Worship as Cultural Confrontation

from Worship Leader Magazine Volume 29 Number 4

Back to Basics

WORSHIP

a s C U L T U R A L CONFRONTATION

BY C. DENNIS WILLIAMS

In 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Greenwood District was known as the Black Wall Street. It was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. Almost every business— banks, hotels, cafés, clothiers, movie theaters—and nice luxurious homes during this time were black owned. Airplanes were owned by black families even though there were only two airports, and black well-educated teachers taught in the school system.

However, one day all of this changed. In May of 1931, the Tulsa Tribune newspaper reported that a black man had attempted to rape a white woman (which was never proven), and without waiting for the investigative process to be conducted, people erupted into two days of racial violence, destroying 35 blocks of businesses. There were 300 deaths and 600-800 people injured.

Mobs brought guns, shots were fired, and Black Wall Street was eventually eradicated not only because of false reporting, but because whites were jealous of the blacks’ upper-class lifestyle, education, and entrepreneurship. The end results were white terrorism and black dispossession of the land and businesses they had worked hard to invest in. This worship, real worship, will wrinkle your clothes and make your mascara run down your face, and it will make tears flow from your eyes, not because anything is wrong but because everything is right.

T H E D E A D LY C O S T O F L E S S O N S U N L E A R N E D

And now here we are in 2020. It has only been a few months since the tragic killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and most recently the injury of Jacob Blake, who was shot in the back seven times in Kenosha, Wisconsin. This kind of pejorative, vitriolic, bellicose violence toward minorities and people of color is evocative of the fact that 55 years after the Civil Rights Act and 52 years after the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we have not really come very far. According to the Brookings Institution’s February 27, 2020 report, we still have wealth gaps between whites and blacks—white households have 6.7 times the wealth of black households. We are still in a polemic and have not gained much momentum.

However, even though political systems have changed and inglorious acts of violence and racism have become more emboldened, the spiritual nucleus that continues to bind us together has never changed: our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13:8 records that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever,” and if we as a nation can just return to the biblical tenets that our Constitution and nation were built on, we would see a surge of evangelism like never before.

THE HOPE AND POWER OF REAL WORSHIP

Evangelism is a key component of Christendom, but we can’t evangelize until we have been educated on the concept of worship. The most common Greek word translated for worship is “proskuneo,” meaning to kiss the hand of a superior out of deference or love, or to give of oneself to another. What a vivid depiction of what the church should do—worship. Even though we have different cultures, different denominations, and different theological praxis, there is one thing that we can all do as one and that is worship!

Worship happens when we stretch our arms towards heaven with open palms so that God can deposit into us what he wants us to have. Worship happens when we turn everything over to God so God can carry the weight of our burdens for us. It is turning over everything we have to the Lord. This worship, real worship, will wrinkle your clothes and make your mascara run down your face, and it will make tears flow from your eyes, not because anything is wrong but because everything is right.

I believe God enough to say that true, genuine, sincere worship will stop the division, brutality, deception, and systemic racism that we are contending with in this country right now. The Church must stand at the intersection of faith and promise, and serve as the bridge that unites black churches with white churches, Baptist churches with Methodist churches, and Pentecostal churches with Presbyterian churches. Heaven will be a non-denominational place with an O-blood type that stands for universal.

SEEING THROUGH THE LENS OF CHRIST

One of the greatest examples of cultural worship and confrontation is found in Acts 8:26-40. We read about a black eunuch who was returning from Jerusalem where he had gone to worship. He was sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah 53:7-8 when he was approached by Philip who asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The black eunuch replied, “How can I unless someone explains it to me?” At that moment he invited Philip to sit In his chariot, and Philip explained the gospel to him, led him to Christ, and baptized him. This story is such an example of what the church should be like today. Permit me to illuminate on the following observances:

CULTUR AL DIFFER ENCES

Notice the cultural differences between Philip and the Eunuch. Philip was from Caesarea, Israel. We are first introduced to him as one of the seven chosen by the early church at Jerusalem to take charge of the daily ministration of charity to the poor widows (Acts 6:1). When this work was hindered by the outbreak of persecution following the death of Stephen, we find him at once departing to enter on active missionary work elsewhere (Acts 8:4). The fact that he should have selected Samaria as the scene of this new work is itself a proof that he was able to rise above the ordinary Jewish prejudices of his time. And this same liberal spirit is further exemplified by the incident with which he will always be principally remembered—the conversion and baptism of a black man. What an example to the church that different cultures can worship together in unity.

The Church must stand at the intersection of faith and promise, and serve as the bridge that unites black churches with white churches, Baptist churches with Methodist churches, and Pentecostal churches with Presbyterian churches.

FALSE PERCEPTIONS

Philip did not pass judgement on this black man. He did not assume that he was a criminal because of his race. He looked at him not as the world did but as Jesus would—only as a sinner who needed salvation and understanding. Philip did not make any assumptions, but in fact this black man in the aforementioned scripture was a treasurer to the Queen of the Ethiopians and was in charge of the entire treasury. This eunuch was a high ranking official who served under the Queen of Ethiopia, Candace. (This is not the name of a particular queen, but the title of a dynasty of queens such as the title Pharaoh.) He was trustworthy and financially astute. What kind of cosmos and church would we have if we all looked at each other as Jesus does, not with preconceived notions but with love, nobility, hospitality, and genuine concern.

RESURRECTING OUR VISION

Chicago Temple in Chicago has the highest cross in the world, but people drive by it every day and never notice it. Until one day when something happened. There was a traffic jam because a man slipped while cleaning a stone on the cross and was hanging on the cross. As long as the cross was empty no one noticed it, but when they saw a man on the cross they stopped and looked at that cross. Worship happens when we keep our eyes on the Cross. And when we do, our worship will always line up with and embody the centrality of the gospel.

BY C. DENNIS WILLIAMS

C. Dennis Williams is the Senior Pastor of Smith Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Paul Quinn College, Dallas, Texas.