The Work of Resisting Tyranny Continues

Day 1 of 3

Read Genesis 3:1-19

It’s no coincidence that truth is a central theme of Scripture from the very beginning. The fall begins with deception — the devil in the form of the serpent, tricking Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. It is an act of predation upon credulity, which leads to the birth of all human suffering.

Throughout the rest of Scripture, from the Old Testament prophets to John the Baptist to Jesus to Paul, truth comes via divine revelation voiced by God’s people in a world clouded by deception. Truth comes to those who follow the God who hears the groans of oppressive people and liberates. Those who see through the spectacle of empire by drawing near to those resisting authoritarian leaders of Egypt, Babylon, Rome.

As a pastor and an advocate for justice, I can’t help but notice that the United States’s brokenness tracks with that of our biblical ancestors. Our original sin of white supremacy was born of a lie. The very idea of race was a fiction created to justify the dehumanization and exploitation of people deemed Black.

Our deepest and deadliest problems today are rooted in deception too.

We live in an age of politics organized around Big Lies: the enduring myth of white supremacy, the false religion of Christian Nationalism, denial of climate change, fabrications about election results, conspiracy theories like Q, apocalyptic narratives about attacks on religious liberty, and tropes such as the undeserving poor and the corrupting immigrant. These are rooted in predation by powers and principalities capitalizing upon selfishness and fear. If we believe in these stories, we lose sight of the true roots of our suffering, and we lose sight of God’s call to love one another as we love ourselves.

God didn’t send prophets to gently meet deceivers where they were and nicely nudge them to do better. No. The voice of truth is always bolder. It cuts through the numbing agents of our surrounding culture to reveal our brokenness so that we can begin to heal that which we did not know was dying. God loves us too much to send us weak or ambiguous messages. We must model this love, too.

In an age of Big Lies that mire us in the darkness of corporate sin, we must speak with divine boldness and honesty. This begins with a moral choice. Will we go along to get along? Will we let deception slide, in the name of keeping the peace or picking our battles? Or will we shine a light that overwhelms the Big Lies?

Call to Action:
The first step of prophecy is to hear the voices of those who cry out. We do that by following the lead of women of color. We do that by investigating their realities. We listen. We relearn our history. We repent of our tendency to look away. We don’t have to search hard to find the Big Lies in our fallen world, and even in ourselves. Make a list of how the Big Lies of our world color your own vision, and a list of where you see them most prominently in the church and public spaces. But first, ground yourself in both purpose and joy with this prayer:

Holy creator and truth giver,
Thank you for showing us again and again the truth of your love for us, and the truth that your will is to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Please give me the courage, the wisdom, and the deep reserves of love and joy that I need in order to bring your truth into a world fallen under sway of big lies.

Rev. Jennifer Butler

Day 1 of 3

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