The Call to..."FIX it!"

Dear friends,

It is no small privilege for a white girl from New Hampshire to stand in the pulpit of a Black congregation.

I grew up in a community that was almost entirely monochromatic. As a child, my only knowledge of Black history and culture came from classroom Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations and The Cosby Show on TV. As an adult, I’m so grateful to the Black colleagues and friends who have vastly expanded my perspectives and had patience for my mistakes. For a pastor to entrust me with her congregation—even just for seven to ten minutes!—is a generous gift of trust.

On Good Friday, the Rev. Dr. Barbara Gunn invited a group of nine preachers to join her at Mount Carmel Baptist Church in North Versailles. In lieu of a traditional “seven last words” format, she asked each of us briefly to consider a text that confronts the meaning of Jesus’ death, under the theme “Good Grief: What’s So Good About It?”

Rev. Liddy Barlow (far right) with fellow preachers at Mount Carmel Baptist Church. Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Barbara A. Gunn is seated at center.

The text she assigned me, 1 Peter 2:23-24, lent itself well to one of my favorite kinds of sermons. I love digging into what’s weird, unexpected, or apparently problematic in the Bible. I love pointing out the odd inconsistencies, easily overlooked, that turn scripture from thin platitudes to rich complexity. I love leading listeners down into a place of discomfort before we, together, find the insight and consolation that the Good Book always yields.

And so, at Mount Carmel, I dug in to Peter’s letter, and his description of Jesus’ patient suffering. In stark contrast to the polite, attentive silence of the “frozen chosen” in predominantly-white mainline churches, the homiletic moment in the Black church is audibly interactive. The sermon is a conversation, not a lecture. The peoples’ responses carry the preacher forward like an ocean current, punctuating each point: “Amen! Yes! Mercy! Hallelujah!”

“These verses have hard neighbors,” I preached. Immediately before them, we read “slaves, be subject to your masters.” Not long after them, we read “wives, submit to your husbands.”

“Of course, we know ‘All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,’” I continued. “But that doesn’t mean that all scripture is equally easy to understand and to love.”

And from the pews before me, I heard a colleague reply: “Fix it!”

I was stopped short by this cry. That’s exactly our calling as preachers and teachers, isn’t it? To stand in the gap between the visible evidence of a broken world and the Bible’s promise that God is on the throne. To take on faulty interpretations of scripture and replace them with news that is truly good. To fix the ways the church has caused harm, and remind our hearers that God’s work is always and only for healing, reconciliation, and love.

The call to fix it also animates the sermons and essays included in The Root Is Holy, our new publication celebrating the Reckoning with Antisemitism as Christians project. Addressing some of the thorniest texts of scripture, colleagues across Southwest Pennsylvania found ways to preach a saving word to Christians, without causing harm to Jewish neighbors. I hope you will order or download a copy.

Jesus’ presence in the middle of these hard scriptures is a demonstration of his solidarity with all who suffer, I suggested. The cross is Jesus’ answer to how we are to live in an unjust world. The cross is how Jesus fixed it. And trusting in his living presence, now we follow in his way. 

Your sister in Christ,

Rev. Liddy Barlow

Executive Minister