Church, it’s time to put your marching shoes on!

This Sunday, after we celebrate the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem with waving palm branches, we’re going to celebrate unity, empowerment, and family in the streets of Dallas with waving American flags.

After worship, we’re going to make our way to Guadalupe Cathedral in downtown, where we will join the Dallas Mega-March 2017, which starts promptly at 2 pm. The march will end in a rally at Dallas City Hall, and will feature speakers including Martin Luther King III, Danny Glover, Jamie Foxx, and others

I would love to see a KPUMC presence at the march, because this event celebrates the values and principles which our church community holds dear. In general, the Mega-March is meant as a statement that the people of Dallas are united against hate, discrimination, and inequality.

According to event organizers, it is “time to speak up for the voices that often go unheard; time to beat hate with love; time to fight for the generations to come; time to show that our community is unified.”

Specifically, the march will resist three recent developments in the country: aggressive immigration enforcement efforts; the Muslim travel ban; and rising hate crimes. Each of these developments harms our communities and demands a response from faith communities.

Most of us don’t personally suffer the effects of these developments. None of us face deportation; none of us likely have had think about altering our travel plans because of executive orders; and few of us worry about hate crimes.

But just because we don’t suffer, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t march. As the body of Jesus Christ in the world, we need to be present in the streets on Sunday. We need to march in solidarity with those who face these present realities. We must rally around them as brothers and sisters of God’s world, seeking their shalom, and demanding justice. 

This is who we are, or at least, who we must become.

That has been the point of my Lent devotionals. A church which does not pursue justice on behalf of society’s most vulnerable people does not really worship the true God, no matter what it does or says on Sunday morning. People who fast and pray in the most pious ways but live dishonest and unjust lives do not really know God.

Let’s put the truth of what we celebrate on Sunday morning in worship, song, and prayer into practice on Sunday afternoon! Let’s march!