Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Faith formation is disciple preparation. “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” That is what Jesus said. That is what we are supposed to say to our children. 

My most recent Flocknote email, “Faith Formation is Disciple Preparation,” noted that our culture says, “Indulge yourself.” Jesus commands the opposite, “Deny yourself.” Next, he tells us, “Take up your cross.”

John Lewis was a twenty-year-old seminary student when he was first arrested. He and others, dressed in their Sunday best, sat at lunch counters that served whites only. His mother and father, sharecroppers in Troy, Alabama, did not like him getting arrested. He did not listen to them. He went on to get arrested 43 times in protesting segregation at lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville and registering blacks to vote in Alabama. (See “His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope” by Jon Meacham.)

It wasn’t easy. John Lewis said, “I thought I was going to die a few times. On the Freedom Ride in the year 1961, when I was beaten at the Greyhound bus station in Montgomery, I thought I was going to die. On March 7th, 1965, when I was hit in the head with a night stick by a State Trooper at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge [in Selma, Alabama], I thought I was going to die.” He was given a cracked skull and severe concussion. Some were killed.

John Lewis never returned violence with violence. Instead, he suffered violence in order to bring to light the violence of segregation.

“Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something.”

Their faith was in Jesus, who himself suffered violence. He knew, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him” (Mark 9:31). Like a sheep led to slaughter, Jesus willingly entered into his passion and death at the hands of the violent.

Thanks to the faith of John Lewis and many others, one hundred years of segregation changed with the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. If Lewis had been at last Saturday’s Alabama-Florida football game, two historically segregated public universities, he would have seen a miracle, the fruits of his suffering. He would have seen blacks and whites together, some as players, some as students, some as fans in the grandstands.

Faith formation is disciple preparation. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. That is what we are supposed to say to our children. 

What might happen if they listen? Watch for my Thursday Flocknote email.

In Christ,

Father David