UniteBoston

Bridging Divides Across Christians for the Flourishing of the City

Jesus’ Call to Love Our Enemies (Yes, even our political enemy!)

“In our current society, people who disagree with you about issues in life, especially political ones, are often regarded as “enemies”.  This is unhealthy for our nation in general, and it is especially so for our spiritual lives.  As followers of Christ, we cannot view others as enemies!”
-Pastor Dave Hill, Abundant Grace Church

Today, we want to share a devotional by Pastor Dave Hill from Abundant Grace Church in Brighton. He encourages us to consider our heart postures towards one another and those we consider as our “enemies.” Pastor Dave also shares a personal example of how he has engaged in conversation and listening across deep political divides with other pastors. This is a crucial message in a time of great division and political animosity to embrace a lifestyle of reconciliation.

Today I would like to look again at Luke 6, verses 27-29a: “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also….”.

These are some of Jesus’ hardest instructions–love your enemies and do good to those who hate and hurt you.  This is completely counterintuitive and unnatural.  It goes against our natural instincts to defend ourselves and to retaliate.

In our current society, people who disagree with you about issues in life, especially political ones, are often regarded as “enemies”.  This is unhealthy for our nation in general, and it is especially so for our spiritual lives.  As followers of Christ, we cannot view others as enemies!  We must learn to love them and to pray for them.  While dying on the cross Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)  His Spirit lives in you, and you must crucify your flesh and allow the Spirit to control your thoughts and actions.

Martin Luther King Jr. said this: “Love is the only force capable of turning an enemy into a friend.”  Representative John Lewis, who recently went home to be with the Lord, related how those involved in the struggle for civil rights chose to see their struggle as one against an unjust system, not against people.  “We wanted to win them over.  We saw them as our brothers.”  Wow, and amen!

This was spoken about people who were cursing them, beating them and jailing them.  Most of us do not have hurdles nearly that high in loving our enemies.  Let us take this to heart and seek the Lord.

Do not make the serious error of thinking of others “who need to hear this message”.  You and I need to hear it.  Are you offended with someone?  Posting things online that dishonor Jesus?  Avoiding someone because you simply do not like them?  Entertaining mean thoughts towards another?

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them… But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be childrenof the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked”(Luke 6:32&35, NIV).  We are privileged to be called children of the Most High, and we must make every effort to live up to that high calling.

Here is a way to put into practice what Jesus taught during this election:  ask someone you think or know does not share your political views why they are voting for president the way they are.  You will probably find that they have solid thoughtful reasons for why they vote as they do.  As believers, we must realize that there are other believers who love Jesus and believe in the Bible just as much as we do who will vote for someone we don’t like.  Seeking to listen rather than to judge honors Jesus.  You may not become convinced of their position, but it will help you get over viewing them as an “enemy”.  We are required by our Lord to love each other!

I pray with a dozen or so other pastors every Wednesday via Zoom.  With all that has gone one with racial issues and politics we decided to stay on for an hour once a month to hear each other’s perspectives on these issues.  We are a diverse group with whites, Asian Americans and African Americans.  One of the African American pastors, simply being honest, asked, “Can one of you explain to me why white Evangelicals like President Trump?”  That is being bold and blunt, which is what we need.  Because we all love and respect each other, he could ask that kind of question and we discussed it at length.  It was both informative and edifying.  It strengthened our relationships.  You actually will find yourself feeling closer to someone when you are willing to discuss a controversial subject in love.  That is what we did, and I hope you can be blessed by doing the same.

Father, I know these words of Jesus are true, but they daunt me.  Yet today I choose to humble myself and repent of evil thoughts, nursing grudges, proud put downs and viewing anyone as an enemy.  I want to be like You!  Please create in me a clean heart that is kind to the ungrateful and loves those who do not love me.  I need Your help.  I want to be free.  Thank you that what is impossible for me is possible with You.  For Your mercy and transforming grace I am truly grateful.  Amen.

Other Great Resources

Red & Blue Guide by Essential Partners, which offers great tips in how to engage in conversations with those of differing political viewpoints.

