Day 5 - First Steps: Attend

“Therefore, when I faced a congregation, it began to take all the strength I had not to stammer, not to curse, not to tell them to throw away their Bibles and get off their knees and go home and organize, for example, a rent strike.”

James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, 1963

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What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

James 2:8-17

Commit to attend one local government meeting to find out what is happening in your city or town. Where is racism impacting the lives of people in your neighborhood?

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God of good works, we do not wish to be a people who pray on Sundays and go about our week, committing the same crimes. Liberate us from this cycle of hypocrisy. Shake us from the complacency of the church pew. Send your Spirit to lift us off of our knees and carry our feet into the march of justice. Open our eyes to the unity of faith and works, Sundays and Mondays, and scriptures and social protests. Enliven our faith, that we may do good works in your holy name. Amen.