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AM preacher uplifts the power of relationships

Freeman Palmer, conference minister for the Central Atlantic Conference, said that as a same-gender loving person, he left the African American Baptist congregation in Washington, D.C.. he grew up in but it left an indelible mark on his faith.

Freeman Palmer gave two Annual Meetings presentations

“Every Sunday was praise, crucifixion, resurrection and the climax scripture from Acts 10 that Jesue “went about doing good.”

“The good Jesus did was counter cultural, revolutionary, pushing against Roman Empire that kept people politically, socially and economically oppressed. The religious system oppressed people, too,” Freeman said, “so Jesus overturned the tables of money changers.”

Realizing the good Jesus did got him crucified, Freeman said, “We need to create a sacred space for everyone.”

When Jesus healed a man on a Sabbath, he challenged whether it was more important not to heal on the Sabbath or to heal a man.

When the rich create poverty and undermine the well-being of people, it’s not time to follow them.

“Today 37 million live below the poverty line and lack what they need to survive,” said Freeman, adding that the marginalized include youth, oppressed and black people, women, Native Americans and indigenous people, transgender people, immigrant communities and religious minorities.

“If we have an old fashioned church potluck dinner, there needs to be a place for the voiceless, the marginalized, oppressed and othered,” he said.

“When rules create sacred spaces for the healing and the well-being of people, that is the time to follow them,” he said. “However, when rules don’t create sacred spaces for the healing and well-being of people, it is time not to follow them, no matter who is in power and making up the rules!

“If we are going to have a church dinner that is pleasing in God’s sight, then the people we need to send the invitations to are the marginalized, oppressed and the other,” he repeated telling of his experience in his childhood home, where his mother still lives. 

Her table has a leaf, and whenever there are more than four or five people at the house for a meal, she takes out the leaf, pulls the table apart and puts the leaf in so that more can sit at the table and eat the meal. 

“By putting that leaf in, we are deconstructing the table in order to create a bigger one so everyone my mother invited for our meal can be at the table,” Freeman said. 

He believes the analogy holds for the spiritual table the church sets.  If the number of people invited are too many for the table, then “let’s insert a spiritual leaf, deconstruct the table that is and make a bigger table where the marginalized can sit, the oppressed can have voice and the othered can be served,” Freeman said. “We need to create a sacred space. There is no excuse to say there is no room at the table. There is always room if we make it.

“When we host of such a gathering, we will experience a blessing of resurrection, even if the guests may not return the favor in the same way we expect,” Freeman quoted the sentiment of the scripture.

“People will tell stories and change our perspectives of the world that may not conform us to the world but transform us,” he continued. “The church needs resurrection. We need to rise out of our tombs of indifference, narrowmindedness, insularity, in maintaining a building—community that is fear based, compared to speaking the truth to power.

“When we invite people we rarely invite, we create space for resurrection to happen,” he affirmed. “What space do we want to create? Do we want to create sacred space where all come to the table? When we do create space for resurrection?”

In his Saturday morning message, Freeman made the point that the church’s mission since its beginning has been to create sacred space wherever it can create it through its witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Creating sacred space for all people, especially for the other, is why we are here today.  During the course of time, someone received a revelation from God that said the church’s mission was to create sacred space for someone who was previously denied that space,” he said.

Freeman said that is one way the church can follow Jesus to speak truth to power. 

While some churches may believe that they are never to mix politics with the gospel, he thinks that idea often comes from a confusion between what is political and what is partisan.

“What is going on in the U.S. today are attempts to make the gospel partisan. I believe it the gospel should not be partisan, but profoundly political,” he said, aware that “being a church that creates sacred spaces for all people is a risky business, but the Church has grown to where it is today because of people who took a risk of faith.”

What’s at stake in creating sacred space is the future of the Church, the movement of God’s hands and feet in the world as God intended it to be as the body of Christ, he said.

 “In contrast, the barrage of executive orders coming out of Washington DC are intended to make people feel powerless and overwhelmed,” Freeman observed. “We as people of faith need to be strategic and focused. To stay on course and speak truth to power, we need to collaborate around what we believe is right, and we need to united in our faith and our faithful resistance,” he said.

“Creating sacred space is the mission of the church. We are here because someone said we are sacred,” he said.

There are times silence is not golden when we see what is happening such as in Nazi Germany and in Birmingham, Ala., when Martin Luther King Jr wrote a letter to churches.

“We have to speak truth to power,”Freeman asserted.

For information, email fpalmer@cacucc.org or visit cacucc.org.

 

Pacific Northwest Conference United Church of Christ News © Summer 2025

 

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