Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.thetablechurch.org/sermons/17012/allyship-to-solidarity-mlk-jr-day-2022-teach-in/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Welcome, welcome, welcome into the space, into the service, into this community. As Pastor Anthony said just a few minutes ago, today we're going to do something a little bit different to honor Dr. King.

[0:16] And I want to just start out by saying that often around this time of year, this weekend in particular, we start to see a lot of imagery of Dr. King and the civil rights movement.

[0:27] And a lot of what we start to see is very, very palatable. We start to see things that lift up the image of ourselves and our nation that we want to remember.

[0:42] We tend to remember Dr. King sometimes as a kind of non-threatening Santa Claus figure. And we leave out so much of what his witness in life was about.

[0:52] We too easily forget in this time that movements like the civil rights movement, like all movements for struggle and justice, are built on deep and strategic organizing and protest.

[1:05] We forget how revolutionary the ideas and work were of this movement and of this man so revolutionary that they got him killed. And we sometimes forget that we are called to also carry on that work and work that is so threatening that it will upend the ways that we think about the world, the ways that we see what we're called to.

[1:33] So one of the effects of the I Have a Dream speech has been to draw people back to reflection on a particular piece of scripture.

[1:44] You've probably heard it. It's in Amos. And King said in 63, I Have a Dream speech, he said, We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

[1:59] The larger passage that Dr. King was drawing from is Amos 5, 21 through 24. And it reads like this. I hate, I despise your festivals.

[2:12] This is from God's perspective through the prophet. And I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.

[2:24] And the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals, I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs. I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

[2:36] But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Here, the prophet makes clear in the strongest possible language that God finds worship unacceptable that is divorced from the work of justice.

[2:54] So the religion, the faith that produces this kind of worship is considered noise. True worship must be accompanied and be part and parcel of the work of justice.

[3:08] So that's what we're going to talk to, we're going to talk some about today. And what I notice also in this verse is that justice is presented, is imaged as an ever-flowing stream.

[3:20] And in Israel, often in that landscape, often you would have ravines and channels called wadis. That's only some time would have water. Only like when it rained a lot and water collected.

[3:33] And yet in this verse, the prophet imagines justice not as like one of these wadis that occasionally has water, but as an ever-flowing stream of abundance.

[3:44] And I'm pretty convinced that to get to that place, we have to be talking about systems and systems of injustice. So as Anthony said, we're about to start a modified teaching.

[3:55] Obviously, we're not quite in. We're not together. And yet we want to take some time to dig into some work around systemic justice and healing from systems of domination and coercion.

[4:08] We're going to talk about power. We're going to talk about solidarity. And as we begin to talk, I do encourage you to take notes. A lot of what will be brought up today, I think, is there's going to be a lot.

[4:20] So if you have pen and paper near you, go ahead and grab that. I'll also name that we will have communion after the teaching. So feel free to take a moment right in the next couple of minutes to grab some elements that can be for you and draw you into the body of Christ.

[4:37] So let me just quickly introduce our teachers for today, and then they are going to take over. These are beloved friends of mine. They are launch team members on Resurrection City's leadership team.

[4:50] So first, let me introduce Itzbeth Minhavar. For the first part of her career, Itzbeth advised executives of the world's largest multinational corporations and financial services firms on assessing and mitigating internal and reputational risk.

[5:08] A strong mid-career calling to serve communities that have been systemically oppressed drove her toward a master's degree in international development to join the global fight against poverty and injustice.

[5:22] And she has spent the past decade deepening relationships globally towards promoting shared prosperity, equity, and justice. There is so much more I can say about Itzbeth.

[5:33] She is an animal lover. There's so many other beautiful things to say. And then Kristen, who's also going to join us, has spent 23 years as a community organizer and trainer, equipping thousands of people around the world and faith community-based organizations to deepen their work for justice and organize for change in their communities.

[5:54] She's proud to have trained and organized campaigns ranging from shutting down an attention center for migrant children in Florida to building a multi-faith school in rural Nicaragua.

[6:04] She's proud to have trained and organized for justice and rural Nicaragua. And I'll stop there. Again, there is so much more to say about Kristen. I'm going to hand it over and let them lead us. I pray you'll be open and we'll be open to their brilliance, to their insight as they talk to us about this work.

[6:22] Thank you so much, Tonera. I appreciate the warm welcome. And thank you also, Anthony, for the opportunity to join you all today. I am going to be talking about some pretty heavy things to start to just get a sense of the problem that we're dealing with.

