What is it that's being unveiled? What is it that's being revealed? by Jason Edwards

Not long after we began to respond to the pandemic of COVID-19, I mused with you about the biblical idea of "apocalypse." Often when people hear this word, they connect it with the end of the world and the kinds of events that might bring that to fruition. However, the word "apocalypse" literally means "revelation" or "unveiling." In this light, an apocalyptic event or season could be anything that reveals or unveils something. It might even be so impactful that it brings the world as you knew it to an end. As people all across our world began to adapt in so many needed ways at the beginning of this pandemic, I began to wonder what this apocalyptic season might illumine in us, to us and through us. What might be unveiled? What would be revealed?

We certainly all can put our fingers on a number of things already revealed. The value of our relationships. Activities we miss. Old gifts we've taken for granted. Treasures we've discovered or rediscovered. God has also used this time to unearth things in our inner lives that have needed our attention for quite some time. If you linger for a moment, you might name something. What is being unveiled? What is being revealed?

I write these words today in the space between Juneteenth and July 4, the space between our country's celebration of independence and the celebration of the day when over 250,000 enslaved Black people heard the news of their freedom, 2 ½ years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It's a space full of meaning that our Black sisters and brothers have surely felt the dissonance of for years, one that many white Americans are noticing anew this year. In the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic, the tragic deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks have turned our collective attention to another pandemic, one that has sinfully claimed and brutally oppressed Black lives for centuries. The pandemic of racism.

The existence of racism is not, of course, a new revelation. Some have called it our country's original sin. But there does seem to be something new happening right now in the hearts and minds of many white people. The New York Times bestseller list is filling up with books being bought by people longing to understand racism, their own role in it, and how they can be an ally of Black people in the work for positive change. I've seen videos from towns known reputationally (and experientially by some Black people I've talked with) for a culture of racism where white and Black people have come together to proclaim in one voice that Black lives do matter. I've observed some who only a year ago would respond to the proclamation "Black lives matter" with defensiveness, now sharing with their friends a growing understanding that to say "Black lives matter" is not to say Black lives matter only, but Black lives matter too. Surely, we can agree that it makes sense for a people who were once constitutionally considered 3/5 human, more chattel than persons, a people formed so deeply by centuries of oppression during and beyond slavery, to cry out "our lives matter too." Is it too much for them to hope (expect?) that their white sisters and brothers in Christ would hear them and join them in that anguished cry?

It does seem like something new is happening, like (dare I say it?), God is up to something. It does seem like the world as many of us have known it might be coming to an end. It does seem like more of us than usual are starting to listen; to respond to our Black sisters and brothers with the openness and intentionality required to actually learn and unlearn life-altering things. It does seem like there's a chance that as the world as we've known it comes to an end, a better one might begin to form in its place. Yes, this space in which we’re living seems more like an apocalypse with each passing week.

What is it that's being unveiled?  What is it that's being revealed?

With apocalyptic hope,
Jason Edwards, Senior Pastor