Black Lives Matter in the Kingdom of Heaven

Last Sunday, as part of our joyous regathering, we celebrated our Church constitution – Te Pouhere, which weaves us together like a whāriki or woven mat, Māori, Pasfika and Pākehā. Like the flax strands in ngā whāriki, each Tikanga or cultural strand takes part in the life and mission of our church knowing their voice and way of living the gospel is as important as anyone else’s. It is a gift of God.

At the same time Anglicans in Auckland were gathering for prayer led by ADJust, the Diocese of Auckland Young Anglicans for Social Justice. They prayed that all lives would matter around the world, not just the lives of the dominant, or of men, or the powerful. They prayed that in USA and other European dominated countries like our own, that Black Lives would Matter as much as white lives. They prayed for God’s justice to prevail. And then, behind a cross, they joined the Black Lives Matter march. Part of what that march called for in this land is that we honestly address our history and our treatment of ngā iwi o Aotearoa in particular.

On Sunday morning we are invited to gather at Te Ranga and remember the battle fought there 166 years ago. We will remember injustice of both those events and the land confiscations that followed, and the ongoing effects of that today. Māori lives did not matter then. How do we make them matter today?

Not all will be happy about this.  Some of you may not agree with what I have just written. In our gospel reading last and this week we have heard Jesus’ mission instructions to his disciples. Jesus invited them to share in and carry on the task he had begun, of brining the Kingdom of Heaven into the midst of humanity. He made the invisible visible; the sick, the widows, the orphans, the tax collectors and sinners, the poor – all whose lives did not matter in the least. His life and actions declared that in God’s eyes their lives did matter. They were precious and cherished. Good news for some. He named the powers of evil that sought to silence and dehumanise. And for that he joined these outsiders on a cross, as if his life did not matter. In the resurrection and ascension God declared that all lives matter, especially those who Jesus had lived among. And the disciples understood that they had to continue this task and knew that not all would welcome this.

Who lives in our society matter less than others? Who are deemed less important, or an obstacle to our prosperity, or a tool in our economy? If we are to believe the gospels, this is where the crucified and risen Jesus is to be found. What does it mean for us then to continue the task of living the kingdom of heaven?