Martin Luther said that “to love is not to wish one another well, but to carry one another’s burdens—that is, things that are grievous to us, and that we would not willingly bear. Therefore, Christians must have strong shoulders and mighty bones.”
My sisters, if we are going to live out our mission and purpose as Women of the ELCA, we must be willing to carry the burdens of racism and white supremacy on our strong shoulders and in our mighty bones. We must be willing to work to overcome racism and end white supremacy.
It won’t be easy to dismantle the structural racism embedded within our institutions. Our government, educational systems and economy are all built on racist notions that run deep, going back 400 years to when enslaved Africans were first brought to our shores. But working together as women do, we will claim and practice an anti-racist identity.
This message is an excerpt from “Strong shoulders” by Linda Post Bushkofsky in the January/February 2021 issue of Gather magazine. Today we remember Jan Hus, martyr, who died in 1415.
Daily Grace has been offering you things to ponder and things to pray about for more than 10 years. For free. Women of the ELCA provides many other free online resources, too—see welca.org/resources. Please support Women of the ELCA at welca.org/give.
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