Revolutionary Love -fifth Installment

I am going to be skipping a lot because the Revolutionary Love conference was over a month ago, and I am so slow on my reporting.   I thought I would need things to do during the pandemic, but I seem to be busier than ever.

Now, with the killing of George Floyd by a white policeman who seemed so confident of his right to hold his knee against another human's throat, I have further reason to pause in writing this.  What were good ideas at the time of the conference are now urgent needs. The really shocking thing to me about that policeman who killed George Floyd was how he looked straight into the camera and just had his hands in his pockets. 

So, I am going to skip over everything else and go to the final day, a Sunday, and the sermon by Reverend Dr. William Barber. I had heard him speak once before at the National Cathedral.  His participation in the Revolutionary Love conference was why I signed up for it.  At the "Revolutionary Love" conference,  Dr. Barber spoke to the topic of "Where Do We Go From Here?"  I'm still pondering that.  Before I go any further, I want to note the physical appearance of Dr. Barber.  He is a large black man and walks with difficulty.  When I saw him at National Cathedral, he had trouble getting to the pulpit.  Once he started speaking, though, he became totally energized.  The same thing happened at the virtual event except we didn't see him walk to the pulpit.  He was very engaged, though, once he started speaking.  I also want to point out that this talk was on April 26 and so was before George Floyd was killed.

He began by pointing out that where we go from here depends on what we do while we're here.  He pointed out that crying in the midst of crisis can change things, so the sermon was really about crying.  He described how a woman came to Jesus crying for his help because her daughter was possessed by demons.  Initially he did not respond and the disciples urged him to send her away.  She came crying again and he healed her daughter.  It was her crying that brought Jesus to respond.

We had reason to cry before the pandemic because poverty and lack of medical care and other social inequities were affecting so many of our people.  Dr. Barber urged that we not expect to return to that sort of normality.   He talked about how the relief offered by Congress did not benefit people who really need help.  In response, he wrote a letter to Congressional leaders.  He related to us that he cried while writing it.  By the way, I went on-line to try to find that letter, but couldn't.  I did find links to other times he talked about this issue.  He said people are dying from the failure of government, but it doesn't have to be that way.

In summary, his sermon was permission to cry---it's cryin' time!!!  Cry for justice, cry for love, cry for mercy.  

The closing was Ysaye Barnwell (of Sweet Honey in the Rock) singing "There is More Love Somewhere."  Beautiful.

I will save the link to the conference and maybe go back and listen to some of it again, but it is time to close this attempt to document what I learned and go forward with the work.