Guide to Election Preparedness, put together by the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston & Boston Ten Point Coalition, Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, and the Massachusetts Council of Churches

AllSides.com, which “strengthens our democratic society with balanced news, diverse perspectives, and real conversation. We expose people to information and ideas from all sides of the political spectrum so they can better understand the world — and each other.”

Research and Tips for Church Leaders for Navigating Election Season – from Barna

https://www.masscouncilofchurches.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/FINAL-Guide-to-Election-2020-Preparedness-1.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1lPzEKy68TLgyoiBx4uBvjwntTyyt885BRpu80BrDpumCei2KvGcQBfco

We’re Lost. This Must Be the Way.

“We deliberately sought to understand the histories of these countries. We wanted to help heal the fears that divide us from these resilient people. We hoped our style of travel could demonstrate that a real God exists who can be relied on in even the harshest insecurities.”

This week, we want to feature a blog written by Roger and Claire Dewey, who recently published a book based on their four-month ‘walk’ through Central America and Cuba. Roger was called in 1968 to work against the racism in the Church, founding Christians for Urban Justice. Claire joined him in 1977, teaching in the public schools and raising their family in Dorchester, where they still live. They are members of Reservoir Church in Cambridge, and all profits from their book entitled “We’re Lost. This Must Be the Way” will go to those in Central America who shared their stories of hope and resilience. 

Today we’d like to share the spiritual thinking behind our four-month ‘walk’ through Central America and Cuba. It was not to be a vacation. Instead, we wanted to explore the fears that divide so many of us from these resilient people. And it was largely unplanned—most nights, to find where to stay, we listened for “nudges” from God, while trying to understand the stories being lived all around us. We wanted our style of travel to demonstrate that a God exists who we actually can rely on in even the harshest insecurities.

Since our Mexican honeymoon 40 years earlier, we’d been in Latin America many times. We’d driven a rental car all around Guatemala with our children, scouted sites in Honduras for possible retirement, and visited friends throughout the region who are missionaries. Those countries have long been places of joy and adventure, and a resource for spiritual growth.

But we’ve watched their people become objects of fear for many Americans. It is sad to see those we love mischaracterized, those who welcome us into their homes fearfully excluded and humiliated. We feel God’s deep sorrow over our political division from so many members of Christ’s Body.

Before we left Boston, our plumber Mario, a humble believer from El Salvador, became unusually loquacious. “When you go” he said, “listen to what they have. They have what we here do not have, what we are losing in the shadows. They want what we have, but here we are under pressure to keep moving. The communication between us is what is important, not the work we do. That communication is love. So you go to another country, and see what they have that we need, and bring it back to us. Because we really need what they have.”

Though we both grew up as evangelicals, we are disturbed by today’s divisive Christianity, bothered by our religion’s search for security and power through the control of culture. Can’t our daily fears and anxiety actually be overcome by the God who walks with us? 

We perceived our journey as a practical exploration of life as a non-programmed walk with God. When lost we listened hard, looking for some hint of guidance. We were not always sure this trust was appropriate, or what, if anything, we heard. This “listening” is not very specific; it’s like learning piano by ear instead of reading music. 

A tightly planned trip would never have allowed us to discover the huge diversity of those we met, and then see them through God’s eyes. Like Eduardo, who once had a small but successful carpentry business in Guatemala. One by one, four of his brothers were killed as a result of extortion gone bad. He saw the caravans as his ticket to life and hope for him and his family. We heard from several missionaries that the ‘border invasion’ is mostly children of families like those they know, desperate to avoid being killed or trapped in the gangs.

On a tightly planned trip, we would never have visited the garbage dump in Guatemala City where 3,000 human beings live and work, scavenging trash, surrounded by muck and garbage. Many are Maya Indians who fled there for safety when their government burned and demolished 600 villages. For many, Jesus is their only trusted companion.

A Honduran woman told us her younger brother foolishly stole a bike, then learned it belonged to the son of a drug lord. He received death threats. His family raised money to help him escape to the U.S. She was proud of her brother, but talking about him made her depressed. “When everything goes wrong,” she said, “we can’t afford to be lamenting our situation if we don’t go ahead with the help of God. He is the only one who holds out an extended hand.”

