Taking Liberation without Permission: Bree Newsome, #BlackLivesMatters, and the Hemorrhaging Woman (Lectionary Reflection)

Proper 8B — Mark 5:21-43

The woman with the hemorrhage didn’t ask permission.

She didn’t wait until the appropriate time.

She had suffered long enough.

So she took her liberation into her own hands.

She broke the rules.

And became free.

It reminds me so much of Bree Newsome, the courageous activist who took matters into her own hands and pulled down the hateful Confederate battle flag.

She didn’t have permission. She didn’t wait for the appropriate time. She broke the rules. She took liberation in her hands.

It reminds me so much of all the voices rising up against hate in our nation and standing for liberation. But it also reminds me of how much hemorrhaging is happening at the hands of relentless white supremacy.

In a week where calls for the battle flag to come down where sounded from conservatives and liberals alike, as many as  six black churches across the South were being burned in hate. And it seemed the mainstream media and much of the social media world were more concerned with #TakeItDown than with the resurgence of black churches burning down.

Liberation happened. And is happening. But there is still so much hemorrhaging in our world.

So may we join together with Bree Newsome, #blacklivesmatters activists, LGBTQ people, and all people hemorrhaging under and oppressed by our dominant culture as they take their liberation without permission, without going through the proper channels, and without fear.