Rev. Dr. Denise Smartt Sears

#SHOTCALLER

You can easily see how this works by looking at your own body. Your body has many parts: limbs, organs, cells, but no matter how many parts you have,  you’re still one body! It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we say goodbye to partial and piecemeal lives. We used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. This is what is proclaimed in word and action at baptism... Each of us is part of his resurrected body, refreshed and sustained from one fountain, his Spirit where we all drink. The old labels once used to identify ourselves, labels like Jews, Greeks, slave or free are no longer used. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
… As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
                                                                                                                          (1 Corinthians 12:12-13;18 MSG)

Not only are we connected in one body, but we are connected to the whole world. Remember the words to the African-American Spiritual:” He’s got the whole world in his hands.”  So look around, see the beauty of God’s creation, in the beautiful array of trees, and in the faces of those who walk by. Even though the faces are different all are made in the image of God! Individuality is a gift, but so is the need for dependence upon God and one another.
 
No one is entirely self-sufficient; no individual is able or designed to achieve perfection. God has made us gregarious and dependent.  In nature dependence also exists. See the vitality of trees swaying in the breeze, as their foliage beautifies the radiance of God’s care! The evidence of dependence is seen also in the lives of communities when bridges are built to the whole community, especially those who are marginalized, and treated like things not persons of worth! Are you up to the task? Are you a shotcaller? 
 
Shotcallers make it happen because the Holy Spirit has empowered them to go to all the world and make disciples. Shotcallers do not depend on their own human ability. They live lives that fully express the grace and love of our Savior Jesus Christ. They know exactly who is calling the shots. Like the trees we learn to bend and sway to God’s rhythm so that the presence of the Holy Spirit can be revealed through us. 
 
God created us, the one who binds us together and makes us an effective body of Christ calls us to be shot-callers, to extend ourselves to our neighbors: let the young people know that someone cares; let the seniors know they are not alone; they are part of the body of Christ.

Rev. Dr. William G. Smartt, Assisting Elder

A Lesson from Georgetown

When President Obama was elected in 2008 it was not uncommon to hear," we are living in a post-racial society." The matter of race was no longer an issue.  That sentiment went along with the belief that slavery was a non- topic. As an African-American, I know that both concepts are false. So the article by Jesuit priest David J. Collins in an Op-Ed essay in The New York Times, September 1, 2016 underscores my beliefs about the reality of systemic racism, and the need to know and appreciate the sin of slavery and its place in American History.

In a nutshell, Collins describes how the Jesuits sold 272 of its slaves to plantations in Louisiana, acknowledging that at one time it owned more than a 1,000 slaves. The sale in 1838 was used to rescue Georgetown from severe debt. So detailed were these slave documents that they contained the names of buyers, fellow slaves also sold, and those separated. If you are familiar with this news story you know that some of the descendants can be found today! And not only that, but Georgetown has made provisions for interested descendants to attend Georgetown on scholarship!

Unfortunately the atrocities of slavery seldom make the front pages, but the truth of the matter is, as this article brings out that virtually every institution was involved and benefited from the slave trade: Protestants, Jews, and Catholics, banks, insurance companies, schools and universities, mission projects, construction, the military, not to mention farming and agriculture!

As popular as Gone With the Wind was, it describes a one sided picture of "happy go lucky" slaves and omitting their being  overworked, ill-nourished and clothed, kept from being taught to read, separated from tribes and family, whose effects are still felt today in the African American community.

Some may be interested in knowing that the president of Georgetown University at the time of the transaction was himself a former slave. His name was Patrick Healy and he also established the law school, and was a Jesuit.  His father was an Irishman who had eight additional children from Mary Elijah a slave.

The Jesuits have established academies across the country in African American communities as restitution to the black community.

There is so much to do around the issues of black-white relations and the sin of slavery. Restitution is a start in the right direction. As United Methodist we must do our part to face the repercussions of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, and present day injustices seen played out so often between the police and the black and brown communities. And lastly, the phenomenon of so called "black on black crime," the proliferation of hand guns, the accessibility of drugs has to be addressed as well.

My thanks to Reverend Dr. Martin J. Carter, a retired Franciscan priest and good friend, for his incisive knowledge of African American history.