Asleep or Awake?
where are we as believers in Jesus?
We just celebrated Christ the King / Reign of Christ Sunday, and, as usually happens on this last Sunday of the Christian Church Calendar, I had to contend with my inner cringing at all the references to worldly royalty: thrones, reigns, kings, diadems and even the references in hymnody to the kingdom on which the sun never sets … a term often used to describe the British Empire at the height of colonial occupation.
As I said in my preaching on Sunday, I do not take to this language easily as a means of relating to God. Jesus for me is a Redeemer, a Way-maker, a shepherd, an exemplar. As a person who has experienced three very differently colonized (by British Empire) realities, it is hard for me to translate Empire and Monarchy terminology into a good fit for justice, salvation or redemption. Sometimes it does feel to me like using this kind of language regularly in our prayers, hymns and celebrations demonstrates a church asleep ….
…. rather than a church awake.
Today, I read a “Creed for Woke Christians” on Substack, posted by Dr Chanequa Walker-Barnes, No Trifling Matter.
Dr Chanequa has languaged this Creed in ways that reflect how I relate to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. She references it as a Creed for Woke Christians, reminding us that Christ encourages us to remain awake:
“So then, let’s not sleep like the others, but let’s stay awake and stay sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6, CEB).
I wonder what our faith life might look like, if we took this Creed and spent some time with it for a few weeks, praying through and meditating on the words, specifically asking God to show us why these words, so different from the commonly used Nicene and Apostles Creed might fit better for so many diverse people (BIPOC, gender-identity or sexual orientation diverse, neurodiverse, diversely abled) in our world.
I wonder how our faith might deepen or grow if we could spend some time daily with this Creed, asking God to help us build hearts of compassion and justice for those who are different. Here is Dr Chanequa’s Creed for Woke Christians.
The Woke Christian Creed
I believe in God the Almighty,
Creator and Redeemer of the world,
whose power is constrained only by Their mercy.
In crafting the original blueprint for creation,
God was not content to form one kind of any creature,
but countless varieties,
each with their own beauty and vulnerabilities.
Themselves genderless, faceless, and formless,
God created a rainbow of humanity,
diverse in gender, hue, language, bodily form, and ability,
yet uniform in our need for love, belonging, respect, and care.
God imbued us with free will and the capacity to be co-creators,
knowing it meant that we would have the ability to turn away from Them
and to cause great destruction to ourselves, one another, and the earth.
Throughout human history, God has issued the call, again and again,
for us to live as beings created in God’s own likeness and image,
for us to love justice, do mercy, and walk humbly with Them.
I believe in Jesus Christ, Love Incarnate,
the embodiment of the Divine on earth,
who, having watched us mistreat each other for so long,
decided to take up human form,
not as the politically powerful, economically elite, or religious ruler,
but as the most vulnerable of all –
a baby conceived by a Jewish unwed teenage girl
living under Roman occupation,
betrothed to a carpenter who had no social standing.
Jesus, our Rabbi, lived, suffered, and experienced joy among us,
teaching us what it meant to offer love, belonging, respect, and care
to the hungry, the sick, the outcast, the lonely.
He cautioned us to stay awake to the forces of evil and oppression in this world,
and to align ourselves with the needs of the marginalized.
He demonstrated that righteousness is determined not solely by belief in Him,
but by our feeding and clothing the destitute,
caring for the sick and the imprisoned,
welcoming the immigrant,
and befriending the lonely and outcast.
His love for us could not be contained by death,
not even by execution at the hands of an unjust government,
fomented by a bloodthirsty crowd. He forgave our ignorance
even in his anguish. In His resurrection, he showed us
that suffering and death do not have the last word,
that power and new life are found in the most unexpected places, and
that He would be with us to the very end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Great Exhalation of God,
breathed into humanity at our collective creation,
moving within and among us
not for our individual benefit
but for the collective good of all creation.
She affirms our diversity
allowing each of us to receive the Gospel
in our own tongue and culture.
She affirms our unity
gifting some of us with the capacity
to speak in the universal tongue
one understood by the spark of Her
that is within each of us.
She hears our groaning,
the prayers too sorrowful for words,
and she communicates them to the Almighty,
interceding on our behalf.
She sees our suffering and brings the balm of heaven,
comforting, guiding, inspiring, and empowering us
to embody the imago Dei within.
Through her prophets, she continues to speak Truth
to political, economic, and religious power,
to advocate for the marginalized, and
to challenge the church to fulfill its role
as the body of Christ.
I pray for the Church,
which exists not inside walls of brick or wood,
but in relationships where two or more gather
to do the will of Christ –
to comfort the brokenhearted,
to make free the captive,
to feed, clothe, house, and befriend
the poor, the immigrant, and the lonely,
to care for the earth and all of humanity
across the boundaries of gender, race, nationality,
citizenship, ability, or social status.
I pray for the Church to live up to its mission as
Christ’s agent of love and mercy in the world,
to be a voice for the powerless and
a beacon of hope for the hopeless. Dr Chanequa closes her post by asking the questions:
“What resonates with you? Have you considered writing your own creed?”
I am thankful for diverse theologians and writers who help put to words the things I often struggle to express in dominantly white traditions of Anglicanism and Lutheranism. I feel they help to create a base of work through which we might all wake up a bit, and be a little more alert to the Kin-dom of God which is unfolding all around us, daily, moment by moment, unconfined by the prejudices with which humanity is riddled.
Wake up!
Dr Chanequa’s body of work can be accessed below:
sleeping koala - Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash
awake koala - Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
Love this creed.
Love that creed 🤍🤍🤍