“During colonialism and apartheid some people were deified, made to be more than others, and others were dehumanised, treated like less – the great undoing that we are in the midst of, is humanising us all.”
Linda Martindale – Micah Global
The recent resurgence of the #blacklivesmatter movement has awakened fresh conversation, as realities of ongoing racism globally and locally that are often diminished and rendered invisible by dominant narratives and powers, have been given much-needed attention in the public discourse.
There are two passages in Scripture which I return to when I need to be reminded of God’s dream for the world, and especially for God’s dream for us as human beings and how we interact. The first is in Acts 2: 17 & 18, when Peter proclaims the realisation of Joel’s prophecies at Pentecost (the birth of the Church): the pouring out of the Holy Spirit onto people of all ages, genders and classes. The second is when Paul declares in his “baptismal manifesto” in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. For me, both of these passages simultaneously declare the immediate Truth of God’s restored creation, as well as create the vision towards which we all turn, build and work when we have encountered the saving Love and Good News of Jesus. The vision of a world in which every human being of every age, gender, race and class (and all other “categories of difference”) is regarded as precious, unique and loved, and in which the systems and structures mirror this in the flourishing of all.
While our hope rests in the truth of these declarations, we are fully aware that we still fall far short of the fullness of restoration: we all, from our various positions, have work to do in returning humanity to the original design of God’s dreams for us, both on a personal level, as well as a structural one. The distance between the now and the not yet is significant, but as followers of Jesus, we are called to live in such a way as to shorten that distance; to “repair the breach” as Isaiah so poetically puts it.
We at The Warehouse hope that the reflections and conversations in this newsletter will offer encouragement, inspiration and a challenge to continue this sacred work of repairing the breach, towards us all becoming more fully human.
Wendy Lewin