Reconciling with the Other: The Work of Equality

2^nd Corinthians 8:1-15

I chose our scripture today because it is about equality. Each week in this series I am going to be focusing on a group of people the Church universal has created a broken relationship with. This week we are going to focus on people of color. This history of our particular racism within the church in the US goes back to when Christians in the united states used scripture as a reason for why slavery was not just accepted but encouraged. Slaves were considered less than human and the church did nothing to say this was wrong- in fact, many used the book of Philemon to justify these acts. Christianity followed the status quo- segregated churches, schools, laws- Aside from a select few the church as a whole did not blink an eye at people being treated less than human- the very institution that supposedly brought the love and grace of God to all peoples. This is where the “doing nothing” became a doing something because by doing nothing to stop the inhumane treatment they became accomplices, and this continues today.

So how as a church do we begin to reconcile this relationship? Especially if many of us are still accomplices in creating inequality? Again I include myself in this because there are many things out of habit or what I perceive as normal that I do that add to the unjust systems that perpetuate racism.

The best layout I’ve seen of how to reconcile goes like this: We understand the part we play. We confess of these actions. We actively try to create Equality. Thus The key question becomes  how to create this? The Bible gives us examples on how to do this- for us we often think that to provide equality for someone else it does not mean taking away from ourselves but the Bible says differently-

Galatians 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

 Philippians 2:3-4 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

 Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Luke 3:11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

1 John 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?

God is direct and to the point.

The Bible says if you want equality you have to give up something from yourself.

I’m going to say the word that triggers people- privilege- people have big reactions to this word. The reason we need to talk about privilege is because it is the thing that gets in the way of achieving equality. So when talking about trying to create equality between races we talk about white privilege because other races do not have the same equality as white people. So let’s get on the same page about what white privilege is- when someone has privilege it does not mean they have not suffered or have not been oppressed but in this case, it means those things have not happened because of their race or the color of their skin. That may happen as part of the system that was created around racism but not because they are white- but because others are not white. Creating equality for all people will also help all races- just as sexism hurts both sexes, racism hurts all races. I think many people are triggered by this because they feel as though being categorized as having white privilege scoffs at any hardship or suffering they might have endured- the term white privilege is simply trying to convey that there are certain advantages to being white. This comes in physical, emotional, mental, financial advantages etc.

What I have been learning is that by doing nothing- I am actually contributing to the problem. This is hard for us to accept. The problem is that so many daily or natural things we do to live feed into this problematic system of inequality. So, unfortunately, if we don’t intentionally choose differently, we are adding to the inequality.

I had to first mourn this before I could move on. I was grieving. We don’t just grieve death- we grieve things that aren’t as they should be, we grieve disappointment, we grieve missed opportunity, lost jobs, the end of a dream, a change of location and we grieve change. In grief there are 5 stages- denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance- many of us are in the denial stage- we say things like,  “this isn’t actually the problem”,  “I am not a part of this problem,”  “this is not true”, “I don’t see evidence of this”- we are in denial because if it is true- we can’t avoid it any longer. I personally am passed the denial stage but I still get stuck in the anger phase or the bargaining stage. I am angry about things that are maybe not right for me to be angry at but I am going to share them with you because I think it’s helpful to know that maybe others have the same thoughts. I sometimes get angry that this is my generation’s duty to make it better. I am angry that we are on a self-awareness kick now and not 200 years ago. I bargain that if I change my thinking then do I not have to change my actions? When it comes to grief- it’s different for every person. The stages are not linear- you can go back and forth between them. And for each person it takes a different amount of time. This is where we can attempt to shed off some of that shame- when we understand we are grieving- that we are going through a process of realizing things are not what we thought- then maybe there is some grace. Maybe while our actions are bad, we are not bad people. We simply need to come to terms with this new understanding and work to make it right.

So instead of being ashamed of my privilege I have come to see it as a gift- not one that I have to be ashamed of but one that enables me to share and educate and provide and encourage others with. Scripture talks about having the privilege of sharing in the service of the lord. I have the privilege to use my education, my career, my good upbringing, my self-esteem, my influence, my finances to be a part of bringing about equality which as we see in our scriptures today is one of God’s main missions.

