“It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ and whom God now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet for you from your own people as he raised me up.’ He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living oracles to give to us. Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ At that time they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands. But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
‘Did you offer to me slain victims and sacrifices
forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
No; you took along the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
so I will remove you beyond Babylon.’ (Acts 7:35-43, NRSVue)
This is from the speech of Stephen, where he tells the history of Jesus to the religious leaders before they stone him. He expounds on the story of Israel, telling their history in the way it was meant to be told and understood, not how the leaders were teaching and twisting the story for their power to stay in place.
What do we know from our history that was taught to us wrong, in order for power to be maintained? In the United States, there is a lot in our history that is meant to keep white power in place. How many of the race riots did you learn about in school? How many of the indigenous peoples’ massacres did you learn about?
We are told the history to maintain power and status quo…
What history do we need to learn?
aSacredRebel 