"When Injustice Reigns" by Rebecca Bell

Last Sunday, Alison closed her sermon by sharing some beautiful words from fellow post-evangelical pastor Rebecca Bell. Rebecca — Lead Pastor at Threads Church in Kalamazoo, MI (a church that's similar to the River in a lot of ways!) —spoke about the power of church to act as a "resistance community" and how gathering together week after week in the presence of God and one another allows our hearts to be realigned (again and again) to the Way of Jesus.

If you are interested in hearing more from Rebecca, you can check out a powerful essay she wrote recently titled "When Injustice Reigns." Here's an excerpt:

"These themes - the downfall of the rich and arrogant and the exaltation and vindication of the humble - are woven throughout all of Scripture. Hannah’s song and psalms like the ones I’ve referenced here were prayed consistently and affirmed confidently through many centuries of Israel’s suffering and exile. They knew that, even when their circumstances seemed to indicate otherwise, God was indeed their deliverer and their champion. And Mary’s song, with all its triumph and exaltation, would be sung and celebrated and claimed by countless members of the early church, even as they experienced brutal persecution and, at times, an unimaginable likelihood of martyrdom. 

We Christians of the West have so frequently misunderstood what the 'way of God’s commands' and decrees were all about. We read these pleas for God’s help, these professions of adherence to God’s decrees or commands, and we think our spiritual predecessors were seeking to find their way into God’s good favor by admirable adherence to a list of rules. And then we read the songs of ill-portent for the strong and a coming exaltation of the poor, and we think: yes, in the sweet bye-and-bye. When the martyrs and the faithful poor die and go to heaven, then they will get to live like the rich. 

But the truth of the Gospel is incomparably richer than these anemic distortions, and its warning for those who align themselves with the arrogant are far more grave. We are each invited - and perhaps it has never been so critical for us to boldly embrace and enter - into the mystery and beauty of God’s decrees that Hagar, Hannah, Mary, and the Psalmists all knew: the schemes of the oppressors will always fail, the false worship of the arrogant will never be acknowledged by the Almighty. Instead, the scorned of the earth are the very ones who are most highly honored in the courts of the Most High. If you stand against the weak, you stand against Almighty God. If you find yourself among the vilified, cast-out, and dehumanized, then you can be certain that God has drawn near to you, sees you, values you, and will not remove the Divine hand of loving care from you."

Check out the full essay on Substack!