2023 Lent Devotional- Week 3

Good or Bad

By Luis Felipe Reyes

The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself with these words, ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like everyone else—crooks, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector”. 
Luke 18: 9-14 (CEB)

Many of us grow up at a time where coming to the Lenten season was about giving up something. However, that was not for us, that was for the other “Christians” ( I leave that to your imagination). Right there we, without realizing what we were doing, build a wall that separates us. On her video “Deconstructing White Privilege,” Dr. Robin DiAngelo talks about the “Good/ Bad Binary” – and how it is keeping racism alive. She stated that this is a major point in addressing systematic racism. Internalized superiority is another pillar, where white is Good, and nonwhite is bad. Somehow the church living in this conundrum is coming to another Lenten Season, and I wonder if there will be a time when we can stop and see what we are doing. I don’t need another good sermon about race relations, or how our institutions are keeping the same system that keeps us segregated.

Recently a collogue suggested that I read Francisco Garcia's commentary on Luke 18: 9-14 where Francisco stated the damage of traditional interpretation of this text where we go with one of the characters in the story and right away assume that the other is bad. What if we enter our season with a desire to build a beloved community where our actions are leading to tear down walls that are keeping us divided? What if some of our communities of faith enter into a process of repentance recognizing that their silence has done more harm than they are willing to recognize?

I have been serving in Cross Cultural/Cross Racial appointments since 1995, in some I have been the first non-English speaking lead pastor and the stories I can share, (like many of my colleagues of color in similar situations) and you always hope the next one will be the one, the one ready for the journey, the one that intentionally engages in a process of awareness about racial bias, the one that recognizes that white privilege is real and harmful. Yes, that is good and that’s our hope. Lent gives us an extraordinary opportunity to confront the forces of evil face on while growing in our spiritual practices and simultaneously realizing our own fault placing God’s children in one of the two categories “Good or Bad.”

This is not only related to White Privilege or racism, is it also related to sexism and homophobia, classism and more. It looks like too much traditional interpretation of Luke 18 has done too much damage. Thanks be to God we have the Lenten Season. 

God,

Help us to stop before we do harm. Help us to build and rebuild relations that lead us to wholeness and beloved community. Journey with us, we pray. Amen.

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Luis Felipe Reyes is an Elder in the Northern Illinois Conference. Currently the Lead Pastor at the United Methodist Church of Sycamore. Luis is one of the newest members of the National MFSA Board. Luis is also part of the Chapter Leadership in Northern Illinois and in the North Central Jurisdiction.