Embodying Reparations

On Sunday, August 27, 2023 I had the honor of guest preaching at Madison Mennonite Church, a church “rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite faith heritage, following Christ in today’s world by refusing violence and seeking to promote justice and peace for all.”

You can listen to the audio recording of the sermon here.

Madison Mennonite had just wrapped up a series using Mennonite Church USA’s Diversity: God’s Design curriculum, so it seemed like a great moment to talk about reparations.

In the sermon, I shared stories about recent work in Asheville, NC, the indigenous land of the Cherokee people, and the local reparations process for Black residents. Both the City of Asheville and Buncombe County have passed ordinances to stop continued harm, acknowledge and apologize for past harms, and seek repair through an ongoing reparations process that includes an annual budget line item.

As a white person canvassing in majority-white spaces for the Racial Justice Coalition’s Reparations Are Due Campaign, I’ve become especially attuned to body language and the ways white-bodies people responded to the word reparations, often by tensing up or restricting their bodies. Working with the body has become a significant part of my anti-racist organizing, particularly as a white-bodied person of European Mennonite descent doing a lot of work with other white-bodied people.

In my sermon, I looked at another story about bodies: the story of the bleeding woman and Jesus, which appears in three gospels. I read it as a story of self-determination on the part of the suffering woman who, despite being mis/undiagnosed by institutional healers for years, still had an internal knowing that she would find healing if she could position her body close to Jesus’s. In this story, Jesus also offers an example of embodiment. Though the woman’s touch was slight and despite the pressing crowds, Jesus felt the energy go out from their body the moment she touched their clothes.

Are we attuned to our bodies? What do our bodies need in order to open towards healing and repair? How might defensiveness show up in our bodies? A clenched jaw? A closed chest? Crossed arms? What could we offer to ourselves—to our bodies—so that we might be able to more fully receive the self-determination of others?…So that we might be more able to offer repair?

Focus Scriptures: Luke 8:43-48 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-26.

Listen to the audio recording of the sermon here.

You can also sign the Pledge to support the Reparations Are Due Campaign here.