Thoughts On Learning and Listening this Black History Month

A God Who Takes Sides

In our day of promoting billionaires to elevated positions of power and offering adulation to the wealthy we need to remember a fundamental truth of the Scriptures. God is on the side of the poor. On the side of love. Has been, still is, and will always be. God is a God who takes sides and the side is always with the poor, marginalized, hurting, and cast offs. In spite of our fixation on the beautiful, powerful, and rich, the face of Jesus is most clearly seen in the humble, poor, and lowly as presented in the holy family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus (refugees and exiles to boot!)

A helpful voice that speaks into this truth is found in the lyrical writings of Desmond Tutu, past Anglican Bishop who spoke against the tragedy of apartheid policies in South Africa):

The church must be ready to speak the truth in love. It has a responsibility for all, the rich and the poor, the ruler and the ruled, the oppressed and the oppressor, but it needs to be pointed out that God ‘does’ take sides. Incredibly, he sides with those whom the world would marginalize, whom the world considers of little account.

. . . . .

The heart of the Christian Gospel is precisely that God, the all holy One, the all powerful One, is also the One full of mercy and compassion. He is not a neutral God inhabiting some inaccessible Mount Olympus. He is a God who cares about his children and cares enormously for the weak, the poor, the naked, the downtrodden, the despised. He takes their side not because they are good, since many of them are demonstrably not so. He takes their side because He is that kind of God, and they have no one else to champion them. (Desmond Tutu)

Desmond Tutu’s writings come to mind not only because of the movements of recent political shifts but also as a voice to turn to this February as a part of your Black History Month reading.

As a part of my own “reading” I went to the AGO with my daughters to see “The Culture” exhibit. The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century has brought together various artists on the occasion of Hip Hop’s fiftieth anniversary. When I went to Humber College for music I didn’t study Hip Hop but I remember walking into school one day with my composition professor Ron Collier and Duke Ellington. Hip Hop has been influenced by jazz artists like Ellington from the very beginning; as a young 22-year-old I was only just beginning my own education in music and Black history that continues to this day.

The exhibit places “fashion, consumer marketing, music, videos and objects in dialogue with paintings, sculpture, poetry, photography and multi-media installations, the exhibition considers activism and racial identity, notions of bling and swagger, as well as gender, sexuality and feminism” (AGO).

Desmond Tutu, Duke Ellington: voices to listen to and think with as we consider the truth that God is always on the side of love. On the side of learning and listening. Has been, still is, and will always be.