Dear Families

The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'
Matthew 25:40
 
Dear Families,

I have written and re-written this letter to you over and over. I don’t have the right words. I don’t know what to say to you. It is a challenge to generalize and wax poetic when the ills of the world feel so specific and personal this week. I am a mixed-race Black woman. Since 1991, when I was 11 years old and watched Rodney King being brutally beaten over and over again on the evening news; I have seen an uncountable number of videos of other Black men and women being harmed and killed by state powers. I have no words to express the anguish I feel. Too many have been taken away from their families. Too many people seek to justify or equivocate. Too many smugly believe that racism is a “down there” problem or that these deaths at the hands of the state are comprehensive of what racism looks like. Dying for jogging or because you are accused of passing a bad cheque are just the most monstrous face of this demonic power that is stitched into the fabric of our society and its institutions. However, racial supremacy and its manifestations are not an anomaly. It is how our society was designed. It is how it functions: not just “down there”, but here too. 

The reality is, I am called to serve in a church where most of the people I will minister to do not look like me and have not had the life experiences I have. We seek to be one in Christ. We seek to love one another and to journey together as witnesses. And yet here on earth, we know that there are bodies that are least among us. Those who are poor, imprisoned, gender non-conforming, black and brown, Indigenous, are policed and subjected to violence and dehumanization. My own body, female, queer and racialized, does not carry the same privilege as others. We must bear witness to this reality and do what we are called to. The work of claiming the promise that we are, in fact, one, is that each one must do their work in examining privilege and becoming invested in anti-racist action. We must do this in our families, in our workplaces, and in our church. It is not enough to post on social media and then forget about it. The work will be ongoing, it will be uncomfortable, it will be demanding. However, until we can see this word from Matthew’s gospel, not as metaphor, but as truth; the work will be Sisyphean. The least among us truly is where the Christ dwells. Those who gasp for air and plead for mercy are the ones with whom we are to be aligned. 

Blessings,
Amy