So at the end of each sermon in this series, I am going to take some time to talk about some ways we can move forward in this process: a what’s next of sorts.

The work to do is action but it may not look like action in the way you are used to. This is action through emotional work. It is choosing to carry the burden. Realizing you have the privilege to “turn it off” and others don’t. We can decide to carry this burden, put it down and pick it back up again. For others, they never receive the relief of getting to put it down.

And then there is the action of reflective work- asking yourself, why is it so exhausting and difficult to put my effort into furthering someone ele’s journey. Does it bother me to spend time furthering someone else’s journey rather than mine? Or asking,  why is it so hard to admit I am part of the problem?  For me, what is so exhausting- is my will to do it perfectly- we don’t want to engage unless we know we will be right- we don’t want to constantly be told- not quite or try again or make this adjustment or that- it takes a lot of energy out of us to constantly be corrected- but guess what? We have no idea what we are doing. We cannot learn how to do it any other way than by trial and error. We have to ask for help- we have to be prepared to write many drafts so to speak- it reminds me of when someone sends a book draft to an editor and when someone finally thinks it has something of worth they still want them to change most of it except for the glimmer of promise they see – its edit after edit after edit ( towards the end of college I just straight up skipped this step). I hate to edit.

So to begin our action looks like: reflect, reflect, reflect and do the emotional work of carrying the burden even when you don’t want to.

How do we carry burdens as Christians? Not alone but together. Create small groups between you and meet and talk about how you see these things coming up in your life. What is it like to carry the emotional burden? What has worked for some and what hasn’t? Going through something together is what makes it possible to do. You cannot do this alone- you will burn out. And the second thing we will do is pray that God will use us to do this work so lets end with this prayer:

Dear God,

In our efforts to dismantle racism, 

we understand that we struggle not merely against flesh and blood 

but against powers and principalities – 

those institutions and systems that keep racism alive 

by perpetuating the lie 

that some members of the family are inferior and others superior.

Create in us a new mind and heart 

that will enable us to see brothers and sisters

in the faces of those divided by racial categories.

Give us the grace and strength to rid ourselves 

of racial stereotypes that oppress some of us 

while providing entitlements to others.

Help us to create a church and a nation 

that embraces the hopes and fears of oppressed people of color where we live, 

as well as those around the world.

Heal your family God, 

and make us one with you, 

in union with our brother Jesus, 

and empowered by your Holy Spirit.

~ written by the Pax Christi Anti-Racism Team. Posted on peaceonjustice and elsewhere.  https://peaceonjustice.wordpress.com/

Reconciling with the Other

Hebrews 12:1-11

Today we are beginning a 6-week sermon series on Reconciliation. Each week, I am going to be focusing on a people group that the Church has historically had a broken relationship with. Today we will begin just by talking about what reconciliation is and why it’s important. We might feel like this is a pretty self-explanatory answer but I want to dive into what the Bible has to say about reconciliation.

I want to say this first- Some of the things we will talk about will be hard and may make you uncomfortable- me too. I am on this journey with you. I am on my own journey of figuring out what it means to reconcile myself to people who in the past I have intentionally or unintentionally hurt. I am not perfect. I have made many mistakes. I only wish to learn more about how to do better. This takes a lot of humility- probably the hardest part for me. It takes education. It takes motivation- also hard for me because while I believe this work is important- when I’m done making sure my needs and those closest to me are taken care of, it often feels like I don’t have the energy to do this work and that’s just the unfortunate truth. I don’t have many answers. I get stuck in my guilt too much. I overthink and don’t act. It’s very much a mess. But it’s a mess that I feel I must show up for and I hope you will join me. Together we can challenge our humility, sit in the uncomfortable and learn new ways of bettering ourselves.

As your pastor, I think that means I have to have the courage to do this but it doesn’t mean I know how so I ask for your grace as we go on this journey together. Vulnerability I think is the only real way to make any progress so I will be vulnerable with you about my own experiences and I hope you will respond with vulnerability back.

