Rev. Paul Palumbo
Dean of the North Central Cluster
I was honored to represent Bishop Manlove and our Synod at the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and State of the Church event on Thursday January 23, 2025 hosted by the Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement at Seattle University. Bishop Vashti McKenzie, president of the National Council of Churches was the guest speaker.
At the ‘State of the Church’ presentations, the rise of Christian Nationalism in America was front and center. Bishop McKenzie and others spoke with power and hope, clearly pointing to the sovereignty of God in all things. But the Word of God came from a different source!
In open conversation after one presentation, a young African American pastor stood up. He started with a reminder.
““First of all, let us be clear. This is not just Christian Nationalism; it is White Christian Nationalism. In that sense, it is nothing new in this country! From the devastation of Native Peoples to Slavery, from Jim Crow to the Southern Strategy, this is nothing new.” Then this, “We know what’s coming. I can already feel my body preparing itself to suffer.””
This was the divine word for the day. After the meeting, I went to him at his chair, knelt before him, (something like Simon to Jesus after the great haul of fish), and told him how sorry I was that it had come to this yet again for him. And I also wanted to hear more about preparation for suffering. His explanation was that it was a mystery hidden in his DNA. His ancestors, his great-grandparents, grandparents and parents all knew suffering and they knew it in their bodies, as does he.
So profoundly true for our young colleague, and totally not true for me. Preparing for suffering is not in my DNA. My DNA seems wired to avoid suffering, not prepare for it.
Fortunately, like any divine word, this one didn’t leave me alone. It led me to the Church, the Body of Christ, which (why had I not noticed before?) is always preparing itself to suffer. Holy Baptism, so gentrified in practice, is a drowning, a daily putting to death of the old self, that ‘wired to avoid suffering’ self. The Holy Eucharist is the re-presenting of our Lord’s suffering; body broken, blood shed. Isn’t it a rehearsal for the suffering of the Body of Christ gathered around the table? Standing with the vulnerable, tending to the dying, taking the risk of welcoming the stranger, in these and many other ways, the Body of Christ does prepare itself to suffer. Until now, perhaps I have not wanted or needed to notice. I suspect that time is over.