Saturday, November 8, 2008

Opressed and Oppressors; Blessings and Curses.

10:39 PM by Christi Bowman

Kevin and I were discussing "Liberation Theology" and the famous sermon where Obama's Reverend Wright vehemently exclaims...

"God damn America!"

Kevin listened to the whole sermon, and while he admitted that Reverend Wright stands on the left side of this theology, the theology, in and of itself, is not wrong.

From my limited understanding of Liberation Theology, I gather that it is a theology based on the Biblical fact that God is the God of the oppressed and He will fight for them...so you better not be the oppressor. Holding on to that belief is not wrong and like any other theology there is a left and a right side. The problem lies in the extreme left wanting to take matters of God's judgment into their own hands and in their own timing; in so doing they give up their favored status in the eyes of God, as an oppressed people, and become judged by God as the oppressor.

Let me say that again...by removing God's hand, and taking matters into your own, you walk away from God's promises to you, the oppressed, and become the oppressor.

We were continuing our conversation when I recalled reading with Ella, in Genesis chapter 10, the story of Ham's curse. I remembered learning that it was a widely accepted view, in the church, during the time of slavery, that to own slaves was to participate in God's work. They were divinely carrying out the curse of God because the Africans were the sons of Ham, and Ham and his children, cursed by God, were to serve his brothers and his brother's children...or in other words, the world. By taking the matters of God into their own hands, they became the oppressor.

Of course, there is no proof, that I know of, that says the Africans are descendants of Ham, nor is that my point. But, what I began to ask myself was...

Is a curse a blessing?

God is the God of the backwards kingdom...a kingdom where what we view as last is in all actuality, first. He calls things that are not as though they are, and His very nature is to right wrongs. It seems to me, to be in the very nature of God, to bless the very thing He curses...while blowing our minds in the process.

Maybe, in true God like fashion, the commandment to "bless our enemies" is in all actuality, for our good (right, wrong or indifferent, it is easier for me to do things of God when I see how it works out to my benefit.) We do not have a clear understanding of what goes on in the spiritual realm, however, we do know that what we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Maybe He is letting us in on a spiritual fact...if we curse our enemies they become the oppressed and we the oppressors. He has no other option but to bless our enemies, and we will be the receivers of His wrath. In blessing our enemies we trust our fate, and that of our enemies, to the justice of God.

Could a curse be a blessing...What do you think?

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