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Solidarity – The Practice of Self Dispossession

Self dispossession is the price solidarity exacts
~ M Shawn Copeland

I love asking questions. Most of my life, I have been asking questions, only difference is how and where I ask them as time has passed. I remember when I got employed after college, the secretary at our department was fed up with my questions and one day she raised her voice exasperated and said:
“Joyce! You are like a walking questionnaire!”

One of the questions that has been swirling in my mind for years is the question of solidarity amongst those who claim affinity to the Christian faith. I have suffered a lot in the 37 years I have been on the face of the earth and it is around this suffering that this question arose. I always wondered, sometimes out loud, why are the people of faith unable to fully empathize with those who suffer – physical, emotional, social, mental, spiritual suffering? I always wondered why it is that people of faith seemed lost when in the presence of another suffering human being. For years I asked God this question as well as fellow human beings who proclaim the Christian faith.

I remember when I lost my second child. The most awkward visitors I got were from the church. They looked lost, uncomfortable, out of place. In the end, while nursing my own physical and emotional wounds I cracked jokes to ease the palpable tension. This made them very happy. They ended up extolling my resilience and courage and ability to endure suffering and still laugh. In laughter they easily were enjoined with me, but as soon as my pain showed they coiled into themselves. I found it so odd.

April 1, 2021 0 comment

Friend

The Dark God

written by Wanjiku J. Mwangi

He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,
thick clouds dark with water.

(Psalm 18:11)

I continue to reflect and ponder on:

The God who clothes Himself in darkness,

The God who exists in darkness,
The God who reveals Himself in darkness.

For so long I only knew Him as,

A God who is light,

A God who only exists in light.

Now I know Him as,

The One who clothes Himself in darkness,

The One who stays with me in darkness,

The One who walks with me through darkness,

The One who is darkness.

#TheDarkGod

March 11, 2021 0 comment

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The Table: Here is the Cross, Here is the Blood, but where is the Body?

written by Wanjiku J. Mwangi

I was born and raised Pentecostal. For all my life in the Pentecostal Church the Lord’s Table/Holy Communion was always presented in a very dangerously mystical way. Kind of like if you approached it wrong even an inch you were doomed. Problem is, all this dangerous mystical thing was neither well explained nor questioned as it were. We just flowed with it. It felt more like a condemnation ritual rather than the life giving ritual I was convinced it should be. So every time the Holy Communion was scheduled, mostly once a month, there was always this fore bonding feeling that engulfed the congregation. I remember so many adults, who were the ones eligible to participate, walked out of the church building when the communion ritual started. It always started in a very threatening manner. Scriptures were read, mostly condemning scriptures like 1 Corinthians 11:13-34. Most emphasized part of this, usually used a the intro to communion time was vs. 27-32

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

March 11, 2021 0 comment

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God, if you were me, would you trust you?

written by Wanjiku J. Mwangi

A Lament

God, you know me and you have been at this conversation for a while now. Just going back and forth, back and forth.

In regards to justice and mercy, sometimes it is really hard to know where you really stand. I know, I know what is written in the Holy Book, but to me honest, more often than not it seems you are either fence sitting or sitting pretty with the oppressors, the enslavers, the abusers, the capitalists, the unjust and the wicked.

Really, because from where I sit, my mind being limited and all, it is hard to picture you being with the oppressed. What with all the turmoil, the pain, the suffering they go through – for years, decades, centuries!- even unto death. And it would seem that you just sit and do nothing God.

That’s why I am asking you if you were me, would you trust you?

To be honest, even going by just the Written Scriptures, God you really have a bad record with the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, the needy – that entire group that Papa Howard Thurman called ‘those whose backs are against the wall’. Just look at Abel, go to Job, look at the 430 years of enslavement of the children of Israel, the death of the Hebrew boys, come to Lazarus dying, all the women and children that suffer disease, hunger and death. Your track record is right there and it is wanting. Come out of the written Word into history and it even gets worse. All the genocides, holocaust, enslavement of black people, displacement and murder of indigenous people, colonisation, capitalism!

You know sometimes I really wonder if you take convenient breaks while humanity destroys each other and the environment which supports us! Where are you when the poor are oppressed, crushed and killed.

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

(Psalm 10:1)

Where are you God?
Where are you when we need you the most?

Why are you silent?
What are you silent when we could definitely use your voice?