[6:41] What is the problem of systems of domination? Why is it that we want to move towards solidarity? And I know that everybody's in a different place on their learning journey.

[6:54] So forgive me for keeping some things very basic. I want to make sure we bring everyone along. And I'll try not to rush through too much so that things can come across clear, even though we have a very limited amount of time to explore a topic that is quite deep.

[7:11] First, I want to share that we already live in a multicultural country. It's just the reality of our country, of our continent.

[7:26] You know, the issues that we're dealing with in the United States around race and colonization and the lie of white supremacy is not specific to the United States.

[7:37] It's really quite prevalent across this entire continent. But because we live here, it's important that we really understand some of the specifics of what it is, what are the systems that we are referring to when we talk about things like the lie of white supremacy, colonization, etc.

[7:59] And I also wanted to say that, you know, feelings will emerge as we go through this material. And I just want to say that none of this is intended to shame anyone.

[8:16] The feelings of shame may arise for all of us, particularly any of us that enjoy any kind of privilege. Right. Like there's feelings of shame or guilt that may emerge.

[8:27] And I just want to invite you into a posture of a lot of self-grace and self-forgiveness and meeting yourself exactly where you are and just being willing to go on a journey with us to learn and understand how we can really enter into a commitment to to enter into solidarity with those that are most impacted by systems of oppression so that we may together build a beloved community.

[8:57] So in terms of creating a multicultural context, I have this quote from Audre Lorde, where she says, the white fathers told us, I think, therefore I am.

[9:14] The black mother within each of us, the poet, whispers in our dreams, I feel, therefore I can be free. And I think it positions, well, a little bit of, you know, white Western thinking, thanks to be dominated by this statement of, I think, therefore I am, which I believe it's a quote by a French philosopher, Descartes.

[9:41] And there's nothing wrong with that, but it's not the only way of being. Right. There's many other, many other ways to, to see, you know, to understand who we are in our own humanity.

[9:54] And I love Audre Lorde's perspective of feeling. It's just the importance of being in our bodies and feeling for what is true, not only thinking, but also feeling and sensing in our bodies.

[10:06] And also, if you've had the opportunity to spend any time in the southern part of Africa, there is a concept, an African concept of Ubuntu, which is I am because we are.

[10:20] It's a concept of community. It's really speaking to the interconnectedness between us as human beings and also between us and the earth and all of creation that lives around us.

[10:33] And how do we choose to be in relationship with one another and with the earth that is here to sustain us? So going into explaining a little bit of, you know, a view, a systemic view of the problem that we're trying to address.

[10:49] It's something that I learned. I learned a new term from a couple of years ago. It was what I used to understand only for myself as just white supremacy or the lie of white supremacy or white supremacy dilution, because it's important that when we talk about white supremacy, we understand that it's a lie.

[11:09] Right. And that we put it in the context of it being a lie. That it's not the only system of domination that is impacting us all.

[11:19] We also have colonization. We have patriarchy. We have homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, adultism, you name them.

[11:30] On this slide here, which hopefully you can see, you know, we're talking about how these systems are really rooted on the lie that there is a hierarchy of human value.

[11:48] That there is that it is possible that some lives are more worthy than others or that it is possible that, you know, somebody's time and effort and work is somehow, you know.

[12:06] Meant to, you know, amass large, large amounts of of money and privilege and status while other people's work, you know, barely allows them to make their ends meet.

[12:21] Right. So it's really rooted very much in what I understand as predatory capitalism. But also, you know, it's not only about that, it's there's an we can call elitism, you know, which I myself have had to recover from, you know, after having, you know, worked very hard to get into prestigious educational experiences and then realizing that I was using my title to make myself superior to others.

[12:51] And I think it's really important understanding this lie of hierarchy of human value that we often compare ourselves to others. And that if we believe that we can somehow be inferior to another, then we also believe that we can somehow be superior to another.

[13:08] So how do we begin to operate in ways in which we understand that we're just different, that everybody has a different purpose, a different set of gifts and talents and a different contribution to give to the world?

[13:22] And instead of ranking and creating false hierarchies, beginning to develop the kind of relationships and systems that allow all of life to flourish and that cherishes and treasures everybody's unique talents and contributions to our society.

[13:40] On the next slide, I wanted to demonstrate that these systems, the systems of domination, I particularly like the name of domination versus systems of oppression only because I believe it's descriptive of what it's trying to do.

