Lenten blog | March 10, 2025

Thank you Bp. William Barber

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 10th:  1 Chronicles 21:1-17; Psalm 17; 1 John 2:1-6.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Over the past weekend I attended part of the Conference’s Super Saturday event.  I was mainly interested in hearing Bp. William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign.  I have seen him interviewed several times on national broadcasts.  He is the author of five books.  He has received twelve honourary degrees.  And has done the work of Christ through his service as a pastor, through the NAACP, and through numerous other social justice organizations.  Due to health issues, he was unable to speak to us in person.  Therefore, I changed my plans and traveled to the Shelburne Church’s watch party instead of traveling to the host church in Shrewsbury to also watch Bp. Barber on a screen.  The good bishop was inspired and inspiring on Zoom.  I can only imagine what it must be to hear him in person.  I told the two Reverends sitting with me that I’m not preaching on Sunday after hearing this man preach.  He is that good.  He fed me and I needed to be fed.  If you ever have the chance to hear him online or I can only imagine in person, don’t pass-up the opportunity.

Bp. Barber spoke to us of the danger of worshiping God without a conscience.  He listed numerous occasions where “the Bible was in the room,” but those gathered acted without conscience.  The Bible was in the room, he said, when the men of the Constitutional Convention declared black people to be but 3/5’s of a person.  The Bible was in the room, when the Confederacy decided to secede and declare war to protect owning other people.  The Bible was in the room when the Supreme Court decide after the Civil War in Plessy v. Ferguson that racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine was Constitutional.  And other examples all the way up to the present Congress beginning with prayer as they cut massive amounts of money from programs to help the poor and desperate so that larger tax cuts could be offered to the rich.  He quipped that we can print “In God we trust” on our currency, but that doesn’t stop us from treating the currency itself like our god. 

The good bishop chastised the church for thinking that an occasional collection for the poor is the equivalent of continuing the work of Jesus’ ministry.  He preached about the fact that the Bible shares Jesus’ first and last sermon as focusing on ministry to the poor.  Both times it led to attacks on His life.  The first time God ushered Him to safety because it was not His time.  The last time it led to Jesus’ crucifixion.  To prioritize the needs and rights of the cast-off’s will always enrage the ones with power and money who have no problem casting-off others to protect their power and money.  I remember driving behind a panel truck in Cambridge.  It belonged to a charitable organization that cared for the poor and hungry.  The entire back of the truck included this quote of Bp. Helder Camara:  “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.  When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”

One of today’s readings is from the First Epistle of John.  John’s community was extremely charismatic.  It was guided by the Spirit.  It had teachers, but no hierarchical leaders.  It was intentionally egalitarian.  Anyone could speak if it was recognized as speaking with the Spirit’s authority.  In such a community, leadership was by example not position or title, and the overriding example was that of Jesus Himself.  Thus, the Johannine author instructs:  “By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, ‘I abide in him’, ought to walk just as he walked.”

“To walk just as he walked.”  This is not merely to talk as Jesus talked.  It is to walk the walk, to live our faith in imitation of Jesus.  As the good bishop so powerfully preached, that example is one of ministry to the poor, to the disenfranchised, to the displaced.  It is to not only recognize the familiar sounds of the words, but to live into this definite saying of Jesus of Nazareth:  “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.”

Jesus preached this so fearlessly that they needed to execute Him.  As we take time this Lent to consider what it means to believe in and to follow a crucified Saviour, let us listen to Bp. Barber’s words that ministry in the world to the world’s must desperate cannot be ancillary to the faith and to the church.  It must be an essential part of both.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.