Why do you not act?
Why do you not act when we could use your decisive actions?

I know oooh so well that me and You we are so different. You are God and I am Wanjiku. You are the creator and I am Your creation. Your thoughts, view of time, way of doing things is definitely quite different from mine. But I also know that you became man. Christ the Nazarene, you feel me I know. You know how limited in thought, time and space humans are. Having been here and gone through hell and back, quite literally, why don’t you act quickly? Why don’t you respond resoundingly?

The more I get to know you, I am really aware that you cannot be boxed as it were. You are not an either or. You are the entire spectrum of light and color splashed across the starry sky. You are earth. You are wind. You are water. You are fire. You are the elements in their fullness, in their vastness, in their breath, width and depth. Would you just please arise and show Yourself in all your fullness!

So there you have it God. I am here on the side of the oppressed, with my back against the wall. And I am asking you to choose a side, how audacious of me! Not just choose a side with words but in actions, you know. As you may have rightly guessed, of course, I want you to chose my side. And I also want you to act swiftly and quickly and bring reprieve to all of us whose backs are against the wall. But most important, would you bring us into what you are doing, what you are upto? Open our eyes, raise our senses to see what you see, perceive as you do? Like enjoin us into Yourself, Holy Trinity. Again I ask, Ooh circle of life holder of the past present and future, would you be quick to it.

Sincerely,
Wanjiku

March 11, 2021 0 comment

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My First – 3rd March 2010

written by Wanjiku J. Mwangi

The events of this particular morning, 11 years ago today, are still painful to conjure. I remember the entire morning and early afternoon in my head as if it happened a couple of hours ago. I had begun the practice of recording all my daily expenses to track my spending. So the night before, I wrote down the expenses in my book and put the book on my bedside table then settled into bed with my then husband to watch a movie. For the life of me, I cannot remember what movie we watched. I was around 10-12 weeks pregnant at the time, my first pregnancy and everything was going on well.

Next morning, 3rd March 2011, I wake up and my side of the bed is soaked with blood. I am shook! I do not know what to do or what is happening. I get out of the bed and we are now in panic mode. Blood is not a good thing when you are pregnant. Having a bed that is soaking in blood is baaaaad. So we call my doctor and she says that sounds like a miscarriage. I am trying to process everything all at once. I am scared and at the same time the pain has kicked in. Doctor guides us to get some medicine and my then husband goes to get the medicine. At this point the pain is debilitating, I am literally writhing on the floor. I am screaming in silence, holding my stomach, groaning and bleeding. Doctor says, the miscarriage is on and I just need to let it through.

March 3, 2021 0 comment

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#SubversiveSeminary

written by Wanjiku J. Mwangi

Howard Thurman (18^th Nov 1899 – 10^th Apr 1981) is the precious man who led me to #SubversiveSeminary. At the moment that he did so, I had only read his name a couple of hours earlier and known the title of one of his books ‘Jesus and the Disinherited’. The mind is an interesting organ. Curiosity can really drive one’s mind to great lengths, sometimes for good, sometimes to injury. The reason I went about scouring the internet to learn more about Howard Thurman was because I had received a double caveat on him and his book ‘Jesus and the Disinherited’ in a space that I am in. The fact that this caveat was in both a male and female voice really intrigued me. What was it about this man and this book that would necessitate such measures? I had to find out.

February 7, 2021 1 comment

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Travelling Light @37

written by Wanjiku J. Mwangi

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2

I am a teacher. One of my favorite people to teach is the little children, beginning with mine, whom I joyfully teach God’s Word or maybe I should better say Catechism because we cover the broad length that is the doctrines of our faith. In these setting we have narrowed down our definition of SIN as follows:

Teacher/Leader: What is SIN?
All in unison:
SIN is anything you think (touching the head and shaking it small small);
anything you hear (wiggling our ears),
anything you see (touching our eyes),
anything you smell (pinching our noses small small),
anything you eat (moving our fingers towards our open mouths),
anything you say (flapping our fingers next to the mouth),
anything you touch (wiggling our hands),
anywhere you go (marching/stomping with our feet)
that does not please God!

