Crucial Conversations: Faith and Politics. What Would America Be Like If There Were No Struggle for Peace and Justice? Esther 4:10-16, Galatians 6:9

We continue our new series as we pause to reflect, from a theological perspective, on National Mental Health Awareness Month. I have named this series Crucial Conversations because I believe it is incumbent for us to create a dialogue among the faithful about the many issues we confront in this new century, which is just a quarter old, yet resonates with stupendous change, momentous challenge and tremendous complexity.

In week one, we asked, We Are Saved, But Are We Well?  based on 3 John 1:2,9-11, where John the Elder writes,

“Dear friend, I hope that all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit.”

Then, in week two of our conversations, we discussed Ahithophel as a prototype of what is happening in our community with young adolescents in the 21st century and asked, Are We Close to the Edge?  based on 2 Samuel 17:23 2 Timothy 1:7.

Last Sunday, in week 3 of Crucial Conversations, we examined domestic violence and asked, Is Love Blind? 2 Samuel 13: 10-15, John 10:10

“Where could I get rid of my disgrace? And what about you? You would be like one of the wicked fools in Israel.” (v.13)

These crucial conversations among believers are crucial because the Bible, which governs our belief, is not a static document, but rather a narrative of conversations between God and the humans God has created. Indeed, it is a book of a dynamic, relational interaction between God and humanity – a humanity wrestling with divine truth!

God is having conversations with humanity: Moses about the liberation of his people. Job about the meaning of life. The Psalms about what it means to praise God in the middle of life’s vicissitudes. The prophets about peace and justice.

Jesus in the New Testament is having conversations with his disciples about the kingdom of God and what that means. He’s having conversations with skeptics, with demon-possessed people, with his family, and with officials tethered to Roman imperialism!

The Bible is a book of conversations!

Our “conversations” take place within the context of living while Black in America or LWB.

What is a Crucial Conversation?

Now, you may ask, what is a crucial conversation? The authors of the very book of that subject - Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High – define it thusly: a discussion between two or more people in which they hold 1.) Opposing views about 2.) a high-stakes issue and where 3.) emotions run strong.

Why Do We Need to Have Crucial Conversations?

Because the time in which we live demands it! The stakes are high. Our very well-being is in question. And because we need, I feel, a theology of wellness, a theology which connects spiritual salvation with a holistic, practical life improving praxis. Most notably, we need crucial conversations for the recovery of belief, as the metrics point to a steady decline in the loss of such faith, less than a decade after a global pandemic.

Today, our final conversation examines the age-old question as to whether Christians, particularly Black Christians, should get involved in politics, or better asked, have we grown weary in well doing?

Faith and Politics: Should Black Christians Get Involved with Politics?  Esther 4:12-16, Micah 6:8, Luke 4:18, Galatians 6:9

Thesis: Esther used her influence as queen to advocate for her people, demonstrating how faith-fueled courage can affect national policy.

What would America look like if there was no struggle for peace and justice? Have we grown weary in well doing? Or are we just tired (suffering from fascist fatigue)?

The opening line of the February 2021 Pew report, “Faith among Black Americans”, a 176-page collection of surveys conducted among 8660 Black adults mostly before the COVID-19 pandemic started in March 2020, states:

“Most Black worshippers attend predominantly Black congregations and see a role for religion in fighting racial injustices… but generational patterns are changing,” 

These “generational patterns” include the receding shadows of the Civil Rights vanguard (most recently the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr.); the rise of so-called megachurches in Black communities; and the new approaches to ministry as seen in outreach efforts to Millennials and Gen Zer’s.

“… it may be helpful to normalize change and to highlight that as Black people’s circumstances have changed Black churches have responded.”

To better understand the nature of Black faith today, three points should be kept in mind: 1) Black churches change; 2) Black church politics in any given moment is more than electoral engagement; and 3) Black churches are not just or even best visible through the pulpit.”

~Nicole Myers Turner, Changing Faces of 21st Century Black Churches and Politics

Context creates change. Change creates context. The context of our present moment is creating change that threatens our very existence as a people in this country.

·         Voting rights are being curtailed

·         Black history is being wiped away

·         Education initiatives are being cut

·         Black faces in high places are being terminated

Is this the sort of proposed genocide that we see in the text? Not directly. But again: What would America look like if there was no struggle for peace and justice?

The question is are we going to use change to create context?

Thankfully, we can look at Scripture for answers. Consider, for example, the context of Esther 4.

• Queen Vashti’s Banishment: Vashti, King Susa’s first wife, is dismissed for refusing to appear before the king as commanded, setting the stage for a new queen.

• Esther’s Selection: Esther (born Hadassah) and raised by her cousin and Jewish leader, Mordecai, is chosen from among the king’s young women for her beauty and becomes queen.

• Haman’s Plot: Mordecai draws the ire of Haman, one of the King Susa’s chief lieutenants, and discovers Haman’s plan to destroy all Jews in the empire.

