2015
Hard Conversations Are the Most Important Ones
By Student Servant Leader, Libby Witte
Now that it is finally December, I look back on November with a heavy heart. In a month I normally associate with Thanksgiving and love, I was instead filled with remorse for the hatred and anger in the world. As Christians, we are called to confront injustice and acknowledge the hurt in order to improve the world. Right now, there seems to be so much injustice… how can we as Christians possibly confront all of it?
Back in November, we came together for a conversation about where our faith meets racial justice in this new age of racial tension. While we had had this event planned for months, it ended up being eerily timely with the many recent terrorist attacks, including Paris, and the death of Jamar Clark, right here, in Minneapolis.
This semester, the LCM leaders have been discussing how to tackle racial injustice. Now this may not come as a shock, but the leadership of the Lutheran Campus Ministry in Minnesota is primarily white. Being able to come out of our small group of white people and have an inter-racial conversation about race is something I find really important, and it doesn’t happen very often.
Why don’t these important conversations happen frequently? Well, maybe because it’s hard. It takes a lot of vulnerability to talk to somebody who had experienced life differently from you and be aware of any biases you may bring with you.
Initially, it was silly to hear myself and other white students try to avoid referring to people as “black” while black students tried to avoid referring to people as “white”. Here we were to talk about race… and we were too bashful to use race indicators in conversation! But once we got past the preliminary discomfort, we had built a level of trust necessary for being honest about how race affects our lives. My status as a white person gives me the ability to ignore race issues if I want to. As a white woman, I have the option to avoid these hard conversations entirely. While people of color have to face racial injustice whether they like it or not, I don’t. I can choose to not care.
This is what privilege looks like.
Talking about race is tough. It involves active displays of vulnerability and honesty and humility and empathy. But is this not what God wants for us? Aren’t we called to meet our neighbor in their hurt, and walk alongside them? Aren’t we called to stand up against all kinds of oppression? How do we call ourselves Christians if we hear cries of injustice and ignore them, because it makes us uncomfortable? And how do we, as white Christians, expect to tackle racial injustice if we don’t talk about race with people of different colors and backgrounds?
Spending an evening engaging in these questions was spectacular. But that was November. Now it’s December, and the conversation isn’t over. If I took away anything from our discussion about race, it is that not only is racial injustice real, but it is constant. If we want to see an end to the division and discrimination, we need to continue to fight for it. We cannot let the hard conversations end while the injustice continues.
2015
Advent Adventures!
It is the first week of Advent, and in this mystical time of anticipation and waiting, Lutheran Campus Ministry-Twin Cities is offering a few ways for you to get your daily dose of Advent! (aka Pastor Kate’s favorite season!!)
On our Facebook page, our staff members are offering daily Advent reflections. “Like” our pages to receive daily reminders of God’s inbreaking, indwelling love for you.
On our Instagram, we are also doing an Advent Photo-of-the-Day Devotion as a way to reflect in this season. Each day has a word inspired from scripture and we will be posting a photo that resembles that word for LCM. You can join in on the photo taking too! Below is a list of the words for each day and just use #AdventAdventuresLCMTC so the entire community can see your reflections as well.
We hope that through this season, even through the stress of finals, you can take a moment each day to breathe deeply the breath of God and be still in His presence.
Peace to you…
2015
Advent Devotional 12/1/2015
By Service & Social Justice Intern, Laura Castle
This is an excerpt from an Advent blog entry that I wrote during December of 2012, when I lived in a small sugar cane farming community in South Africa…
“My South African host father ministers to hundreds of men and women in the surrounding areas. He travels to each different farm in our community—all are owned and managed by white farmers who provide housing and wages for black African farm workers and their families. Most of the field work is difficult physical labor including: planting, weeding, hoeing, cutting, burning, hauling, and packing onto the trucks.
I have begun to look forward to the chilly mornings when I join my host father. We leave our house at about half past five, with a coffee mug in hand. As we travel through the foggy, mist covered dirt roads, the vast fields of sugar cane are all I can see as they create a tunnel-like effect on both sides of the road. When we arrive at the first farm, we greet the workers and I attempt to lead one of the vibrant acapella isiZulu songs that I have learned—through endless hours of listening and sounding out each word. My father then shares scripture and a message. This past week the scripture for the devotion came from Luke 2:8-12:
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
In many ways, these farm workers are like the shepherds. They hardly get recognition or praise for the work they do, though it is some of the most important work in the community. These beginning stages in the fields are the start to a long production process, ensuring jobs for many South Africans. Working in a sugar cane field is viewed as one of the lowest jobs in South African society…but these workers are dedicated day after day, in order to provide for their families and communities.
And God comes to these South Africans, just like he came to the shepherds. He comes to bring them good news, and says that this joyful news of the birth of Jesus Christ is for ALL people—economic and social status aside. There is hope for each one of the farm workers I worship with during my time here. There is hope for all people in South Africa, and in the world, because of the day when the angel came to share the good news with the shepherds in the fields. In this Advent season, we live and wait in hope for the Christ who comes to ALL of us to bring everlasting joy.”