Chi & The Branch

Worship song: Change me by Tamela Mann

Verse: If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated

you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but

because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,

therefore the world hates you.

John 15:18-19

Truth is, the cancelling aspect of cancel culture started centuries before today. Our contemporaries will tell you otherwise, when really the practice of alienating, ostracising and essentially rebuking man has surpassed the end of time. So in one mind:  I began to ask just where are ‘the cancelled’ in the Bible? And quite simply, the examples started to run over from the infirm woman, the woman by the well and Jesus himself. And still the first example I look to is Matthew the tax collector. His story is often missed but his message to the world is so poignant, it deserves to be recognised. As a man who overcharged the Jews for living under the Roman Senate, this man was hated. In today’s terms, they went on twitter rants about this man, instagramed their outrage, blocked, trashed and loaded his DMs with crude, bitter language. And of course, even worse, was the fact that this man (the HOLIEST of men) called Jesus decided to share bread with him and call him one of his very own disciples. MAD! Imagine the feed now, it’s populated with ire towards Jesus, at this point it’s become a trend to say something negative about him too. The world thinks how dare you so pure and just give this man a second chance? Is this not the way celebs who side with antagonists are perceived? Suddenly, they too are subject to the same hateful reckoning. Light bulb moment as we have assumed the role of the Judge.

Matthew, Zechariah and others in the Word were thrust out of every social and professional circle known because of the previous choices they made. The public had decided who they were. It speaks true in so many stages, where as Christians, we are unjust at heart, highly judgemental and professing to be more righteous than the next person. We become part of making social pariahs the norm, we follow the world and cancelling is just as easy as drinking water. Have we come so far from what we looked like that we can’t empathise with what we see now?

How do we as Christians shuttle in a world that seems to hold onto your past? Because if I were judged based on my former self, what an outcast I would be! If I were judged based on these impossible standards, that condemnation would rule over the beauty of my becoming, over the lessons of my learning, over the new and improved version of me, Chi. It’s a hard pill to swallow and in fact not everyone will agree with the message the Spirit has surfaced in my heart over the last few weeks. I can hear some saying sis, but cancelling is valid when it comes to Trump or the George Floyd Minneapolis police officers and girlll, Putin should get under your skin. They all do, don’t worry and I struggle. I am not preaching tolerance, but I am praying for a world where my future children understand that rehabilitation and restoration are the common goal. A place which educates more than it smears or tarnishes, a forgiving world without rash hypocrisy or whistleblowers who delight in shame rather than tutelage or teaching.

To those who are currently being cancelled or who have been for a while. Blessed are those who are cancelled. Persecution is a wonderful space for edification and growth. Whether you have actually done wrong by worldly standards: did you say something politically incorrect in office? Act in a morally repugnant way? Use this time away from everything and everyone to GROW. Are there gaps in wisdom in your life, is there a conscious renewal of mind and heart that needs to manifest? Be vulnerable and transparent about these areas. Seek God and the gift of the Holy Spirit which instructs you with wisdom is on the table. You being cancelled does NOT define you, it’s how you rise from it that does.

Or maybe you have not done wrong by biblical standards (i.e the disciples who were persecuted for walking with God) and the world chooses to cancel you. Please, this my friend, is still your prayer room, seize it! The memory verse tells us that its not about you it’s all about Him, the world’s hatred started with Him, if you will be bold about Him don’t always expect an audience of love.. otherwise no surprise, prepare for a rude awakening.

Prayer: Jesus, take the punishment and justice out of my hands. I don’t want offence to rule me or to miss out on the entirety of relationship with people, because of lack of grace or mercy. I want to have a posture of forgiveness, I no longer want to be reactionary, let the chance of redemption be at the pulpit of my heart, not the prospect of judging, fault-finding or cancelling. Make me more like you, change me o God. Love you. Amen.