CITA, But What Was My Question?
How many times, when watching a football game or baseball game on TV, have you seen a spectator holding up a big sign with "John 3:16" written on it? He knows what this verse says, but most of the TV audience likely don't know - they just think he's some kind of religious nut-case.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
A similar saying that you might have seen on a car's front license plate holder or back window is "Christ Is The Answer" (CITA). "Yes, indeed," people might say, "But What Was My Question?" Do we take the time to really listen to people's pain, their questions, their "felt needs" - and try to help them solve their problems... or do we simply trot out a trite phrase like "Jesus Loves You" or "Christ Is The Answer" ...and walk away?
Yes indeed, Jesus Christ loves every one of us and He is the ultimate answer to all our sorrows and needs. But Jesus Himself didn't just say to people - "I love you and I'm the answer." Rather, He fed the people who were hungry, He healed those who were sick or disabled, and He drove out the demons that were messing with their minds and souls. In other words, He helped them with their pain, their "felt needs," He fed the five thousand before saying - "I am the Bread of Life: he who comes to Me will not be hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35).
It's easy to come up with some stock answer that we've seen on social media or TV when we hear about demonstrations and riots in the cities. But have we taken the time to find out about what the poor, mainly Afro-Americans and Latinos but also a fair number of White folks, have experienced? Do we see them as a case within a class or category, or do we get to know them as real persons who have a hurting history and shaky present? Let's take the time to really listen and learn!
Is there some way for White, middle-class Americans (and others) to understand what Black Americans have experienced due to remnants of slavery? Yes! We've found free versions of Booker T. Washington's autobiography Up From Slavery: download the PDF version or the EPUB version from our website. Booker T. Washington was born into slavery but taught himself to read and worked his way through a higher education, going on to establish the Tuskeegee Institute in Alabama. I'm over halfway through the book: it's inspiring reading!
Dennis Prager's website has a new 5-minute video: "Who Is Booker T. Washington?" It briefly tells about him and his philosophy of teaching former slaves a marketable trade as well as "book learnin'" so they could use these skills to contribute to society. The video also mentions W.E.B. DuBois, born in 1868 in a relatively tolerant and integrated community in Massachusetts, the first Afro-American to earn a doctorate. He gradually became more radical, joined the U.S. Communist Party, and eventually renounced his citizenship and moved to Ghana, where he died. So we see here two different approaches: working with the system to improve it, or working against the system to overthrow it.
Another famous Afro-American, Frederick Douglass, was an abolitionist, social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement. Here are free copies of his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave: download the PDF version or the EPUB version from our website. Take the time to learn and understand where our Black neighbors are coming from. [A free EPUB e-book reader app is Calibre for Windows, Macs, and Linux.]
King David wrote about the Lord's great glory - "He raises up the poor out of the dust, lifts up the needy from the ash heap; that He may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people" (Psalm 113:7-8). I've mentioned before that my first ancestor in the New World was a "white slave," and indentured servant who belonged to one of the Mayflower Pilgrims but was emancipated en route to America because the Pilgrims decided not to have slavery in their colony.
He was a poor, roughneck Brit: he and another former indentured servant fought the first duel in the New World (thankfully neither of them were killed) and he was put in stocks for brawling. His descendants, however, went on to become U.S. Presidents, Civil War generals, governors, and preachers. I write this not to boast: about 10% of Americans, although they may not know it, have an ancestor who came over on the Mayflower and likely about ten U.S. Presidents in their ancestry. We may have had humble beginnings, but God can raise up the poor out of the dust!
It's an anachronism, however, to read my current situation into the past history of my Black neighbors: over half of the people in our 12-unit condo building are Afro-American: I need to get to know them better in order to understand where they're coming from. Each and every person has a different, unique life story.
In Romans 10:4, the Apostle Paul wrote - "For Christ is the fulfillment of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Who doesn't want to have their dreams and goals fulfilled? But some have given up their hopes. Some have become bitter and rebellious because they think "the system" is stacked against them. Relying on the law isn't the answer. Law relies on the threat or use of force, so they answer force with force.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said - "Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill it" (Matthew 5:17). Jesus Christ is the fulfillment our fulfillment. We don't need to rely on force or violence. Jesus is the goal, so let's run the race to that goal for the prize: to be renewed, transformed into His image and likeness: "We all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
But before we shoot out a quick, glib saying like "Jesus Loves You" or "Christ Is The Answer," let's take the time to really listen and find out what their question is.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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