Many, many seasons ago the Rev. Dr. James Forbes preached a sermon titled "This and That," in which he talked about the "The Bkack Church extension of the Incarnational Christ." In that sermon he made several essential points concerning the Black church being an extension of the incarnation. On e of those points that I will lift up for this examination is that "as an extension of the incarnation" the Black church must exist in dynamic tension.
This tension is not to be confused with anxiety. Anxiety describes a neurosis of humanity the lives the experiences of life from the distorted lens of distress. However in Philippians 4:6-7 The Apostle Paul causioned believers to "Be Anxious for nothing..."
Yet The tension of the Black church is a dynamic balance between the human and the holy. The incarnational Christ is an example of this relationship between the eternal and the time bound wrapped in human flesh.
The tryst that represents the tension is the responsibility of the Black church to communicate hope in what seems hopeless situations. The Black church as extension of the incarnation is tasked to embody divinity with in disrespected, demeaned and distressed bodies of primarily the oppressed.
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This tension of the Black church is to conjure what life can be like without the limitations and exclusions of Euro-centric systems of capitalism, new-liberalism, classism and structures that would diminish the humanity of others while at the same time laboring in places pain, hurt, depression and despair.
In times like these an incarnation extension is needed more than ever that demonstrates the value of Black and brown bodies and power possessed in them to Change the landscape to usher in a beloved community.
