Moving to Embodied Solidarity

There are times when a lecture, a TedTalk, a homily, a poem, a song or other artistic expression lingers long after the moment. The longer the words linger, they marinate and the full complexity of meaning permeates everything… and changes everything, as a new framework emerges. Dr. Larycia Hawkins’ lectures this week changed everything for me, as embodied solidarity became more than a concept. It became a challenge.

Dr. Larycia Hawkins, an advocate for multi-faith solidarity, a scholar, and a professor of political science and religion at the University of Virginia, delivered the 2020 Jennie Cutler Shumate Lecture on Christian Ministry. While inspired by her lecture for Senior Symposium, her Monday evening lecture Does Your Blood Not Boil? Embodying Solidarity with Suffering keeps haunting me, particularly the question “In what ways am I embodying solidarity with the suffering?”

Last night I interviewed for a part-time interim pastor position. During the interview, there was a time of Q&A. Some of the questions I expected, including: Are you a people or task person? What books are you reading? Could you tell us about your worship rhythms? Some questions were formatted to gauge more than my response (Yes, they absolutely were testing the maturity of my critical and analytical thinking.). Other questions completely surprised me. The final question of the evening was, “What do you see as the biggest challenge for the North American Church?”

I took a moment and breathed as I considered options. I even made a joke referencing how many weeks would we remain in the room to explore this topic. As the laughter died down, I found my response. Inspired by Dr. Hawkins’ words, I responded quite simply, “Moving from theoretical solidarity to embodied solidarity. It is not enough to say we stand with folks or we are allies with marginalized groups. If we maintain we are Christ Followers, we need to take our example from him and embody solidarity with marginalized people.” The room was silent and then smiles broke out across every single face as they nodded in agreement.

Earlier in the conversation, the committee members were describing how they engaged their neighbors and what they understood their place to be in the community. In hearing my response, the committee members found words for what the church was doing intuitively as Christ Followers… embodying solidarity with the suffering. There may, or may not, have been liquid joy running down my face as I processed that moment later that evening.

In what ways am I embodying solidarity with the suffering? In what ways are you embodying solidarity with the suffering? In what ways is University of Lynchburg embodying solidarity with the suffering? These are good questions, which definitely should haunt us.

May our journey to the responses compel us to action!

Katrina