We frequently felt lost. We lived a bit like strangers and immigrants, forced to play a game without knowing the rules. Change was constant. Yet our total insecurity, it turned out, was one of the best experiences of all. We gained empathy from generous families with virtually nothing. And we repeatedly sought Jesus’ counsel for loving those whose needs we could not meet, and loving the politicians who were part of their problems. Again and again, we experienced the security of God’s presence.

Near the end of our journey, we struggled to understand the complexity of Cuba. Easter Sunday, in Havana’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, we met 85-year-old Raul. In 1961, at the time of the U.S. sponsored invasion by Cuban exiles, he had been a Southern Baptist seminarian. He became a medic, and was wounded while defending his country. As a pastor in the ‘80s he led the Cuban Ecumenical Council, and in 1993 became the first Christian elected to the Cuban government. He wrote Martin Luther King Jr. for advice for living faithfully under a difficult government. He founded the MLK Center in Havana, and recounted his decades of struggle to live in the space between the goals of socialism and Jesus’ life of siding with the poor. We recorded our experiences each day, and compiled this record of our journey with a loving God, perhaps suggesting a way forward for Christians in our current troubled world. All profits will go to the whole-hearted people who opened to us their homes, their lives, and their wisdom. We think you will be encouraged by their simple stories of hope and resilience – you can click here to purchase the book.

Where do we go? [Original Video]

“I remember feeling grateful for all my blessings, but sickened by the inequities around us and empowered to make an effort to do something more….It is my sincere prayer that this song will both entertain and inspire everyone who hears it, to do more, for those who are less fortunate.”

This week, we want to feature a song co-written by Issa Bibbins, who is a pianist, rapper and content curator and former minister of music at Roxbury Presbyterian Church. “Where Do We Go” is the sixth release on the Treatment Project. This song addresses homelessness and how a lack of empathy, greed, and indifference perpetuate this growing problem. As COVID-19 has furthered economic inequities in Boston, this is a timely and crucial message for contemplation and action – Watch his video below!


Issa describes: “This song started from a conversation with producer, singer, and long time collaborator Sam Jones about two months ago. I had just released the fifth song on The Treatment Project, titled  ‘Superhuman DNA,’ and I reached out to Sam about producing the next song on the project. I remember spending a few minutes talking about music, and the conversation shifting from music business, to friends checking in about life. We spoke about the changing responsibilities we both have, as ministers of music at Roxbury Presbyterian Church and New Hope Baptist Church. We discussed COVID-19 and how it has impacted live performance opportunities for musicians in the city. As we all have faced uncertainty during these complex times, it is interesting how vulnerability can give way to both fear and anxiety but also serve as a unique tool to inspire empathy for those who are less fortunate.

A few days later, Sam sent me a rough draft of the composition. It was as if divine inspiration was deposited into my consciousness as soon as I heard the first measure. The song literally wrote itself! My heart erupted with so much emotion, I finishing writing the first verse in less than twenty minutes. I remember feeling grateful for all my blessings, but sickened by the inequities around us and empowered to make an effort to do something more. Sam called artist “ItsyourboyKR”, and I called good friend and artist Abria Smith, and they masterfully brought completion to this piece of art. I had the privilege to volunteer with my daughter at the Friday Cafe at First Church in Cambridge to take an extra step in fulfilling this call to do more, which came as a result of this collaborative experience. It is my sincere prayer that this song will both entertain and inspire everyone who hears it, to do more, for those who are less fortunate.

To watch other videos from the Treatment Project, check out Issa Bibbins’ Youtube channel here. Also, you can learn more about Issa Bibbins music ministry at pearlfortheworld.com

Links to Re-Watch the Love Boston Concert

The incredible music that was produced at the Love Boston concert can be re-watched while you’re at work, cooking, or doing chores around the house!

