How We Carry Racialized Trauma in Our Bodies

Dear Church,

We are smack dab in the middle of Lent and I’m feeling a genuine sadness and malaise this week. I don’t know if it’s cloudy weather or if Lent is doing its good work to bring me closer into the suffering of our world. Attempting to embrace this as good work, God’s work, to tether me closer to our need for redemption and restoration. But it is a daily crucible.

This week for our discussions together, I want to offer a podcast on what racial trauma does to our bodies and how our bodies carry in them the history of racial injustice (this really blew my mind the first time I heard about it!). This is by Resmaa Menakem, the author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. You can listen to the interview or read the transcript at the link below:

Resmaa Menakem — ‘Notice the Rage; Notice the Silence’

Also here’s the link to my sermon from this week on how kingdom justice involves corporate solidarity: Face and Own Our History (Racism & Repentance 4).

(Also, one thing I forgot to mention in my sermon: some of our very own members of The Table helped with some of my thoughts from my sermon this week with their interaction on Facebook. I don’t want to embarrass them or I’d name them! But just so y’all know, our church is awesome and I learn a ton from each of you.)

Some questions for our discussion this week in our Racism & Repentance Discussion Groups: 

1. What convictions or questions arise for you as we talk about corporate solidarity?
2. What was your response to the difference between how Germany has responded to the Holocaust and the USA responded to the extermination of Indigenous People and chattel slavery? 
3. Using Menakem’s language (from the podcast) of ‘white body supremacy,’ we could talk about how we literally carry, in our DNA and in our bodies, the sins of the past. How does this strike you? What questions or thoughts does this reality generate?

Our discussion groups have been so rich over the last few weeks. It’s not too late to jump in and join the discussion with us! Sunday mornings at 9:15am and Tuesday evenings at 8:30pm.

We will have more on events, dates, and times for upcoming Holy Week and Easter Celebrations. 

Praying with you on our way to Calvary,
Fr. Matt+