The reason I believe we first have to look at our history and be aware of our actions as a Church is because our faith is one of repentance; forgiveness is abundant but you first have to repent and in order to do that we have to become aware of our wrongdoings. This can be difficult because in many cases we didn’t intend to or even know we caused harm. And yet- the damage was still done. This is where the humility comes in. I have learned in my short time being married- that it doesn’t matter whether or not I meant to cause harm to my husband- what he needs is the acknowledgment that at least now I understand and apologize. In our culture, we get very heightened over who’s to blame- rather than how to make peace. It is more important for us to be right or rid ourselves of any accusations than it is to reconcile a relationship and it is maybe our biggest downfall.

We have to first be truthful, knowing that our faults do not define us. We’ve touched on this before but if we fall into a shame spiral when we are confronted with our mistakes then we will be paralyzed. But if we respond with grace knowing that we are more than our mistakes then while we may still feel guilt we will be motivated to change. Part of repenting is more than just admitting our wrongdoing but we have to want to change- want to cease doing harm. Then we can ask for forgiveness and try and do better. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time- I used to be more judgmental and had opinions that were harmful and I did hurt people- I still do. When I was in high school and a newly converted Christian I judged my sister a lot because she didn’t follow the same moral path that I did- the only one I thought was legitimate. It caused a big rift in our relationship and I tainted Christianity for her even to this day. It wasn’t until I was faced with the realization that I could either have a good relationship with my sister or I could continue to hold these morals as idols that I decided God cared more about relationship. And I’m so glad I realized this without wasting any more of my time severing my relationship with my sister.   Now, I still hurt people but  I am aware and now I genuinely wish to change even if sometimes I am at a loss of how to do that. I realized though for me and I think this is true of most, that until I really get a glimpse of how my actions have harmed someone I don’t feel the need to change. Maybe on a logical level, I noticed the unfairness and that it was wrong but I didn’t feel compelled to have a personal stake in the game. I didn’t feel convicted that this was my problem to fix. My wrong to make right. Through the storytelling of many people, I have been changed. After hearing so many stories of people who have hated themselves because people like me have made them feel less than human, I can no longer feel good about not doing anything. I am realizing more and more that we cannot be whole if everyone is not whole. Our society is so individualized that we believe our individual successes and progress is just that individual and maybe that is why we see so much pain everywhere and so much division. No matter what our bank account statement is or how many friends we have- we are only as successful and whole as our neighbor is.

I picked this scripture today because it talks about what it looks like to be reproved by God in order to help us become people who can love one another with our whole hearts. This scripture is so fascinating to me- for He disciplines us for good so that we may share in his holiness. Friends this process of becoming christ-like is painful- For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” The author of Hebrews uses the metaphor of running a race- it’s painful, it’s difficult, it takes a long time to train for it- that’s what we will metaphorically be doing these next 6 weeks. Like muscles that are being broken open so they can become stronger so will we. If you want to do this hard work- be open to being broken open- many times so that each time you come back together stronger. And don’t forget God chooses to reprove us and make us better because he loves us- because we are worth it. God believes we can do better, God believes we are worthy and capable of bringing all God’s children into the loving embrace of God. And that is an honor like no other.

So Hebrews tell us it’s supposed to be painful. But why should we feel obligated to go through this pain? I am not normally a scripture warrior- I don’t throw out verses here and there but when it comes to certain things like social justice you better believe I am going to use it like the sword it is. Romans says, For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.- we received reconciliation to God- we were his enemies. Colossians says, Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Pretty self-explanatory. Ephesians says,  “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you”. Hebrews again says, “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness, no one will see the Lord.” 2^nd Corinthians says, “ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” I could go on and on and on- there is no more material on anything in the Bible than this.

