Sunday Reflection: We are all bread and wine

Today's reflection is brought to you by

1 Corinthians 10: 16-17. 


O Christ,
you are the cup of blessing,
you are the bread broken for us,
by us.

One bread,
one cup,
shared with all of humanity
so that we might learn
to be broken
and to be blessing
in spite of our brokenness.

So that we might learn
that we are all one body,
in union with
black lives,
indigenous lives,
LGBTQ+ lives,
unborn lives,
"other" lives that barely touch our own
but who, 

with us, 

are part of
one body,
one Spirit in You.

Forgive our blindness,

heal our hypocrisy,

and help us to change ourselves 

and our world.

Make us into your cup of blessing,
your bread broken
that the world might live.

+Amen

* * * * * * * 

Moodling here hasn't happened lately simply because the murder of George Floyd left me speechless. What can a white, middle-class, middle-aged woman possibly say in the face of something like that? Not much except that Black Lives Matter to me, always have, and always will, though I am aware that I live in a state of white privilege that belies that statement. If Black Lives Matter, how does my life show it?

When Donald Trump was elected, I couldn't bear to spend the next day alone, so I went to have lunch with some of my friends at L'Arche. We were five or six different skin colours around the table, and we talked about the racism my friends face here in Edmonton, and how Trump's presidency might "normalize" racist behaviours for those already leaning that way. The murder of George Floyd and Trump's behaviour since show that it seems to have come true. But facing facts, these injustices have been happening for centuries, probably because too many of us have felt powerless to stop them, and because we have been too comfortable in our own lives, where these injustices don't touch us often enough.

Clearly, the president of the U.S. favours the white having the might. But God has no favourites -- she and he made every one of us favourite children, equal in God's sight. And contrary to the holy pictures I grew up with, Jesus and Mary were brown-skinned Middle-Easterners. It's an awfully messed-up Christianity that insists otherwise! And it's time to change that. 

As I mourn for George and so many others, including our missing and murdered indigenous men and women here in Canada, I can't help but think that we're past time for those of us who have lived in a bubble of white privilege to be broken, to have our comfort and complacency overturned in a way that allows us to feel the deep hurts of those who have lived with injustice for many hundreds of years. It's our turn to break, to enter into the pain. To sit with those who are hurting in ways that we don't understand -- until we finally understand. To see every single person as a family member. To stop shaking our heads about injustice, and to actually make justice, to insist on justice even if it means we have to lose our comfortable lives in order to relate more fully with those who are being treated unjustly. It's our turn to become blessing instead of guilty bystander as injustices rage around us, because of us.

There are many organizations that are working to combat racism that need our help. We are called to become like Christ, which means to become the bread broken for the world, the cup of blessing shared with all. We can contribute our time, talent or treasures to anti-racism organizations. And we can reach out with love to all those who are facing injustices on a regular basis, simply by befriending, listening, and doing what we can to make change.

We are all meant to be bread and wine for each other. No exceptions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q77uRQxKDCY