A Review: Woke Church
I have yearned to find a text like Woke Church for a long time.
During my senior year of undergrad, I wrote my these on whether Black people should work inside or outside our nation’s institutions for political and economic uplift. My research took me many places and I learned a great deal. But stuck with me more than anything else was the role of the Black Church during the Black freedom struggle — specifically how the Black Church both worked inside and outside our institutions to achieve civil rights gains. In my research, I was introduced to detailed descriptions of the civil rights contributions of the Black Church; inside and outside the confines of America’s institutions from the likes of Taylor Branch, C. Eric Lincoln and others.
However, the contemporary Black Church does not look like the Black Church of old. The Black Church has not functioned as it once did — as the bastion of Black liberation and empowerment through the Gospel of Jesus Christ; the spiritual mirror to a nation built on White supremacy. This truth has delivered some real consequences. Declarations were made by some saying that the Black Church is dead. While one can scoff at that viewpoint, one cannot scoff at the reality that younger Black people are leaving the Black church. A big reason is that some believe that the Black Church is silent on issues of racial injustice. What’s more, younger Black people are leaving the faith entirely. In some cases, they are leaving for indigenous African religions… not realizing that Christianity is an indigenous African religion, but I digress.
Black millennials walking away from the faith also has to do with the evangelical community and the American tradition of Christianity that has seen Whites manipulate the scriptures to sanitize slavery, justify Jim Crow and defend Donald Trump. Black people of all ages are leaving those churches too. Unfortunately, the truth that the Bible was manipulated to keep slaves in place is mishandled to be convinced that Christianity is the White man’s religion. The pseudo-research of street theologians combined with the failings of Christian theologians to speak of the African contributions to the shaping of Christianity can cause Black people to question their faith. Likewise, our White brothers and sisters in the faith are “given” a whitewashed version of the faith that fails to align with the radical mission of the Gospel; to save the sin-sick soul with a call to righteousness and address a sin-sick society with a call to justice.
Thanks be to God that the Body of Christ knows that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Yet, many of us (Black people within the Body of Christ) are frustrated when we hear our White brothers and sisters in Christ defend, deny or remain silent on matters of injustice, oppression, and racism. Dr. King said it best:
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Council or the Ku Klux Klan but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season… Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection… We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.”
This is the historical and contemporary backdrop where the Body of Christ is blessed with Woke Church by Dr. Eric Mason. I am sure that this review will not be the only review of this text. However, this is a review focused on my three key takeaways from the book. Dr. Eric Mason, Pastor of Epiphany Fellowship in Philadelphia speaks candidly, and from the heart, about the racial and religious history of the United States, the failings of the church with proclaiming the gospel mission in the context of injustice, oppression, and racism and he ends with offering the Body practical actions we can (must) take to exercise the mission of the Gospel. The overall tenor of this text is right on time; from the comment that the Black Church was the modern-era New Testament church to the truth that greater proselytizing of slaves happened after Nat Turner’s rebellion. However, there are three thoughts from the text that really spoke to me and my Christological worldview.
1. Dikaiosune: Justice and Righteousness Go Hand and Hand
I’ve read and written on this topic before and my studies have always led me to a conflict of sorts; that while the translations left wiggle room, there is a tension between the English transliteration to righteousness from the Greek Dikaiosune — meaning justice. In the New Testament, the word righteousness is used numerous times, however, many of those uses of the word is meant in the context of dikaiosune. But Pastor Mason hit me with one that made me feel like, “why didn’t I see this before?” He says on page 50:
“The same word (tsedeqa, Hebrew; dikaios, Greek) is used for justice and righteousness. Justice points to extrinsic execution of the heart of God, and righteousness means intrinsic impact by the heart of God.”
One of the issues that I have with some of my brothers and sisters in the faith, particularly White evangelicals, is the focus on the individual (righteousness) rather than an equal focus on systems and institutions (justice). Racism is often considered by Whites as an individual sin or a problem of the individual. But that is a symptom of a root problem — racism is systemic and embedded in our nation’s institutions. While we are to look to Jesus to change and guard our hearts (righteousness), we must also seek Jesus to help us deal with society (justice); that Jesus gets the glory and folks can be saved. Out of the heart flows the issues of life. Equally important as folks seeing our own heart change is how our heart change impacts the heartbeat of our nation and our world. When Jesus calls for dikaios, he calls for intrinsic and extrinsic execution of the Gospel.
2. There is No Peace Where There is No Justice
We’ve all heard the protest chant, “no justice, no peace.” I understood that to mean that where there is no justice there can be no peace. Some frame this to mean that people will cause havoc as an immature and uncivilized reaction to injustices that are to be handled with all deliberate speed. However, Pastor Mason drops another gem that essentially says that peace cannot abide where there is no justice — that injustice is the absence of peace… whoa. He says, “Shalom (peace) is the means for justice to be done.” He then quotes Lois Barrett:
“Without justice, there can be no real peace, and without peace, no real justice. Indeed, only in a social world full of a peace grounded in justice can there come the full expression of joy and celebration.”
When the people march in protest and chant/yell, “no justice, no peace,” they understand that there will always be a restlessness within them fueled by a yearning to see justice brought forth and only when justice brought forth can they rest. The same is true (or should be true) for the Body of Christ. There should always be a restlessness within us fueled by a yearning to see the Gospel take root throughout humanity. That not only means that folks get saved, but that as hearts change, so too do the institutions led by changed men and women; that there is no rest until God’s justice for the poor, the widow, oppressed and the fatherless. There is no peace where there is injustice and there can be no rest for the Christian who is called to be a peacemaker.
3. Relationship Building Is Not a Means to an End… It is the End
As an educator, relationship building is key. Without relationships with students, you cannot teach them. With relationships with parents, you cannot partner with them to teach their children. Without relationships, you cannot work with colleagues most effectively on behalf of children. So when I came across this thought on page 147, it hit home:
“…we don’t build relationships with one another in order to have a mission field. You build a relationship with a person because you want to know them, love them, and do life with them… and out of that can come healing.”
Preaching the Gospel, and living the Gospel, isn’t about experimentation, manipulation or lording over people for a particular agenda. It isn’t about achieving an end. Preaching and living the Gospel is about doing life with people from a place of unconditional love. As the gospel is shared, we begin to see ourselves and each other as God sees us and the unconditional love grows stronger. When one is hurt, we are hurt — for we are many parts, but one body. That hurt, in the form of injustice, is attacked and remedied on behalf of our harmed brother or sister. Because when one is in relationship, that relationship is the center of which all other things revolve. When we are in relationship with one another, God can flow and bring forth grace and mercy… and he can use us as his vessels for doing so.
There are so many gems in Woke Church; this review hasn’t done the text the justice it deserves. But this book is blessing me as I reflect on the hard conversations born from it and the gospel teachings laid out by Pastor Mason. This book should be on the shelves of every minister/preacher/teacher/student of the Gospel. Pastor Mason has made a powerful contribution to the theological lexicon that will stand the test of time. May we refer to this text if we lose our way… may we refer to this text as we chart our path… may we refer to this text when we call on the Holy Spirit for the vision… may we refer to this text to see as Christ sees.
Selah.
