An Old Emergence

This reflection was first given on Sunday, April 28, 2013, at the ordination service for Reverend Jessica Tidwell at Smoke Rise Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, GA. It was commissioned by Rev. Tidwell to represent her own call to participate in and walk in solidarity with intentional Christian communities of equality and grace. ***   “Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a western language. It speaks of the very essence of being human. When we want to give high praise to someone we say, ‘Yu, u nobuntu’; ‘Hey so-and-so has ubuntu.’ then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, ‘my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.’ we belong in a bundle of life. We say, “A person is a person through other persons.’” The word “community” has become the ultimate church buzzword for my generation. Where once the “Sunday school” answer was Jesus or God, community has emerged a

I want to begin by saying that I’m writing from a place of anger, a place of hurt, and a place of pain. It takes a lot for me to find myself in this place, and it takes even more for me to write about it in such a public forum. But what I have to say needs to be said, and it needs to be said publicly. As I have often said, the training and instruction I received in theology during my undergraduate career centered on the concept of generosity. This generosity was to be extended in many directions, most importantly toward those with whom you most disagreed. This generosity was an emphatic must in a group of twenty-somethings debating the finer points of theology, but it was an important lesson learned for living life in a world of constant disagreement. However, generosity can only extend so far.