[13:57] It's about dominating people, right? It's about in the case in our country, it's really about the few dominating the many for their own purposes. And it's important to understand that these systems manifest themselves at different levels from the personal or individual to the interpersonal.

[14:17] So it really manifests in our relationships, how we how we communicate with one another, how we treat one another. Then to the organizational and institutional. And then finally, to the systemic or structural.

[14:30] And I think it's really important to understand that while there's work that needs to be done at all of these stages, that we can't we don't have the luxury because of the urgency of this type of work.

[14:45] We don't have the luxury of saying, let me just focus on me. Let me just finish doing my personal and interpersonal work before I get involved in transforming systems and structures. We really need to find ways of doing this work in parallel so that we can find balance.

[15:01] And it may mean that we sometimes make mistakes and that, you know, there's corrections that need to be made. And the encouragement is that we understand that we in order to create something new, we're going to have to take risks.

[15:14] We're going to have to operate in a lot of grace and patience with one another and calling each other into the kind of community that we want to live in.

[15:26] Then I wanted to just provide this overview of what is allyship versus solidarity? Because we know from, you know, really since the pandemic began and the uprisings of the summer of 2020, that a lot of folks have been awoken to particularly the plight of of of black and brown people in this country, particularly black and indigenous peoples.

[15:54] And we know that many of our white brothers and sisters and siblings have chosen to, you know, step with us side by side and be our allies and stand behind us and help us have our voices be heard.

[16:08] However, there's only so far that allyship can take us. And this is an invitation to really consider whether understanding that in systems of dominations, we are all impacted.

[16:22] Right. Understanding that there's very few of us that isn't impacted in one way or another by one of these systems or if not ourselves, somebody that we love.

[16:34] Right. So. The invitation into solidarity requires just understanding a few distinctions between what is it like to show up as an ally and what is it like to show up in solidarity in and by solidarity, I mean, really understanding and recognizing the destructiveness of oppression to all of humanity, that this systems that because we are interconnected, what affects you affects me and vice versa.

[17:05] And in allyship, the poster tends to be a little bit more. I'm helping you. I'm here as a favor to you as a gift. Let me come help you. Right.

[17:17] So the invitation is to begin to grow beyond allyship and being willing to risk something. So we know that allyship works. It risks very little.

[17:28] Maybe there's a little social discomfort, but that's about it. In solidarity work, we are required to give up power and to potentially even risk our safety.

[17:40] I mean, we saw a lot of white and other non-black allies during the protests, putting their bodies on the line, on the front lines for our protection. And that is that is what it means to be in solidarity.

[17:52] And it also may mean risking some friendships or some relationships or some opportunities, some work opportunities if you're really choosing to be in solidarity.

[18:05] Allyship tends to talk a lot, while solidarity tends to combine talk with action. Allyship also can be performative or loud or shiny or like, you know, something that you share on your socials and, you know, you know, wanting to tell the word of, you know, what a great ally you are.

[18:25] And often acts of solidarity tend to be quieter and deeper and occurring behind the scenes. And we know that it's possible that allyship often is focusing on particularly those interpersonal relationships.

[18:41] When we talked about systems and we talked about the levels of experience, it's really focused on just kind of the individual and their relationships. And solidarity is really working to dismantle structures and institutions.

[18:55] It's really understanding what's the root of the fruit that we see coming out of those systems of oppression. Allyship work tends to be done, you know, in collaboration with marginalized folks.

[19:09] But often what happens is that a lot of time and energy and emotional labor has to be spent by those who are marginalized to educate those to be those that are working with us to do the work.

[19:22] And solidarity really takes responsibility to do its own learning, you know, to do your learning and to, you know, seek out resources and not put the emotional burden on your on your friends who are marginalized.

[19:35] But it's also led by those who are most impacted, you know, and this is really an area of a lot of tension.

[19:45] And I've worked in social justice spaces, you know, for the past 15 years. And when we talk about black people in leadership or indigenous people in leadership, there is a strong set of resistance to actually being willing to let go and let us lead, let us teach, let us inform from our experiences what in reality needs to happen.

[20:09] Because in many ways, the goal of solidarity work and the work of dismantling systems is self-determination. This is what when you look at, you know, the movement for black lives, the movements for indigenous freedom and land bank movements, what we're looking for is really self-determination, the ability to decide within our own communities, how resources are spent, how our children are educated, how we access services, etc.

