Ears to Hear

I'm learning so much from my younger peers these days, the activists, dreamers and disciples struggling for the beloved community and meaningful liberation for all.  They're passionate, for example, about 'intersectional' organizing: making connections between needs and concerns, issues and actions.  They insist climate change activists and LGBT advocates can (and must) make common cause.  And they urge peacemakers in Palestine to learn from Black Lives Matter visionaries here in the U.S.  These wise friends--many in their 20s and 30s--have so much to teach me!

On Sunday, three of them come to church, here in Santa Cruz, to stir up some conversation around the teaching and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Amanda Weatherspoon is a Unitarian Universalist from Berkeley.  Ahed Tamimi is a Palestinian teen with a painful story and a passionate commitment to justice and freedom for her people.  They are not coming to entertain us, or even to make us feel good about our benevolence and intelligent faith.  They come Sunday to bear witness.  The come with urgent and good news.  The gospel comes from these voices, from the these stories: from Amanda and Ahed and Nadya, shining bright light in the chaos of 2017 and calling us to living, loving and joyous resistance.  Will we have ears to hear?