I Need Wisdom!!!

meditation by the Rev. Dr. Beverly Wallace

“I need wisdom. The quality that will make clear to me the significance, the relatedness of things that are a part of my daily experience – this I lack again and again.

I need wisdom to cast a slow and steady radiance over all my landscape in order that things, choices, deeds, may be seen in their true light – the light of the eternal and the timeless.”

Howard Thurman’s Meditation of the Heart

In his book, In Search of Wisdom, Dr. Wimberley (the Provost of the Interdenominational Theological Center where the Lutheran Theological Center in Atlanta is housed) writes about the sources and nature of wisdom with regard to human sexuality in the black Christian community and raises the question of how the black churches’ educational ministry serves as a wisdom guide in addressing particularly HIV/AIDS and sex education. He uses this Thurman quote at the beginning of his chapter on the “Formation of Wisdom and Human Sexuality.”

I write this not to begin again the debate regarding the Human Sexuality Study passed last year by the Churchwide Assembly, but rather to engage in a dialogue or discussion about what is really relevant and important in the daily lives of God’s people here on earth.

I worship at the Lutheran Church of the Atonement in Atlanta. There are many hurting people and much to be dealt with regarding the health and well-being of our church’s neighbors. In the immediate community, more than 29% of the population has a medium income of less than $10,000 with 37% of the community living below the poverty level and over 10% of persons 25 years and older have less than a 9th grade education. Many grandmothers here are raising their grandchildren alone because many of the people from this community are in prison. This is not always of their own doing, but is often because of the systemic production of a permanent underclass for the benefit of the Prison Industrial Complex System . (Come take a class at the Lutheran Center in Atlanta to learn more about these issues.) And I am sure the rate of HIV/AIDS is among the highest in the city.

Atonement is an aging congregation with more than two-thirds of the membership over the age of 70, mostly retired professionals now living on fixed income. Yet this congregation is still committed and rooted in their community. Instead of forgetting about thisneighborhood, they come back to the community. Nearby is a housing development that provides transitional housing for those who are in recovery. There is a homeless shelter where more than 200 women and children reside. And Atonement engages with this community, our neighbors, through the work of its members and with the new energy and guidance of their interim pastor, Rev. Ron Bonner. There is a true desire to continue to do the work of caring for God’s people even when there are differences in understanding the nature of Human Sexuality. And there is an awareness that we are all related; called to care for our brothers and sisters.

Okay, I said I would not talk about the Human Sexuality Statement, but I kind of fibbed. It is important that we all remember that there is more to the Statement than issues of same-gendered rostered partners. There are statements about trusting relationships and educating our children about care and love. There are discussions about human trafficking and prostitution (and yes it is happening in our neighborhoods). And there are statements that call on us to show mercy, compassion and justice to the least of these. Yet we have ignored almost all of these points and issues. Dr.Wimberly, in the book mentioned earlier, writes about the role of education ministry as a wisdom guide in matters of sexuality. The cost of not having these conversations is great. (Did you know that one of the segments of our population who are contracting HIV/AIDS the fastest is the tweens and not just in ethnic specific communities?) Who cares about the children? Who cares about the elders in the congregation and the community? Who cares about this ministry and mission?

With the action taken at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, with the benevolence dollars given to this synod dropping to the lowest it has been since 2003, with funding and resources being sorely limited to assist with the children in this community and others like this, and with the focus of mission and strategy having shifted elsewhere; well, I have some concerns. An old African adage goes, “When the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers”.

Our children are suffering and I need wisdom. Our elders are suffering and I need wisdom. Our communities are being ignored and attention is now being turned toward some more pleasant and seemingly more attractive initiatives that don’t deal with some of the hard realities of the people we are called to care for. I need wisdom. And I need wisdom to answer the question, “How do I love this church where when there are differences some people respond by taking their money and running?” or where “Instead of talking with one another; there is silence and folks are shut out?” I also need some wisdom to show me forgiveness when I’m judgmental and the wisdom to see those places within me that need change as well as forgiveness so that when I mess up (as we all do) that I can feel that there is a gracious God who will love me anyway.

And what do you need wisdom to see? What are some of the issues that this church and this synod need to begin to address instead of fighting and closing our ears to the voices seeking to be heard and closing our purses to the hungry, the poor and the naked? What is it that this synod is called to be and what is it that this synod is called to do? I invite you to engage in this discussion as well.