God reconciled us to him while we were his enemies- we are only called to reconcile fellow humans. Which shouldn’t be that hard because we are all the same- coming from Galatians and Ephesians respectably- ^28yThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave¹ nor free, ^zthere is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called ^kthe circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember ^lthat you were at that time separated from Christ, ^malienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to ⁿthe covenants of promise, ^ohaving no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were ^pfar off have been brought near ^qby the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For ^rhe himself is our peace, ^swho has made us both one and has broken down ^tin his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ^uordinances, that he might create in himself one ^vnew man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might ^wreconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. ¹⁷ And he came and ^xpreached peace to you who were ^yfar off and peace to those who were ^znear. ¹⁸ For ^athrough him we both have ^baccess in ^cone Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ So then you are no longer ^dstrangers and aliens,¹ but you are ^efellow citizens with the saints and ^fmembers of the household of God, ^20 gbuilt on the foundation of the ^hapostles and prophets, ⁱChrist Jesus himself being ^jthe cornerstone, ^21 kin whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into ^la holy temple in the Lord. ²² In him ^myou also are being built together ⁿinto a dwelling place for God by² the Spirit.

The Church has historically made exceptions or excuses for why these scriptures do not apply to them. You have to do some serious theological gymnastics to make a case for that and even then it’s biased based on the objective of the reader. We are all biased-we all have motives. Let us look at scripture with new eyes. Nowhere does it say love these people except… Nowhere does it says anyone is better than anyone else…Nowhere does it say to “love” is to accept in word but not in your heart. Nowhere does it say it’s easy- so if we have not struggled to love every single person well then we have been doing it wrong. Jesus set a different standard than the world- radical even. Jesus commands us to love people the world would never agree to- the murderer, rapist, abuser. And by love He doesn’t mean be best friends with or don’t hold them accountable but he does mean treat them as human. The sooner we begin to get away from this earthly perspective of what love is, justice is, humanity is the sooner we will begin to understand the kingdom of God. These next few weeks we will talk about how we have knowingly or unknowingly treated people as less than human.

Next week is where it begins to get hard- next week we talk about how doing nothing is actually doing something- something harmful. We will talk about how if we say we believe scripture and we believe these commands then that means we have to change. Most in not all of you probably agree with what I’m preaching in this sermon but will you still say that when it means risking your power, your comfortability, your peace of mind, the way your life has looked? I include myself in this- I am educated enough to know what to do- but I am scared. I am selfish. I am righteous. I believe that I deserve things that I do not. And I have to work every day to remind myself to work on these things. The good news though- we don’t have to do it alone. We can be on the struggle bus together. I encourage you to pray about it. Seriously. Pray and pray and pray some more that God will do this work within you. And I will do this too. Amen.

It’s all in the Witness

John 20:1-18

Happy Easter Everyone! Today is a joyous day where we get to celebrate resurrection- new life and redemption. We get to celebrate justice being served after being starved from it for so long. This Easter hits differently for me than any other year. I want to take you on my Holy Week journey for a minute so hopefully, you come to appreciate this joyous day as much as I do because it was a hard road to get here. You see this Holy week was rough. Monday through Wednesday I could not figure out how I was going to be able to write a joyful sermon quite honestly. Monday started the trial of Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd. Tuesday and Wednesday I had an antiracism training, and to top it off today is the anniversary of the assassination of MLK jr. On Wednesday I was grasping at straws at how to celebrate new life when there is death literally all around me. Today, we get to celebrate justice- but every time I turn on the trial I get this fear that yet again justice will not be served. I was not in a place to write another sermon about hope or joy or love- they felt like empty promises in the wake of real-life horror. MLK jr. was assassinated 53 years ago and here we are still today saying it’s okay to murder black people. Don’t worry this isn’t a sermon about racism- it’s a sermon about new life. And we will get there but just like we had to go through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday first- we have to first live in the tension of how uncomfortable it feels that what God accomplished that day feels so very far away. Folks, the cross represents both suffering and victory- you can’t have one without the other.

Part of my job as a pastor is to pay attention to where God is at, where God shows up, Where God is speaking. It’s to be aware of the spirit and the direction it’s calling us as a community. What are the chances that the trial for the murder of George Floyd, my mandatory anti-racism training, and MLK Jr.’s assignation anniversary would all fall on Holy Week? Oh and to top it off, as I was leaving the church Wednesday I was headed to the grocery store and found myself on gallows road- to be fair the gallows road might have been a coincidence but to ignore these other events on this holiest of weeks would have been to dismiss the voice of God, to dismiss the spirits leading.

