should be open to those who are willing to share their experience of God with others. All are more than welcome to share their stories of faith.

The good news is that this our beloved Christ Church congregation has been more than welcoming to our lay preachers, and has embraced their voices as valued within this community. In fact, it takes a congregation that's awake and aware to the gift of each human being to affirm - and to affirm not only the voice of their clergy, but also the individual parishioners whose experience of faith matters as much as their clergy.

I was on a Zoom call last week when a professor who was also on the same call with me referenced a thought by Howard Thurman, an African American theologian: "Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

"How appropriate," I said to myself.

To be awake is to be alive. To be aware is to be alive. To be woke is to be others-centered. To be woke is to be justice-centered. To be woke is to be alive, fully alive enough to see. But the question is, are you alive? I mean, are you fully alive?

It is indeed true that many of us feel that once you open the door to wokeism, you can never tell where it will end. Opening the wokeism door is a slippery slope in itself, and we should all avoid upsetting the so-called applecart. This all sounds interesting, but if being aware makes me alive, why do we have to fear being aware and alive to the point where we can make accommodations that reflect our shared human stories, the progress we have made, and the extent of work we have to do? For some people, they would rather we keep the lid on the cup.

This is how Shakespeare sums it in the Hamlet soliloquy:

  The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn

  No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

  And makes us rather bear those ills we have

  Than fly to others that we know not of?

  Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all.

Shakespeare makes the point that we are hesitant about exploring new things, new ideas, and the undiscovered country, and even as awful and downright disgusting as our old thoughts, ideas, and the discovered country may be, we are willing to stay with the old as opposed to exploring the new. If we can tolerate all the ills of our present state - even though there may be better alternatives - then our conscience makes us cowards. If we are not willing to let go of what we know to be sickening in order to birth a new paradise, then Shakespeare is right about our cowardice.

If conscience makes cowards of us all, then it stands to reason that it is this very cowardice that

makes us blind. And since we are then blind, we cannot see the ills around us. And if we cannot see the ills around us, then why clamor for change, or why fix what you don’t see to be wrong?

Here is a story for you - once, Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving a city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

So, they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

In some translations, you read “Rabbi, that I may see.” To see, is not only about sight; if that were the case, our brothers and sisters who have disability with sight would be further disadvantaged. To see is to be aware, to recognize, to notice - it is not a benefit of sight, it is the benefit of a kind of disposition that is humble enough to understand that human beings aren’t perfect, like Bartimaeus, human beings are blind. And because of our blindness, we have committed some grave sins, both the past and the present.

But here is the important piece: this very sinful imperfect human being is committed to preventing any such ills or giving voice to the perpetuation of such ills, either in the present or the future.

That is what it means to be woke, and DEI is simply a tool or a means by which we promise

ourselves, "Never again." To be very blunt, I see DEI as a symbol of repentance.

Being woke is about the Bartimaeus in all of us, the Bartimaeus who throws away the old cloak

representing his past and makes a simple request to Jesus for the sake of a new beginning

marked by a deep sense of awareness.

During the season of Lent, we commit ourselves to the process of repentance and reconciliation. We commit ourselves to the process of healing. We acknowledge our perfect imperfections - the sin that dwells in us, and then, should we repent, seek the promise of forgiveness from God.  

If you ask me, to seek forgiveness is to be woke. It is to be aware of who you are - a sinner, awake to acknowledge who you are in God’s eyes - a child of God, and alive to accept what you have done and left undone.

Maybe what we have all left undone is being open to be awakened by human consciousness. 

Manny+