Second Sunday of Lent
Call To Action's 2023 Lenten Calendar is a collaboration between the Anti-Racism Team (ART) and Indigenous Solidarity Collective. This calendar provides more than 40 days of prayer and study to guide our discernment of racial justice and lead us into solidarity with Indigenous communities. For each Sunday and holy day during Lent, we'll publish a reflection from an ART or Indigenous Solidarity Collective member. Following the reflection, we’ll feature a call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada as well as discussion questions for your own meditation.
Second Sunday of Lent: March 5, 2023
“White Christianity has been many things for America. But whatever else it has been — and the country is indebted to it for a good many things—it has also been the primary institution legitimizing and propagating white power and dominance.”
Today’s readings remind us that we are given choices. Abram was given a choice; the disciples were given a choice. As followers of Jesus, “Christians,” we are given the choice to make a difference in our family, our community, and our world. This is a call to serve, a call to love, a call to give ourselves away. This is not a power of personal gain.
God provides support through those on the journey with us to live the example Jesus lived. This is how we “listen to Jesus” as the Gospel calls.
“Isn't it amazing,” asks Desmond Tutu, “that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among [God’s] people?” We sell ourselves short and limit our spiritual growth when we only associate with folks who look and believe like us.
Robert P. Jones writes in his book White Too Long: The Legacy for White Supremacy in American Christianity: “The historical record of lived Christianity in America reveals that Christian theology and institutions have been the central cultural tent pole holding up the very idea of white supremacy. And the genetic imprint of this legacy remains present and measurable in contemporary white Christianity, not only among evangelicals in the South but also among mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeast.”
We need to face the truth that the dominant Christianity of our society supports structures of oppression, knowingly or unknowingly. This includes the attempts to erase Black history, the treatment of dark-skinned immigrants, the abuse of indigenous peoples of America and so much more. This is not the choice of love.
How do we begin to do our part to change this? First, we need to look inward as we were asked to do in the Ash Wednesday reflection, we are invited to take time during Lent to consider how systemic racism permeates our life and spirituality.
We need to educate ourselves about the prevalence of structural racism. There are many resources, such as the book referenced above by Robert P. Jones, Father Bryan Massingale’s book Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, Sarah Augustine’s book This Land is Not Empty, and more.
Then we need to join with others and find actions that we can assist in to start making the changes required. Work with local justice organizations in addition to supporting national groups. We cannot do this alone.
—Reflection by Vision Council Member Fred Dabrowski
Prayer:
Battered, Broken, Betrayed. I stand before you between the lines,
Breathe on me Breath of God
Because I have betrayed my sister and brother by my silence
Breathe on me Breath of God
But what is Breath when it is stolen
Humanity beyond recognition, Buried in Blood
Bring us transformation, Beauty for Brokenness
Expose me for my blindness,
Breathe on me the breath to see
Be Brave and Bold beyond what others can see
So when I can’t Breathe
God, Breathe on me
When I cannot see my Betrayal bring me to the light
I Beg for the wisdom to Be Better
Bless me with the strength to never stop Becoming.
Beyond the patience to listen Bring me to action
I can’t Breathe, so God Breathe through me
”Breathe on Me”, by Leah Wenger, in
"Prayers of lament: Responding to the violence of racism," Mennonite Church USA
Discussion Questions
What are we doing with the choices we are given?
How do we react to the truth that the “White Christian Church” assisted in developing and supports systemic racist structures?
What are we willing to do individually and with others to dismantle these structures?
Suggestions for Almsgiving
As part of your Lenten practice, please consider donating to one or more of the following organizations:
About the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Between 2007 and 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada recorded the testimonies of more than 6,000 First Nations people across Canada either directly or indirectly affected by the residential school system. In June 2015, the commission released a final report with 94 calls to action directed at the Canadian government. The final 52 calls to action focus on reconciliatory policy implementation for the dismantling of systemic racism against Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
Call to Action 56
National Council for Reconciliation
56. We call upon the prime minister of Canada to formally respond to the report of the National Council for Reconciliation by issuing an annual “State of Aboriginal Peoples” report, which would outline the government’s plans for advancing the cause of reconciliation.
