Revolutionary Love in the AME Church
Recap – We’ve been talking about Revolutionary Love. As we enter this 100th Black History Month, we can draw inspiration from the AME Church which has a long history of putting revolutionary love into action. Our church was forming in the direct aftermath of the Revolutionary War and in response to the questions of that day.
Exegesis
- Because we have grown up in the world where injustice is mostly considered wrong we forget how revolutionary Jesus teachings were
- Didn’t start with Jesus. These ideas are in the Hebrew Scriptures esp. Isaiah
- Because we have had relative stability for the 40+ yrs we forget that we’ve seen harder times before - our revolutionary love muscles are weak because we haven’t use them
- Last month we focused on vision - looking forward. We will continue that - but we will also look back to remember what has been and where God brought us from
- If we accept the assignment of embodying the revolutionary love of Jesus we can look at our past for inspiration but we must also level up to build on the legacy handed to us
- We are part of the AME church built on the convergence of two revolutionary ideas
- Methodism - invitation in a deeper personal and communal relationship with God. Bible Study and small groups brought to you by the Methodist Movement. Democratizing our access to God and God’s love
- Abolition movement - an early space of liberation theology
- From the beginning we were about democratizing who could talk to and speak for God
- And we were about the work of bringing heaven ethics to earthly manifestation
Key Points
1. God loves all of us with particular concern for those most outcast.
2. God’s love is about liberation on Earth - on Earth as it is in Heaven.
3. No one is free until everyone is free - if my neighbor is not free then the fullness of God’s plan is not yet come to pass
We must draw from our AME past AND I believe God is calling us to an expanded vision. It was revolutionary for formerly enslaved people to assert their belovedness from God. And I believe descendents of enslaved people should assert a moral high ground of asserting the personhood of all. This moment offers us an opportunity to live into that vision
Reflections Questions
1. As we discuss the AME legacy - where do you see yourself in that story. Do you feel the blessing and/or weight of that inheritance? Why or why not?
2. Our fore parents were clear that they couldn’t do this work without the saving power of Jesus? As we move into a season of testing - get real about the relationship between your spiritual life and your living into the call of this moment. What is the relationship?
3. We are called not only to resist injustice but to embrace Jubilee (building on Earth as it is in Heaven) where are you helping to envision and live into God’s plan for humanity?