This has been a rough week for us all – a rough week for our country. We’ve seem sights we’d hoped never to see and had some cherished illusions challenged. We’ve been both uplifted and horrified by what we have witnessed as we have finally been forced to admit to the sin of racism that has poisoned us for too long. It is clear that changes are needed – have been needed for a long, long time now – and with God’s help they will come to be.
The night before I wrote this, I came upon this quote from Bishop TD Jakes: "There are two things that we're looking at here. One of them is racism, which is a condition of the heart. And the other one is injustice, which is a result of an imbalance of power. And we have to work on both of them."
We really have to work on both of them...
I'm using two readings here to show us how ancient this sin is, in the hope that if we listen well, they might help us find our way to a path of equal justice.
Genesis 1:1 - 2:4 (please read the whole scripture for yourself...)
This scripture is much too long to print out here, but please do refresh your memory and read it all. It is the story of Creation. The six days of making and the one day of resting. It is a story that makes it absolutely clear that all that is—sky, sun, oceans, mountains, birds, giraffes--even humans—all were created in love and seen by our Creator as GOOD. At the end of each day, scripture says, God looked at that day’s work and saw that it was good. That’s the important point here. All creation is GOOD. There is no suggestion that there is any hierarchy of value here—no sign that any one part is better than or more important than any other. God looked at it and saw that it was GOOD. All of it.
2 Corinthians 13:11-12
This second reading is from the ending of St. Paul’s 2nd Letter to the people of Corinth, in Greece. It is part of his closing message...
Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
If you recall from when we studied Paul’s letters, that particular community in Corinth was Paul’s first success, and he holds them very dear to his heart; but he is angry with them right now because they are constantly fighting among themselves. 1st Corinthians was also about Paul being angry with them – the Corinthians seemed to have trouble holding it together. Some people could say the same about us today.
Anyway, Paul hasn’t been back to visit for a long time, and in his absence false teachers have come along and tried to hijack his converts with, unfortunately, some success.
Paul, of course, taught them that Jesus had come to do a new thing, to teach a new way of living together as God’s people—a way that fully includes everyone, even Gentiles, non-Jews. These false teachers claim that righteous living is only possible if the new Christians lead a completely Jewish life—converting to Judaism before they can ever be called Christians – making it harder for the Gentiles, like the Greeks, to be part of the Jesus followers.
This challenge to what Paul taught them has divided them, with those who follow the false teachers claiming to hold the right view as taught in the Hebrew scriptures and that, of course, it follows that their's is the morally superior path, while those who remained true to Paul, believed, as Paul taught them, that all are equal in Jesus. They were a community badly divided among themselves because they could not or would not recognize each other as brothers and sisters--equals in God’s eyes. (This is the familiar-sounding part.)
We know from the Creation story that we are all created as God’s own beautiful children, and in God’s sight we are all good. So how is it that we too often fight among ourselves? How is it we sometimes see ourselves as better than others? Or others as somehow less than ourselves? It’s an old, old struggle, obviously, from Paul’s Corinth to here in our world today.
Unfortunately, too many of us have lived inside this web of "otherness" so long that we don't even see it. I've noticed, in on-line stories or on the news, whenever someone has been caught doing something egregiously racist, the first words out of their mouths are always, "I'm not a racist. This isn't who I am." How do we learn to see each other as brothers and sisters? Really see that – not just say the words, but really believe it? It is long past time to see how our actions and our words divide and hurt and destroy the unity God created at the beginning.
How can we claim to be believers when we so casually ignore Jesus' command that we should "Love one another has I have loved you," or Paul's admonition to "agree with one another, live in peace; so that the God of love and peace will be with you." And, having come as far from thse teachings as we have, how do we now heal all the ancient hurts?
The meta answer has long been right in front of us, given us by the prophet Micah ... and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Easy to say. It should not be so hard to do. And yet we make it hard every day, generation upon generation. We work so hard to separate ourselves. We've spent most of our human existence creating categories by which we can separate, judge, hate, and exercise power over each other - sex, race, gender, place of origin, religious belief, abilities. Is it possible that we could work as hard to break the chain of arrogance and fear and hatred that continually binds us to conflict and hurt as we work to build those chains? Can we work hard enough to come back into that unity into which we were created -- the one where God looked at all of us and pronounced "It is very good"?