February 2, 2021 0 comment

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Ruth – And the greatest of these is Love

written by Wanjiku J. Mwangi

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

I love me a good love story and the Book of Ruth and her love story with Boaz is one of the romantic accounts of the Bible. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves because the story of Ruth begins in tears, in widowhood. I know a few widows and I know how society looks down upon, mistreats and generally maligns widows. Do not even get me started on young widows, the rumor mills are set on maximum speed as soon as the death of their spouse is made public. I can only image the pain and agony of being a widow in Ruth’s days and in our days.

Ruth is a widow of a foreigner. She is a Moabites (I loove the way mine pronounce this word). Her dead husband is an Israelite living in a Moab after their entire family left Bethlehem because of famine. Ruth is not the only widow, her mother in law Naomi is also a widow and her sister in law Orpah is also a widow; three widows in Moab. One day Naomi wakes up and decides to go back home, to Bethlehem. Only problem is, she has two widowed daughters in law. She decides to cut them off, politely so, by informing them that even if she were to give birth at that moment it would not be viable for them to wait. Orpah heads back home after wailing but Ruth clings onto Naomi and utters the famous words in Ruth 1:16-17

“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

Good move Ruth. Good move. The two widows arrive in Bethlehem and the gossip mills are on overdrive. As Providence would have it, it is the beginning of the barley harvest time. So Ruth learns how things are done by Naomi and she gets to work to provide for both of them. Do you remember Leviticus 23:22; 19:9

“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”

Well, Boaz was one of those diligently walking in obedience to God’s command. And once again, as Providence would have it, Ruth finds herself gleaning in the land of Boaz. Boaz comes around his farm and voila! A new madam is in his farm gleaning, ofcourse meaning she either poor or a sojourner. He quickly enquires about her identity and when she is informed about her, it would seem Boaz immediately takes a liking to Ruth. Ruth is welcome at Boazland for the rest of harvest season. She goes home and tells Naomi all about it and brings some bounty from Honcho Boaz.

In comes the concept of a Kinsman Redeemer; a concept well executed by Naomi, Ruth and Boaz. In essence a widow is redeemed so that the name of the deceased does not get lost. Naomi knows this all too well and she gives Ruth a crash course on what to do. Boaz does what he needs to do and Ruth get a husband and bears a son Obed.

The part Naomi plays of it is beautifully summarized by Sylvia Gunter:

“Sit still, My daughter, the apple of My eye, waiting as long as it takes, until you learn (know, perceive, understand, discern, and distinguish as truth) how the matter, thing, question, or cause will turn out, because surely the Man Christ Jesus, your Kinsman-Redeemer, will not by any means be idle, or silent, or have any peace until He finishes His purposes, working until the job is done, in His eternal now.”

Love is a beautiful thing. Ruth’s love and devotion towards Naomi. God’s love and devotion towards His children. Boaz’s love towards Ruth. Hesed is the Hebrew word that summarizes this type of love. It is rich. It includes kindness, Providence, care, protection, wisdom, procreation, preservation. It is an all encompassing love. And Ruth the Moabites gets to experience this love in all its fullness. She shares it with Naomi. She receives it from Naomi. She shares it with Boaz son of Rahab the prostitute and together they, two women considered as outsiders Providentially find themselves planted in the genealogy of Jesus the Son of God, Jesus the man from Nazareth. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called children of God – all of us, including those considered as ‘outsiders’

So now faith, hope, and LOVE abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13

January 22, 2021 0 comment

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Jochebed – Hope that does not disappoint

written by Wanjiku J. Mwangi

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5

Jochebed, a name that does not instantly ring a bell in many peoples minds. Let’s add Moses into the mix and maybe, just maybe a few might get the connection. But for most, you need to speak it plainly; Jochebed was the mother of Moses. She also had two other well know children, Aaron and Miriam.

When I think about Jochebed my heart is heavy. This mother carries life in her womb for 9 months or there about and she delivery a healthy bouncing baby boy. Unfortunately right about the same time, there is a murder decree against Hebrew boys. If you do not know the setting of the story, the Hebrews are slaves in Egypt. Having gone there on there at the invitation of Joseph to flee from famine and save their lives. Unfortunately regimes changed and we are told that a new king who neither knew Joseph or the increasing populance of Hebrews in Goshen came about. The result is that Hebrews became slaves in Egypt for a long long long time.

