In a U.S. Empire whose wrathful and deadly Lord is celebrating the 250th birthday of its flag, our readings deal with Lords. Exodus tells us the Lord Yahweh is once again wrathful and threatening death, “You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians.” In Romans, Paul of Tarsus relays that same Lord Yahweh’s wrath and deadliness, “while we were still sinners Christ died for us… (and we) will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.” Jesus frees us from Lords who rule over humanity and threaten wrath and death. He frees us to live together in communion, “The Community of God is at hand.”
The rule of wrathful and deadly Lords may have begun in ancient times but their rule continues in a long and still current line of descendants who continue to rule over humanity and prohibit communion. MAGA is the most recent name of such ruling Lords. Their wrath and deadliness that prohibits communion in the U.S. may feel recent to some of us, but has been long standing for others of us. MAGA are descendants of the Founding Fathers, Confederates, Wilson’s Birth of a Nation cadre, Truman and his membership fee to the KKK, Eisenhower’s forced support of Brown vs the Board of Education, the LBJ/Hoover COINTELPRO program against Black lives, Nixon’s War on Drugs targeting Black communities, Reagan’s State’s Rights support, Clinton’s Welfare Queen depictions, and currently Trump’s sprawling MAGA racism. MAGA continue the line of wrathful and deadly slave owner founders and Confederate descendants whose flag they fly, whose buildings and monuments they maintain, and whose insurrection they reestablished on J6, which is ongoing. They team up with white supremacist Proud Boys that form militia and legislators and Supreme Court judges to bring wrath and death upon Diverse-Equal-Inclusive people, especially for their attempts to vote, and for wanting not to live in a police state but, instead, in a peace state. Given such a history, it makes sense that white self-titled Christians of MAGA are celebrating Lord Trump’s 250th Flag Day for a U.S. Empire. They’re not celebrating their dark-skinned brother’s eternal Community of God that frees us from such Lords. How do we live together in communion under wrathful and deadly Lords? Some people decided that for them, communion was outside the U.S. Like Josephine Baker, W.E.B. Dubois, Nina Simone, and Tina Turner, James Baldwin (1924-1987) decided he could only live in communion by separating himself from U.S. rulers, their wrath and deadliness, “The years I lived in Paris did one thing for me. They released me from that particular social terror… a real social danger, visible in the face of every cop, every boss, everybody.” Malcolm X, who along with his family was threatened with death daily, advocated separation, I don’t “want integration … nor segregation… that which is forced upon inferiors by superiors.” In a “segregated community… the white man controls all of the Black businesses… he runs the politics… (and) controls all the civic organizations in the Negro community.” I “want separation.” Whites live as “a separate community… the white man controls his own economy, his own politics, his own everything.” “Separation is when… you control your own economy; you control your own politics; you control your own society; you control your own everything.” “We want the same for ourselves as you have for yourselves.” Wrathful and deadly Lords have made it so hard for us to live together in communion. They’ve devised a political system to prohibit our communion. Amidst people’s necessary decisions for their safety and fuller communion, we who remain are called to live together in community. Especially important communities include Black Voters Matter, the NAACP, National Action Network, the National Urban League, Rainbow/PUSH, and numerous others. Community members are like early disciples, part of a long and still current line of descendants who are building communion.
“For my people standing staring trying to fashion a better way from confusion, from hypocrisy and misunderstanding, trying to fashion a world that will hold all the people, all the faces, all the adams and eves and their countless generations…. Let a second generation full of courage issue forth; let a people loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty full of healing and a strength of final clenching be the pulsing in our spirits.” (For My People – Margaret Walker)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, hold us in communion.
Question: What communities do I belong to that energize my power in this time of wrathful and murderous Lords?
Sun, Jun 14, 2026 Gospel Mark 9:36-10:8 Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
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