July 2020 — pg. 9
make it our aim to “set the oppressed free”? Could this be
the year of the Lord’s favor? If the church of Jesus Christ
awakens to God’s kingdom mission in our desperate
moment in history, it will indeed experience the favor of
the Lord.
Our moment is also seized by a new acknowledgement
of the sin of racism in our culture. African American Free
Methodists and other people of color in our churches
have experienced firsthand the injustice of our stratified,
racialized society throughout their lives. White Christ-followers
are growing in awareness and beginning to join
the fight for racial justice with what might be the most
vigor we’ve ever seen. This is a painful moment for many,
as new revelations come to light and our society polarizes
in response. Yet this too can be a means by which God
sanctifies us through the truth.
As Free Methodists, we claim to believe that racism
is a sin that we are committed to combat. In practice,
respectful listening in this moment will teach us that not
only has our silence contributed to the problem of racism
outside the church, but our blindness has harmed our
brothers and sisters in the church as well. We don’t have
to intentionally hurt anyone or be personally unkind to
participate in patterns that perpetuate harm and limit
opportunities. Encouraged by our present crisis, stories are
pouring out of grievances long ignored and discrimination
long accepted. This can be a Kairos moment — a divine
opportunity for change. The favor of the Lord can rest on
the church that humbles itself to learn, repenting for our
own part in destructive systems. God has seen this evil all
along. As we comprehend racial divisions for the evil that
they are and overcome them through the reconciling work
of the cross, we enter into the work of God’s kingdom.
Jesus’ reading from Isaiah has often been called His
kingdom manifesto. In it, He declares that the time has
come for recovery of sight for the blind and setting the
captives free. Can it be that the blindness Jesus wants to
heal in 2020 is in our own eyes? Maybe His correction can
give us 20/20 vision. Our founders interpreted “setting the
oppressed free” as calling for the emancipation of slaves.
It is time for those of us who are their white descendants
to call for and participate in the full liberation of the
oppressed in our own time and place.
Inspired by God’s sanctifying Word, we can imagine the
glorious scene of a fully diverse throng worshipping
around Jesus’ throne as portrayed in Revelation 7:9a, “After
this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude
that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people
and language, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb.” And with our vision restored, we can overcome
divisions of race and class in our own local expressions of
the church, experiencing a foretaste of that glorious scene.
Jesus began His reading with “the Spirit of the Lord is
on me.” For our presence in the world to be like Jesus’
beautiful balance of “in it, not of it,” we will need to be
filled with the Spirit, fighting the battle with spiritual
weapons and purified hearts. May God guide us to become
an answer to His prayer. +
“How do we
discern ’
the truth
of God
s Word
for our own
time?”
Bishop Linda Adams, D.Min., was
elected to the Board of Bishops at
General Conference 2019 after
serving 11 years as the director of
ICCM. She previously served as a
pastor in New York, Illinois and
Michigan. As a bishop, she oversees
Free Methodist ministries in the
North and North Central portions
of the United States and also in
Latin America.