Smoky Hill Umc Weekly Sermon

This Sunday's scripture text is Deuteronomy 7:1-9 and the sermon title is "The Promised Land: Was it Meant for ALL or only a Few?"   In Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, Dr. Musa Dube posed a question, which is as poignant today as it was when she wrote them twenty years ago: Why the Biblical text and its Western readers were instruments of imperialism and how Black Africans can justify their faith in a religion that has betrayed them..."a religion of the enemy, so to speak." This question is not just limited to Blacks in Africa but to persons of color in America and youth and young adults of all races. Personally, I can't count the number of times I have been asked how I can believe in and preach a faith that continues to oppress people of color.  Sadly, I personally know and have been told about youth and young adults who cannot connect with the Bible, because it is "irrelevant, misogynistic, patriarchal, and endorses slavery and other kinds of oppression".    Today, we look at the story of