By: Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell, Regional Executive Minister
Pete Seeger wrote this song in 2010 at the age of ninety, in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Born in 1919, the folk singer and activist was known for his antiwar anthems and songs for racial justice, and helping to popularize “We Shall Overcome” during the civil rights movement of the sixties.
Nonetheless, it is this song, the last anthem that he wrote (he died in 2014 at the age of ninety-four) that has been in my mind lately. With all the turmoil in the world, the anger and rage, the real life concerns that many in our churches are facing right now, I’m reminded of these simple words:
When we look, and we see,
Things are not what they should be,
God’s counting on me, God’s counting on you.
Representative John Lewis (Civil Rights Leader and an American Baptist) is known to have made popular the phrase, “When you pray, move your feet.” When Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel participated in the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1966, he was asked, “Did you find time to pray?” His response? “I prayed with my feet.”
We may feel helpless, even hopeless, at times, with the pain and suffering occurring right now. We may also feel the urge to draw inward, to think that what happens in the world is out of our control, so the only thing we can do is turn to God. I believe that God is calling us to repent and turn back to God, and at the same time to go forward with God into this broken and sinful world that desperately needs the Gospel, the Good News. Indeed, this was Jesus’s first sermon:
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16-22).
Christ came to bring good news to the poor, and right now, programs are being cut or eliminated. Christ came to proclaim release to the captives and instead we are detaining and deporting people. Christ came for the recovery of sight to the blind—whether we read that as assisting those with disabilities or helping us to see our neighbors in need—we cannot look away and cannot be silent when the most vulnerable among us are harmed. Christ came to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Instead, we are hearing of plans of forcibly removing Gazans from their homeland to build resorts.
You might be reading this and wondering, “Rev. Mindi, you’re getting too political.” The separation of church and state is foundational to who we are as Baptists, but we should never separate faith from our politics. Faith informs how we vote. Faith informs how we act. Faith informs how we call our legislators and representatives and support policies. Churches have supported public policies for years, whether you personally agree with them or not, such as women’s right to vote, abolition, abortion, and public education. We know that no political party will ever truly live out the Gospel. But as faithful people we must speak out against politics and policies when they are in direct opposition of our call to live into the Gospel as Jesus directed.
Our God isn’t passive, sitting back and letting things fall into place as God has foreseen. Our God is active. Why else did God send Jesus, the Only Son, into the world? To save us. That is an action of an active God. And in turn, Jesus also was active in this world. He sent out the disciples two by two to share the Gospel, the good news:
Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere (Luke 9:1-6).
When we look at what Jesus sent the disciples out to do, and what he is calling us to do, this is a ministry of healing and hope. Only when they are fully rejected do they shake the dust off their feet. And there are times we will face rejection in what we do. But we are called to go share the Gospel, to bring good news to those who are in economic hardship, to live into healing and hope, to visit those who are imprisoned and be in solidarity with the oppressed.
Because God’s counting on me, and God’s counting on you.
Watch the video with Pete Seeger here.