Planting Seeds of Reparations

NCF Office – January 16, 2024 4 Comments

Sharon Chubbuck, NCF Reparations Committee member, shares how our pilot project is planting seeds of reparations in our community. To learn more about this project, see the links attached in “Love Your Neighbor-An “Other” Way” online service. –Melissa Logsdon, NCF Associate Pastor

Last Sunday, Pastor Renée invited NCF to support “Investing in African American Families”—a pilot reparations project to create Educational IRAs to support post-secondary schooling for the grandchildren of former and current African American NCF participants.  The investments—seed money—will grow over time, playing one part in repairing the jagged scar of wealth inequality in the nation. As a member of the NCF Reparations Committee and the Board for this pilot project, I am happy to repeat Renée’s invitation.

But first, let me share a story:

After a chance meeting at the park, a colleague from Marquette University invited me to share our reparations journey with a group from his Catholic church. I described the three levels of reparations: city, state, and national advocacy for policy; community wide collaboration; and individual congregational efforts. Then I elaborated on NCF’s “Investing in African American Families.” Reparations is such a big topic, it can be overwhelming, so I was excited to share a practical step that a congregation could take. But a young man spoke up, “This pilot project is good, but the real issue is so much larger. The federal government needs to respond, not a small congregation in Illinois!”    

That stung! He quickly apologized for his comment, and we talked about the need for all three levels of reparations. But I left still mulling over the issue. Does the effort of one church matter? I believe the funds will matter to the individuals who receive them, though they won’t cover the full costs of advanced education. But equally important, this pilot project is a “seed” too. Just as the money NCF invests in Educational IRAs will grow over time, our local reparation effort, along with the efforts of groups and communities all across the nation and the world, are “seeds” that germinate, multiply, and produce the fruit of witness and momentum. This is already happening as reparations becomes a viable topic in countless settings, potentially leading to talk of large-scale reparations. When small seeds are planted, the harvest can be bountiful. Even if the first farmers don’t get to see the full results, they celebrate in anticipation of the increasing abundance that is coming.  

I am reminded of a poem by Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador: 

We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, 

but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.

Amen and amen.  May it be so! 

–Sharon Chubbuck