Sermon Series: Repentance
Repenting of Power
Luke 3:1-20
Repenting of Power
Luke 3:1-20
Patrick's sermon this past Sunday challenged us to
consider how we will live within the context of the powers of this world, as
the people of God, who have a different relationship with power. We were asked to repent of the ways
that we have taken our power/advantages for granted. I have been thinking a lot about this
topic of power for a while (spurred on by Ferguson and the things that the
Black Lives Matter movement asks me to consider about power.) While I
don’t agree with all aspects of #BLM, I do think that as a white woman I have
power and advantages that do not exist for others. One way that I am
trying to not take advantage of my power is to give up the "right to be
right” and to try and consider the way others experience the world through
THEIR lens rather than MY lens.
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| A crowd marches down Bragg Street to the Bible Way Temple after speakers memorialized shooting victim Akiel Denkins in Raleigh on February 29. |
Rather than rolling my eyes and saying
that black people just need to respect the cops and do what is right and none
of this would happen (which I hear from people a lot), I’m trying to ask, why
would so many people react so strongly to what is happening. What is it
about their experience that elicits this response (that is so different from
how I think I would respond) that is different from my own experience? Mostly
I am trying to read and listen to African-American voices rather than what
other white people have to say about African-American voices. So, that is
one specific arena in which I am trying to think about power.
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| Terri Shell IV Area Director for Eastern Carolinas |
Terri Shell is an Apostles member and missionary with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