[20:41] So it's really, you know, sort of keeping that in mind. And allyship work also doesn't really discuss the redistribution of resources. And in solidarity, we understand that there's going to have to be work to redistribute the ill-gotten gains of systemic oppression, which includes jobs, schools, neighborhoods, housing, healthcare, and capital.

[21:04] That if, you know, these have been built on somebody else's oppression, there is an opportunity to redistribute the goodness to those who are not benefiting from it.

[21:16] Lastly, civility tends to be a very prized feature of allyship, keeping things civil, you know, tamping down our feelings, you know, keeping our emotions at bay, sort of having to package our pain and our oppression in a pretty little bow so that people can hear it.

[21:37] And solidarity is willing to deal with conflict and move through conflict in productive ways. And it's willing to let it get a little bit messy because sometimes we need to create a space for people's emotions, for people to show up with everything that they have.

[21:57] And we know that our movements for liberation are rife with trauma, are rife with the trauma of state-sponsored violence. They're rife with the trauma of poverty.

[22:08] They're rife with the trauma of seeing our brothers and sisters and siblings being killed at a traffic stop, right? So it's really about being willing to be with that, with the discomfort and being willing to learn and understanding that it's not all going to be pretty and tied up in a little boat for you to get involved.

[22:30] So lastly, you know, we talked about allyship being as some sort of gift that you're giving to somebody when solidarity is really about a responsibility that you're willing to take.

[22:41] And then I think just really quickly, how do you recognize when you're operating in systems of dominance, a culture of dominance tends to control, divide and exploit.

[22:55] It really starts by dividing, right? And we feel that, you know, we feel it in the political messages and how we are divided so that we can then be controlled and exploited. And this is coming from indigenous wisdom because I think it's important in our work to be reclaiming the wisdom of those voices that have been historically silenced, particularly black and indigenous people.

[23:20] And Edgar Villanueva's incredible book, Decolonizing Wealth, gives us some of that beautiful indigenous wisdom. And this is how you can begin to tell for yourself, am I operating in a culture of dominance?

[23:32] Am I seeking to divide? Am I seeking to control? Am I seeking to exploit? Very simple way of knowing how are you operating? And the alternative to that is to enter into a culture of solidarity that puts, instead of being dehumanizing, it puts humanity at the center.

[23:51] And it seeks to connect, relate and belong. And to create that sense of connection, relationships and belonging, not just for ourselves, but for everyone, that everyone may be able to enjoy a sense of belonging in every space.

[24:06] And then lastly, there's a healing path that Edgar provides in his book, which includes grieving, listening, apologizing, relating, representing, ensuring that the voices that need to be heard are present at the table and that we're not taking the role of speaking for others.

[24:26] And then we're investing in repair.

[24:56] hyp excessmediate to living in preparedness. And your goal of seeing, is that your self-free savior has to live in every adalah designer andricular worldview. And to be able to do it in my journey, it brings me to the system of the Somalia. But I think we're pretty much more emotional, but after I live in Sunday, people cannot live in a way of listening.

[25:11] know them by grieving together. And in these days of two years and change of the pandemic, we unfortunately have lots of opportunities to do that, to show up with one another and grieve together and get to start building community and in that way support one another. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to my sister, Kristen, and she has some wonderful other things to share.

[25:35] Thank you. Wow. Thank you so much, Yitzbeth, for that really extraordinary teaching. There are so many things that I want to lift up from that. And I just really honor all that you just shared with us and the layers of wisdom that you've laid out when we look at how do we look at and name in our world the systems and structures of domination and oppression and what it means to move through them to be building out the beloved community. I'm so grateful that you really helped break down, especially for those of us like myself who find themselves as a white person in this work, what it might mean to really move from sort of a loose concept of allyship and name to actually like live solidarity in action. And I'm just so honored to be here with you today and to be part of this teach-in at the table as we honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And for me, I think as someone who has spent my life, you know, I was born and raised as a pastor's kid in the Midwest. And so sort of as this, you know, nice, nice white girl, pastor's kid,

[26:43] I think I really wrestled like with what does it mean to name some of the hard things. There was so much that went unnamed, and especially as a person for whom had all the privileges sort of at my disposal. And so I think for me, I have been on this lifelong journey of really learning what solidarity is by learning to walk the road with people. And I love that final thing that you shared about that we, what does it mean to get to know people by grieving together? How are we invited in? And how do we find those places where we can actually be building relationships with those who are really directly impacted? And realizing that ultimately, we are all directly impacted by these systems and structures of domination and oppression. And while that, that if those impacts look different for all of us, depending on where we find ourselves anchored in the world, what does it mean to actually be really stepping in and naming and claiming some of those hard things so that we can be building out the beloved community working to change? And I love what you said about redistributing the ill-gotten gains of oppression and what it means for really being able to deal with those hard truths. And one of those hard truths I wanted to talk about today is the concept of power. And again, as someone who grew up as in sort of a space of be nice and kind as an ultimate value, I really wrestled with really being able to, what does it look at? What does it mean to be naming? Where are the powers and principalities of the world? How does power show up?