On September 12, 2020 UniteBoston released our concert premiere entitled “Love Boston.” Amidst the challenges of today’s public health crisis and racial injustices, seven local Christian artists representing hip-hop, worship, soul, spoken word, and gospel genres united to share original artistic responses to the challenges we are facing as a city and nation. They challenged people to “love thy neighbor,” and inspired us in the action steps we can take forward together in this unprecedented cultural moment.

Featured artists include: Caleb McCoy, Shanell Alyssa, Ada Betsabè, Jen Aldana, Jeany Alcántara, Fugi, and Jalen Williams. Click here to meet the artists! Now more than ever, our souls need beauty and art that moves us toward faith, justice, and resilience, loving our neighbor, and toward Jesus in worship! Click on the artist names above to follow them & listen to more music by them!

We also had a variety of viewing parties take place throughout the city – Here was the Dorchester backyard viewing party! You can’t see it, but we are smiling behind these masks!

While we missed having the opportunity to worship together physically in the Boston Common, the beauty of this year’s worship event is that all of the videos can be re-watched and shared. You can watch it while cooking, working from home, doing the dishes or folding the laundry, walking in the park, commuting on the subway, the list goes on and on!

Click here to watch the concert on Facebook – includes chat comments

Full concert

Music only version of the concert

Lori Dupre created a progressive painting where the artists place their handprints over words like global pandemic, economic stress, and fear, replaced by words of healing and hope and a cityscape of Boston. This painting will be auctioned off at our concert premiere

Finally, we wanted to take time to thank our concert sponsors – the Emmanuel Gospel Center, Resurrection Church, Restoration City Church, Grace Chapel, Standing Ovation Entertainment, and the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston, as well as everyone who contributed to our production costs! Also, thank you to everyone who donated to support the artists – The contributions for the artists totaled $1575, which will help to fuel and further their music ministries in this crucial moment! Thank you so much for joining into this united worship movement where people of every nation, people and language are coming together to worship Jesus! (Rev. 7:9!)

“Behold, I am Doing a New Thing”

This week, we feature a blog by Ruth Wong, the Program Director of the Boston Education Collaborative at Emmanuel Gospel Center. The Boston Education Collaborative (BEC) works with churches and Christian leaders to empower Boston’s next generation to succeed in school and in life. The BEC is also a featured ministry in UniteBoston’s upcoming Love Boston concert. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Ruth shares stories about how God has been at work through church-school partnerships in nurturing new collaborations between churches and city institutions.

“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.”
~Isaiah 43:18-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept through our world and threw all the countries and their systems into chaos, a sense of awe and the fear of the Lord grew in me. God humbled mankind and put us in our place, reminding us of how limited and powerless we really are. In essence, I believe God called us to attention. There has been much suffering, loss, and death as a result of this pandemic. It has been a sobering season to say the least. Yet, many Christians would also attest that we have seen God work in amazing ways that demonstrate His greater purposes in allowing this crisis to happen. Through the Boston Education Collaborative (BEC) at Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC), I have witnessed God bring His body together across racial, ethnic, and geographical lines in new ways that I could not have imagined or foreseen.

The mission of the BEC is to help churches support urban students (and their families) so they can thrive and reach their fullest God-given potential. Traditionally, many urban churches had already been involved in supporting schools or running their own programs to meet the physical, social, emotional, and academic needs of students. Since 2011, the BEC has helped to mobilize and support new church-school partnerships primarily with the Boston Public Schools (BPS) but has also worked beyond Boston. Churches have partnered with schools to provide supplies for classrooms, appreciate school staff, support the needs of families, and tutor/mentor students. God has divinely orchestrated so many connections and new partnerships that I am no longer surprised. Yet each time they happen, I continue to marvel at how His ways are infinitely higher than my ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). I am humbled by God’s favor upon the BEC in allowing us to build trust and so many relationships with local leaders in the area.