Back to Jochebed, the Egyptian king aka Pharaoh is not happy with the increase in number of the Hebrew peeps. He tried everything to cap their numerical growth from slavery, harsh slave conditions, instructing the Hebrew midwives to kill Hebrew boys at birth and nothing worked. By the way the term ‘Hebrew birth’ comes from this account. Because the Hebrew midwives fearing God told the Pharaoh that Hebrew women are no joke, before the midwife arrives they have delivered! So the Pharaoh results to murder, kill every Hebrew boy by drowning them; throw them into the River Nile!

Jochebed gives birth to Moses at the time of this decree. She hides him for three months, but can hide him no longer. So, she makes a basket, lines it warmyl, puts her precious son inside, covers the basket and puts in on the Nile. Same Nile Hebrew boys are being drowned in. Miriam enters the scene here. She follows the basket along the Nile. And as Providence would have it, a princes from the very palace a murder decree has gone out, decides to go for a bath in the Nile at the same time!

Princess rescues the baby floating inside a basket in the Nile and names him Moses, drawn out of the water. Baby gal Miriam is still watching her small brother and as soon as the Princes is out of the water she steps up and she has an idea. Would the princess be in need of a wet nurse? I always picture this scene and it makes me smile – a hope that does not disappoint. I am sure Miriam was wet and dripping, basket that delivered Moses to the Princes might have still been close by, maids attending to the Princess were around her and the princess is carrying her Hebrew son rescued from the Nile. Miriam’s suggestion sails through and Moses is raised by Jochebed! He is now a son in the house of Pharaoh, no harm can befall him, atleast for now.

I do not know what Jochebed had in mind when she let the basket onto the Nile. I can only imagine the prayers she made, the tears she cried, the wail she let out. All I know is that her hope for better, for life for her son was fulfilled; and she got to raise him for pay from the very palace that his execution order had emanated! This is me breaking out into a Holy Ghost inspired dance. Hallelujah!

So now faith, HOPE, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13

January 22, 2021 0 comment

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Rahab – Now Faith . . .

written by Wanjiku J. Mwangi

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. (Hebrews 11:1-2)

Rahab is introduced to us as a prostitute. Some Bible versions render that as Rahab the harlot. Not sure why harlot sounds more damning in my mind that prostitute. Anyhu, madam is one day minding her own business (insert Tabitha Brown’s voice) when two Israelite men entered her house. I have wondered how this exactly take place.

Were the men running from someone and entered into the nearest open house?
Did the men enter her house because it was the house of a prostitute?
If they entered the house because it belonged to a prostitute, was there signage?
How did that signage look like?
Was the open for business sign on?

Whatever made then enter into Rahab’s house, I might never know; but enter they did. The King of Jericho is made aware that some two Israelite spies have come into his city. We are told that immediately the soldiers make a beeline to Rahab’s house. Again, maswali chungu nzima ninayo.

Why Rahab’s house?
Did they search other places ama the snitch told the King where the spies were hiding?

Rahab we are told hides the spies and lies to the soldiers that they already left. She then lets the two spies out of Jericho through her widow which was at the wall, how convenient, and tells them to hide for three days before crossing the Jordan back to their base camp. But before she lets them go, Rahab goes ahead and informs them that she knows exactly who they are, why they are there and who their God is. She then asks for a favour in return, that when they come to attack Jericho, because she knew they could come, that they spare her.

An agreement is made that features a scarlet cord, the same one she uses to let the men down the wall. The word scarlet reminds me of my late Maternal Grandmother Sarah Wanjiku. She always featured that term in her prayers:

Ona angĩkorwo mehĩa maĩtũ nĩ matũne ta mĩrĩ ya gakarakũ, woĩgĩre nĩũgatũtherĩa tũhane ta gũoya wa ngondũ
(Even if our sins are as red as scarlet (as red as the beetroot), you promised to wash us and make us as white as the wool from sheep)

Rahab the prostitute is the other woman apart from Sarah who is included in the Hebrews Hall of Faith. I am so glad that she is listed there and mentioned by name. She might have practiced a looked down upon trade, still looked down upon, but God looked upon her with mercy. She knew who He was. She made a deliberate and conscious decision to put her trust in Him. She decided to side with God and the people God called His. It was a good bet, it paid up 100% and over. Because this harlot Rahab not only gets saved when Israel attacks Jericho, she ends up right into the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth!

So now FAITH, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13

January 22, 2021 0 comment

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