The Need for Theological-Ministerial Wood-Cutters

By Rev. Troy L. M. Denson

Oct. 8, 2020

These days we need authentic theological, ministerial, laity "wood-cutters." At first they are not popular and often disliked, but their works change the trajectory of the direction of religious laws and human laws, and the lives of people living in the margins for the better. Throughout bible and contemporary histories, God has called people to do arduous works in praying, studying, writing and pontificating words that inspired works for changing and sustaining the reform of laws, which moved people to improved lives amidst the human-race; and I call those collective works "cutting down the wood." People such as Abraham, Jochebed, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, David, Zephaniah, the NT-Ethiopian, John Mark, Rev. Leille and Rev. Bryan, Richard Allen, WEB Dubois, George W. Carver, James Cone, Martin Luther King, 

Barbara Jordan, Barak O'Bama (among many many other women and men), all "cut-down wood." It is easy to enjoy going to the shed and retrieving wood that is already cut-down. Anyone can quote words, tune-up, and march as our ancestors and "burn the wood already cut-down" for warming people's hopes. However, the world has come to a point that quoting our ancestors to support a biblical message or former ideological thought is not good enough for inspiring and sustaining a message, mission, and praxis in changing cultural nuances and reforming laws. We need "wood cutters" that will do the arduous works for moving people beyond burning the "wood of liberation" into the "tall trees of reform" for "cutting down the wood of 'living into' the entire human race", so that we all can partake of God's covenant given to Abraham, embodied by Jesus, given to the disciples, trajected through Africa, and brought to the U.S. I am reminded of Joshua, after having burned the wood of Moses for 40 years and arrived across the Jordan river "beyond liberation," where they would "live into" a reformed/ covenantal lifestyle, he told the protesting children of Joseph, "... If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself..." (Joshua 17:15). Yahweh told the same to Haggai due to the protesting people, "Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and be glorified..." (Haggai 1:8). Then after the Branch had become human (Jesus) and he had breathed his Spirit into the disciples, he told them to likewise become "wood-cutters," in their local vicinity, regionally, and abroad (Acts 1:8), for improving the spiritual and physical lives of those who had been disenfranchised by Roman gentrification. Today, the message and mission of liberation accomplished its course, it changed laws enabling black men and women to vote, work, and live freely. However now, at the dawn of the 21st Century whereas we must take on new responsibilities for "living equitably," we need new "wood-cutters" to take us beyond liberation... for partaking in "reforming laws and living into a Christ-like covenantal lifestyle", which will enable all of us to live equally, alongside, and even among fellow people as a part of the human-race. #WoodCutters