In early April, a series of personal connections led to an unexpected new ministry role for the BEC. I got connected to a director at the Salvation Army who was involved in statewide efforts to provide emergency and disaster relief. That introduction led to the BEC getting involved in helping to mobilize churches to meet diaper and other needs in Chelsea which was hit hard by the pandemic. Concurrently, I found out about various needs, including diapers, amongst the Spanish-speaking BPS families. This led me to pull in other EGC colleagues to meet with Agencia ALPHA, the social service agency of Congregación León de Judá, to explore ways to partner. ALPHA connected me with Pastor Johana Perez from Harvest Ministries of New England in Weymouth. One thing led to another, and soon, Pastor Johana and I found ourselves as partners in diaper ministry (aka diaper queens) for the Greater Boston region. 

What began as an effort to help Chelsea with diaper needs became a diaper and baby products ministry that has helped over 600 families that are connected to at least 18 churches and nine organizations in Boston and beyond. BPS families were able to benefit from these resources as well as many families that were being reached by local churches, most of them in the COPAHNI (the Fellowship of Hispanic Pastors of New England) and ALPHA networks. The families live in Boston, Chelsea, Lynn, Lowell, Waltham, New Bedford, Fall River, Brockton, Cranston (RI), and even on Martha’s Vineyard. We were tasked by the Massachusetts Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) to manage a large donation of diapers from Baby2Baby, a charity organization. In addition, many individuals and several churches generously supported the ministry with financial and diaper donations, totaling close to $10,000. 

Through BPS, the BEC was also introduced to two parent coordinators who had brought to BPS’ attention the many needs of the families that they were connected to. It turned out that these two moms were active members and leaders in their churches. At the time, Iglesia Biblica Faro de Luz in East Boston and New Ministry Church in Roxbury were not connected with ALPHA or COPAHNI. Through the BEC, those two churches were able to get connected to the resources of these two networks. Harvest Ministries, ALPHA, and COPAHNI had been coordinating an amazing operation to deliver food bags and fresh produce to families every weekend from April through early August. Out of the 1000+ families that had received food at least once, 160+ of them were connected to these two churches. The churches also referred families to apply for the cash assistance program that ALPHA was running to help families most impacted by the pandemic. In addition, the BEC connected another 64 BPS families to receive food deliveries. 

It was amazing to see all the different churches who collaborated together for these efforts. While Harvest Ministries alone had 30 drivers to help distribute food to churches and hundreds of families, drivers from ALPHA and six other urban and suburban churches also pitched in to deliver to many homes. Besides the diapers that went to families connected to more than 10 Latino churches, there were diapers that went to families connected to several other churches representing different denominations and ethnicities.

This is just one story from the pandemic period. I know of other beautiful examples of churches partnering together for the first time and building relationships that will extend beyond this COVID-19 season. Furthermore, there were many other churches and leaders that collaborated with or supported the BEC during this time on other projects. The number of churches, organizations, and individuals who partnered in all the various projects is astounding. (I wish there was room to name them all here.) God’s fingerprints were all over the web of relationships, the timing of conversations that happened, and the catalytic events that led one thing to another. “You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.” (Psalms 40:5)

During UniteBoston’s webinar on how churches are missionally responding to COVID-19, Rev. David Wright, Executive Director of the Black Ministerial Alliance & Assistant to the Pastor at Peoples Baptist Church said something that really resonated with me: “I see Christians trying to get ‘through this’ so we can go back to our understanding of ‘normal.’ But God is intentionally leading us to a different place of doing and being the Church. We do ministry in our congregations, but how do we incarnationally engage the world for the kingdom of God? How do we see ourselves within an ecosystem of other churches so we can really be salt and light to the world? I see the body of Christ coming together in phenomenal ways; I’m just hoping that it continues and isn’t just an episodic thing because we had this crisis.” To this, I say, “Amen! Yes, Lord! May Your kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Currently, the BEC is busy working on initiatives to support BPS and other school districts in the upcoming school year, including mobilizing churches to assist teachers during Zoom classes, providing cloth masks for BPS students, sharing space with afterschool programs, hosting learning pods, and supporting parents/guardians in navigating the online platforms. Please join in on what God is doing through and in the churches as we seek to be His salt and light in our communities! To learn more about these initiatives, go to www.churchschoolpartners.org and contact me at rwong[at]egc.org.


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