[28:14] And I think I always grew up with power as this really negative concept, as power was something to shy away from. Power was something that, you know, when we talk about people in power, I think we often think about politicians and often corrupt politicians or, you know, corporations, people with a lot of money, the rich, and those who actually often have, we feel like have power over our lives. But I think all of the things that you just talked about, Ysbeth, and how do we look at actually healing ourselves, healing our communities, healing our societies, and really in seeing change happen. We can't do that until we actually take a deep look at power. And so I wanted to, in just the next few minutes, just to share a few thoughts about that and a few thoughts about what this might mean for those of us who find ourselves as part of a community like The Table or any faith community of our community group of folks who might be watching tonight. How do we wrestle with issues of power and what it might mean to flip our image of what power is in a way that we can actually see power as an opportunity, power as the way to actually achieve the vision and the dreams that we hold? And Dr. Martin Luther King actually said this, that one of the quotes that we have from Martin Luther King from his speech,

[29:30] Where Do We Go From Here in 1966, is that power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political, or economic changes.

[29:45] I just want us to sit with that for a second. Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose. So this actually is our best shot at when we look at what is our dream, what is our dream for ourselves, for our communities, for our world, and how do we sort of garner that strength, the strength needed to actually see social, political, and economic change. So there's three ways I want us to think about power today and sort of how do we break down different concepts of power. Excuse me. And the first really, I think, is the traditional way that we look at power, which is power over. And that's exactly what I think we just heard it's Beth breaking down. We look at sort of the systems and structures of domination and oppression in our world, and the ways that often we experience sort of power. I think it it often feels like sort of these layers of oppression. And I think ultimately, there are folks who are absolutely deeply impacted by this, but we are all impacted by these systems. When we often talk about who has the power, and that there are absolutely actors who are pushing systems and structures of domination forward. But ultimately, we need to look at power as a systemic issue, at looking at often the power over, the power that oppresses, is deeply embedded in the systems and structures of our society, of our political system, of our economic system, and the other ways that we operate in our social system. And often that is driven by things such as white supremacy and racial injustice. That is driven by deep economic inequities, and some of the ways that we continue to see policies being formed in our country and in the world that have continued to keep certain people on the margins and other people sort of in a place of power. But that power is bigger than any individual. And I think that's what we sort of need to hold on to, that it is not about a certain person or people who hold the power, but it is about the systems and structures that back those people up, and the policies that continue to make that possible. So I think one of the pieces that we are invited to see around power is that ultimately, how do we look at that we are all impacted by these systems and structures of domination, that these systems have been set up as exactly as Beth was just saying, to create this culture of dominance that controls, divides, and exploits us. And so our job is to realize that actually we have an opportunity to claim both the power within and the power we have with to actually dismantle the power over. That is the work and the call of justice, friends, is that we actually can shift the powers of the world once we realize that we both have power within and that our power within creates the possibility for us to have power with. I want to just talk about this power within concept for a minute, because this is actually God's gift to us. This is, friends, where we, it starts with, and I think there was, there's such a beautiful thing you said before, it's bad, about if we actually believe that anyone is inferior to us, then what does that, what does that mean? That like, if we believe that we're inferior, that allows us to believe that others are inferior. And that like, that literally is about going around negating our own belovedness and the belovedness of each other. And so how do we sort of, we start by claiming that God has created each of us in God's image. And therefore we are all beloved. And we have the opportunity to tap in to the power that God has given us to be our true selves, to be the beautiful people that we are created to be. And as part of that and claiming our belovedness, we get to claim our voice.