Lord, heal us--guide us--teach us. Correct us when we’re wrong and strengthen us when we’re right.
Amen.
The night before I wrote this, I came upon this quote from Bishop TD Jakes: "There are two things that we're looking at here. One of them is racism, which is a condition of the heart. And the other one is injustice, which is a result of an imbalance of power. And we have to work on both of them."
We really have to work on both of them...
I'm using two readings here to show us how ancient this sin is, in the hope that if we listen well, they might help us find our way to a path of equal justice.
Genesis 1:1 - 2:4 (please read the whole scripture for yourself...)
This scripture is much too long to print out here, but please do refresh your memory and read it all. It is the story of Creation. The six days of making and the one day of resting. It is a story that makes it absolutely clear that all that is—sky, sun, oceans, mountains, birds, giraffes--even humans—all were created in love and seen by our Creator as GOOD. At the end of each day, scripture says, God looked at that day’s work and saw that it was good. That’s the important point here. All creation is GOOD. There is no suggestion that there is any hierarchy of value here—no sign that any one part is better than or more important than any other. God looked at it and saw that it was GOOD. All of it.
2 Corinthians 13:11-12
This second reading is from the ending of St. Paul’s 2nd Letter to the people of Corinth, in Greece. It is part of his closing message...
Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
If you recall from when we studied Paul’s letters, that particular community in Corinth was Paul’s first success, and he holds them very dear to his heart; but he is angry with them right now because they are constantly fighting among themselves. 1st Corinthians was also about Paul being angry with them – the Corinthians seemed to have trouble holding it together. Some people could say the same about us today.
Anyway, Paul hasn’t been back to visit for a long time, and in his absence false teachers have come along and tried to hijack his converts with, unfortunately, some success.
Paul, of course, taught them that Jesus had come to do a new thing, to teach a new way of living together as God’s people—a way that fully includes everyone, even Gentiles, non-Jews. These false teachers claim that righteous living is only possible if the new Christians lead a completely Jewish life—converting to Judaism before they can ever be called Christians – making it harder for the Gentiles, like the Greeks, to be part of the Jesus followers.
This challenge to what Paul taught them has divided them, with those who follow the false teachers claiming to hold the right view as taught in the Hebrew scriptures and that, of course, it follows that their's is the morally superior path, while those who remained true to Paul, believed, as Paul taught them, that all are equal in Jesus. They were a community badly divided among themselves because they could not or would not recognize each other as brothers and sisters--equals in God’s eyes. (This is the familiar-sounding part.)
We know from the Creation story that we are all created as God’s own beautiful children, and in God’s sight we are all good. So how is it that we too often fight among ourselves? How is it we sometimes see ourselves as better than others? Or others as somehow less than ourselves? It’s an old, old struggle, obviously, from Paul’s Corinth to here in our world today.
Unfortunately, too many of us have lived inside this web of "otherness" so long that we don't even see it. I've noticed, in on-line stories or on the news, whenever someone has been caught doing something egregiously racist, the first words out of their mouths are always, "I'm not a racist. This isn't who I am." How do we learn to see each other as brothers and sisters? Really see that – not just say the words, but really believe it? It is long past time to see how our actions and our words divide and hurt and destroy the unity God created at the beginning.
How can we claim to be believers when we so casually ignore Jesus' command that we should "Love one another has I have loved you," or Paul's admonition to "agree with one another, live in peace; so that the God of love and peace will be with you." And, having come as far from thse teachings as we have, how do we now heal all the ancient hurts?
The meta answer has long been right in front of us, given us by the prophet Micah ... and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Easy to say. It should not be so hard to do. And yet we make it hard every day, generation upon generation. We work so hard to separate ourselves. We've spent most of our human existence creating categories by which we can separate, judge, hate, and exercise power over each other - sex, race, gender, place of origin, religious belief, abilities. Is it possible that we could work as hard to break the chain of arrogance and fear and hatred that continually binds us to conflict and hurt as we work to build those chains? Can we work hard enough to come back into that unity into which we were created -- the one where God looked at all of us and pronounced "It is very good"?
Lord, heal us--guide us--teach us. Correct us when we’re wrong and strengthen us when we’re right.
Amen.
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