• This was a surprise to the citizens of Persia. Most of the citizenry had no problem with the Jews; it was only a few who did, namely Haman. And, as Haman unveils his evil plot, the city was “thrown into confusion” (Esther 3:15). Isn’t it strange how most of the antipathy against Blacks comes from a certain region of the country? A region where, once Blacks were freed from slavery, erected a system of oppression which came to be known as Jim Crow, which required whites and Blacks to remain separate and eventually became the focal point of judicial action, resulting in the 1965 Voting Rights Act, an Act that now sits wildly incapacitated due to the opinion given by Scotus right in Louisiana v Callais and is now the harbinger of racist gerrymandering by that same region of the country?

• The centerpiece of this contextual reality revolves around the courage of Esther. Initially hesitant, Esther risks her life to reveal her Jewish identity to the king, exposing Haman’s plot and securing a royal decree reversing the edict. It required courage and conviction for this to happen. Esther could have remained silent; she could have enjoyed her life in the King’s court. She was set.

If we have become weary in well doing, if we have reached the breaking point, if we are close to the edge, if we have discovered ourselves walking down this vile street and found life stepping our feet as a people of God, Esther’s story may rejuvenate our faith!

Esther used her influence as queen to advocate for her people, demonstrating how faith-fueled courage can affect national policy. Here are three lessons we may extract from her story.

1.Silence Does Not Insulate Us Esther 4:14a Mordecai to Esther: “…Don’t imagine that you are safer than any other Jew just because you are in the royal palace. If you keep quiet at a time like this, help will come from heaven to the Jews, and they will be saved, but you will die and your father’s family will come to an end…”

In other words, my friends, just because you are sitting on the sideline doesn’t mean you are out of the struggle! You may be out of the struggle, but the struggle isn’t out of you!

·         As black people, you may not be in politics, but politics is in you; in other words, BLACK IS POLITICAL!

·         Our very presence in America has been the stuff of politics much like the presence of these Jews in ancient Persia was the stuff of politics.

·         Haman would have made no mention of the Jews if the Jews were not a political problem. (Esther 3:8)

·         Politically speaking, Black people have been a “problem” for America since its inception.

·         Therefore, silence does not solve the problem: “A time comes when silence is betrayal" MLK, at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 (exactly one year before this assassination).

2.We are in this Season for a Reason. “Yet, who knows, maybe it was for a time as this…” 14b

·         We may as well make the biggest difference while we are in this season. We must not only understand our assignment, we must also understand the season in which our assignment is unfolding.

·         King Susa had people who understood their season; the king employed “runners” to get the word out (Esther 3:15). So must the Kingdom of God employ runners (for bad news)! God is looking for a few good runners to proclaim the Year of our Lord, the Good News! 

·         Paul urges saints to “run with endurance the race marked out for us,” laying aside hindrances and sin, and fixing eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1,2) In Isaiah 40:31 – God promises strength so that “they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”  In Job, God reminds the weary that if you can’t run with the horses, what are you going to do in the thickets?

·         Jesus Christ operated within a distinct socio-political context – and stood against oppression against the poor, the widow, the orphan and the disinherited, as evidenced by his overthrowing the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple at Jerusalem.

·         Christ fulfilled his mission stated in Luke 4:18 in his season of earthly sojourn. If we claim to follow Christ and dare to imitate him, we must understand we are in this season for a reason. (The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free”).

3.Stand for Something v.16 “I will go to the king”.

·         “I will go to the king” denotes getting involved; I will advocate, I will take a stand. I will stand for something rather than fall for anything!

·         The story of the old slave woman who stood in front of an advancing Confederate Brigade on a dusty road; the old woman placed a broom in front of the unit and looked sternly at the leader: “Old woman, do you think you gonna stop us from advancing with that little ole broomstick? He asked contemptuously. “No, sa. I jest means da show ya where I stands”.

·         We no longer can afford an “anemic” theology, one that chooses to ignore the vast suffering across the country and the world due to the misguided policies of our leadership. This is

our season for a reason! 

·         A conventional line of theological reasoning suggests: God can use bad characters to fulfil his will. The logical conclusion of that line of thought: God can also use people who are going to stand for peace and justice “in times like these…” 

·         I mentioned that Esther used her influence to advocate for her people. How may you use your influence to advocate for your people?

·         God can use people who volunteer at a local school; organizes voter registration drive; writes a letter to their elected officials demanding that “peace roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”; who check in on the kid down the block as well as their own (like we did once upon a time when we was colored!)!

Redemptive Hermeneutical Principle:

It requires courage to embrace that we have been transformed by the power of Jesus Christ to become change-agents for peace and justice.

(Micah 6:8) “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (NIV)

Our courage rests on memories of the grace of God in times past. All we have to do is remember and reflect. One of my mother’s favorite artists was Aretha Franklin’s gospel album. Aretha had a song that went, How I got over/How I got over/My soul looks back and wonders/How I got over. What if we change that single word, “I” to “We” and “My” to “Our”? Then, in those moments and seasons when we feel tired and weary, we may find grace to help us in the time of need.

Reach Pastor C. at: info@pastorwericcroomes.com