Could 'Black Lives Matter' Be Prophetic Message to the Church?

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NEW YORK — A Scripture that had troubled her for 10 years finally revealed its message to the Rev. Brenda Salter McNeil recently. It was an explosive revelation to the Church about the Black Lives Matter movement and it "messed" with her.

"It's been bugging me for at least 10 years," declared McNeil as she opened up her presentation last Thursday at the Movement Day 2015 conference hosted by the New York City Leadership Center.

With the measured cadence of a preacher on fire, McNeil, an associate professor of reconciliation studies in the School of Theology, Seattle Pacific University, revealed the scripture that "messed" with her: Mark 2:21-22.

21 No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.

22 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.

Using the analogy of the new wine and wineskins, McNeil highlighted a need for the Church to become more responsive to pressing racial disparities in cities through the trajectory of Black Lives Matter, the international movement that campaigns against violence toward black people.

The movement gained prominence in 2014 after protests erupted across the U.S. over the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City. And it was a few months after that when the professor said she learned from young people in the movement.

"The young people that we seek to serve, this generation is inheriting a different world than most of us grew up in. Those of us that have been leading organizations and been pastoring church, something is shifting around us. Amen? And even though we are at a conference, we just had worship and we are the people of God so whenever you hear the truth of God you can feel free to say, 'Amen.' It will not bother me," Mcneil warned in the run-up to her story punctuated by amens.

"The world is changing Amen? And we are all grappling with what it means to continue to be relevant in this generation and I was never more convinced of that than last year, December, when I went to Ferguson, Missouri, with a group of Evangelical faith leaders from around the country," she said.

"We went by the invitation of Sojourners in Washington, D.C. to learn from the young people who were leading the Black Lives Matter movement that grew up from that city. And so as we went, we listened and talked to these young people and I was really taken very deeply by what they honestly and candidly said to us. No one filtered their language, no one said it in a way that they thought would be nice for us to hear. They basically said, 'We don't really like the Church,'" she said bluntly.

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"One young man said, 'We don't have a PhD in racial harmony. We're just trying to play the card that's been dealt to us. We don't know why a movement is springing up here. We don't know why it didn't happen [with] Trayvon Martin or some other incident. We don't know why it wasn't Jordan Davis, all we know is that this thing has dropped into our laps and we feel as if this is our civil rights movement that was left undone by you,'" McNeil added.

Her words arrested the audience who would soon begin nodding, clapping and shouting amens of approval. Movement Day officials said there were some 1,235 registered attendees this year.

"Unlike the Civil Rights movement of my day and many of our experience, this is not a movement growing out of the Church. This is not a movement being led by faith leaders who have a theological input on what people are saying and doing. No, no, no. So I wanted to understand why don't they want our input, why aren't they concerned about what the Church thinks. And what I came to understand is they believe that we don't have relevance," said McNeil.

"They said, 'We don't like your hypocrisy. We don't like your misogyny ...' ouch, ' ... we don't like your sexism, we don't like the way your inactivity keeps you silent, we don't like the way you seem to keep the LGBT community out. It seems as if you work harder to keep people out than to let them in. My Lord, we had on clergy collars, we looked all official and everything and they didn't care. It didn't bother them," she continued.

"And so as we left we were a little shell-shocked. I'm promising you, we kinda walked out and I knew the game had just changed. As we left that meeting we were convinced that we had to bridge the gap between our young people who no longer believe in the relevance of the Church, amen," she said more as an affirmation than a question.

"My brothers and sisters, I believe that we are standing on a Kairos moment, a strategic moment in history. An opportunity, amen, for the church to repent. The ways we have not shown up for these young people who see us as inactive and lacking innovation. You see in every generation, there are seismic cultural shifts that wake us up to the reality that what's going on in the world around us must be paid attention to. Such is the case with the Black Lives Matter movement," said McNeil.

"Regardless of where we stand on any side of the political aisle, I want to say to you that I think this might just indeed be a wake-up call to the Church. I believe that this is what we might call a catalytic event. Some might see it as a catastrophe or it could be a catalyst that is spurring us and forcing us and shaking us up out of our slumber into action and into engagement. Could it be that this is our wakeup call that we cannot do business as usual?" she said. "I'm here to tell you that the cities around this country are speaking to us. They are shaking us, perhaps even prophesying to us, and that's what I think Jesus meant by these new wine skins."

Using the story of Peter and Cornelius from Chapter 10 of the book of Acts to show how God brought Gentiles into the Church through reconciliation in a new process that went against Jewish tradition, McNeil argued that a similar approach was needed for the Church in order to build bridges toward racial reconciliation.

"It wasn't Peter who decided reconciliation was a good idea or Cornelius. God intervened in human affairs and stepped into a situation with supernatural visions, which suggests that the spirit of God is at work calling us and calling us to take a journey toward reconciliation," said McNeil.

"Just like Peter and just like Cornelius, God is the unseen spiritual force who enters our story and begins to motivate us and convict and push us and meld us and strengthen us to embark on a journey that leads us toward reconciliation. That's how we begin to bridge the racial divide in cities," she said.

Through this Scripture, McNeil said God is basically saying, "The things that you use, the political positions, the denominational divides, the geographical issues, the racial and cultural divides that have kept you separated, they are no longer relevant and I now want you to understand that I am setting you up and getting you ready to walk a journey toward reconciliation."

Pointing to Peter's experience in deciding to minister to Cornelius and his household, McNeil said, "My guess is that had he not had that vision from God first, when the people unlike him came to him, he would have dismissed them out of hand."

McNeil said God had been priming her for the Black Lives Matter encounter through the Mark 2 Scripture.

"That's exactly how I felt when I came out of Ferguson, Missouri. I left with the same realization, God's talking to these young people. And these young folks have something to say and we might not like how it's packaged, but I believe God is breaking in and saying something," she said.

The pastor explained that after examining the issue further, she concluded that young people today are looking for community, they want to have real conversations where they are heard.

"They want to see a new expression of Church. They want something that is authentically present and generous, inside and out. They want everybody to be able to participate. And they want a church that shows that we are socially active. Can I say this? We can no longer preach Jesus without justice. It is non-negotiable. We have got to do more than we say," she said.