[33:25] We get to claim that the power as the, again, is power is the ability to act, is the capacity to actually put our, our, our values, our passions, our dreams, our hopes into action. That is, we all have that power within us if we can tap into that. And it starts with naming and claiming our own belovedness. Because then we can actually see the belovedness in each other. And that allows us to build power with. This power with, I think for me, has been one of the greatest experiences I have, I have found in my life. That this started decades ago when I first was learning from indigenous communities in the Philippines who are organizing as, as they were, their land was being taken out from underneath them. And the, yet the solid, the gift of sort of unity and, and, and sacredness that they shared, um, that was, that was really anchored in the, the humanness of us all. And as, as part of that journey, as they were organizing together, I was so, so surprised and moved that they invited me into that. And I think for me, this whole, the whole journey I've experienced of solidarity that took me from the Philippines to being at, at Resurrection City, um, and, and being under the, the leadership of Pastor Taneta and other extraordinary people of color is that, that solidarity is a gift, friend. Like that, there is an invitation there for those of us who are, who are often the ones who, who hold the power traditionally, um, to be able to, to give up some of that power.

[34:49] Um, power with means we don't get all the power. We, you know, we have this inherent power in ourselves, but power with is about shared power. And that also means sacrificing power in key moments. Um, but ultimately the, the beauty of power with is that when we find this ourselves, when we put, we put the, the journey of our relationships. And I think what Eats Beth said about when we put humanity at the center, that allows us to connect, relate, and belong. And that friends is what builds out the beloved community and a way that we can ultimately organize for change and see justice happen. And so when we actually find ourselves, I mean, this starts with relationship building. It's, it ends up being so basic. It seems so simple in concept. And yet like that is the challenge, right? The challenge is like when we stop and we think about how well do you know your neighbor and not just your neighbor who may be on, on this zoom or this live right now, which I hope you do. If you're not on the chat right now, getting to know each other a little bit, I invite you to do that. Um, how well do you know your neighbor across the hall in your apartment building down the street, the neighbors who are literally in this freezing cold sleeping in tents all over our city, the neighbors that we might not even see yet, but we are called to see. What does that mean to like begin to find little, little opportunities to build the kind of relationships that actually cracks open a chance to say, what's, you know, what's your hope and dream for our city, for our community, for your family, for our future, for post pandemic life. Like, what do you really want to see change right now in this city and our world? Once we start to talk about our vision and about our dreams for change that allows us to build out this common place, this view, this beautiful place, shared vision ultimately can lead to then the building of the beloved community and that the community that is anchored in a relationship can, as I think, as it's Beth was saying before, that gives us the chance to know that we have the power of connection to work together on actually seeing change happen. And that friends is the work of justice. As we continue over the coming weeks and months here at the table and in other spaces, maybe find ourselves dream up how we might be more deeply connected in the work of justice. I hope that you'll hold on to two things. One is that, that we, I hope that you will, we'll be able to start letting go of the fact that there are people who feel powerless. You might feel powerless right now. And often we talk about like the powerless and about sharing the stories of the powerless or, you know, like what, you know, giving people voice.

[37:17] And I think as it's Beth was starting to say, like that, that is, that is not our call friends. The call is that each of us can find and claim a sense of our own power. What does it mean to be finding again, finding our, finding our, our, our chance to act and knowing that every person can speak for themselves and speak extraordinarily well about what they need, what they want, what their dream is for justice. And that when we actually find spaces for people to claim a sense of their own power, that together brings us in this power with circle to ultimately start to shift the power over that I have seen time and time again, extraordinary campaigns, one like really, really brilliant moments when people have actually been able to see a shift in the, the, and alter the relations of power that we actually see people in power, stepping back saying yes to something we thought would never happen. That's happened in our city that happens with our legislators. And then I can happen even, even with us. And so friends, I just, I want us to sit with this, these final words I'm going to share tonight from Martin Luther King Jr. Again, from his moment, when, where do we go from here?

[38:19] And he said, power is not only desirable, but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice. One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love. But what is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against it. And so friends, my invitation for you tonight is, is please sit with, where do you find your own sense of power? Where are you finding tonight God reminding you that you are beloved? And when you, when you can claim and hold that sense of belovedness, find your voice, find within you a desire to share your vision, to share your vision for hope and for change in our city, in our world, in our community, in our congregation, in our, our, our faith spaces, find a place to say, how do I relate to others in this community? Am I connected enough to actually be able to say, I know the visions of people who are different from me? I actually know like what we could be doing to start to see change shift and start to see the arc of justice move a little bit closer. What does that mean tonight friends to think about building out the beloved community and knowing that we get there by building power with, with each other, which for some of us means of giving up a little bit of our power. And then ultimately that we get to build power that, that is about love demanding and implementing the demand of justice. So thanks for letting us be with you tonight. And I pray that we can continue this conversation in a week.

[40:17]  And months.