What I had to figure out what was- what does all this death have to do with new life? What does our present injustice have to do with God’s promise of Justice? If this really is the good news and I wholeheartedly believe it is- then where is it? How do we rejoice when so many are hurting? Is new life really offered to all? Normally in situations like this when I have to sit in the tension I get angry but this time I knew it was bad because I wasn’t even angry, I was just sad. I was overwhelmed. I couldn’t grasp how God died for all people- every race, gender, ethnicity, economic status, and yet here we are- a system determined to undo God’s power and say that’s not true.  So that’s where I was the first half of the week- and I bring you along because if we are to really understand this easter message then we have to first go through the darkness.

Flash forward to Thursday after I had talked to my clergy friends about their struggle with this and I was feeling a little more optimistic. At 2 am that morning, I had this realization- I’ll describe what I mean by that in a minute but I have had these ah-ha moments too often where I convince myself I will remember in them in the morning and of course I forget so this time I forced myself to put my glasses on and texted myself. Before I went to sleep, I had been playing around with this idea of witness- This word almost has two meaning for us. In our text this morning we had witnesses of Jesus death now be witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection- important to note- they were women and while we will not talk much about this now- we will talk about this in the coming weeks because it is no accident that the witnesses were women and why Jesus chose them. ( Okay, I just have to make one comment because I can’t resist- you know how we always talk about how all Jesus friend’s abandoned him? Well, really it’s just the men because the women never left).

 So we have the witnesses that become aware of this truth- they see it with their eyes and then the second part of witness- is not just what we see but what we then go tell- Mary is told to what we call “witness” to others about what she had seen. This idea of witness is about seeing truth and then telling truth. It took courage for Mary as a woman in that society to go and proclaim such a truth! It would bring attention to her, she could not explain what she knew for she did not understand it. She would have been scared for herself and for Jesus considering they killed him only days prior to let this information to be known. And yet- she got the incredible opportunity to share this good news. She had the responsibility of truth-telling- a truth that would change the world forever. A truth that showed justice was indeed served. This act of witnesses took courage and bravery.

So we have the witnesses in our scripture this morning- they are the ones that bring hope and truth and quite literally the good news. I was thinking about witness as I was studying our scripture but I was also thinking about witness because all this past week in the trial of George Floyd’s murder was the testifying of all the witnesses of his death. I watched these people- some of who broke down and cried. One was a 9-year-old child, One a paramedic, one a firefighter, loved ones, strangers. These people are risking their lives, to tell the truth of what happened that day. Many people do not want them to talk- who want them silenced. They saw and now they tell. The courage and bravery are themselves a wtiness that truth must be told. They are also deciding to re-live trauma every time they tell this truth as was visibly noticeable on the stand.

So I texted myself this in my sleepy stupor- “ It’s all in the witness- the good news, the hope, the redemption, the justice. It’s the courage to tell this truth- to take this risk. Both Jesus’s witness of mary and those of George Floyd- 2 men who were killed unjustly by systems that were fearful of them- are seen risking their lives to tell this truth. These witnesses are living signs of resurrection- in Jesus’ case he was raised- he came back to his people- to give us new life. In George Floyd’s case- he did not resurrect but these witness are signs that Jesus’ promise holds true that death is not the final word- even if on this earth we still struggle to make that a reality the fact that people are willing to risk their lives to point to truth shows signs of resurrection today.

I want to sit here with this idea of witness for a minute longer- first the word witness is used 79 times in the NT but 34 of those times are in the gospel of John. The really interesting thing though is that the Greek word for witness is martry. It means to be willing to suffer death in order to bear truth. It’s all in the witness. God shows up to us today in our witness. So how are we witnessesing? What are we a witness of? Do we have the eyes to see and better yet to we have the voice to tell about it?

This brings me to my other ah-ha moment I had in playing around with this tension of life and death and resurrection and victory and injustice and murder and that is that This Easter message invites us and encourages us to bring about life in all that we do. We don’t just witness through our words- that’s a huge part but we also witness through our actions, our thoughts, our beliefs. In our scripture today- Jesus’s interaction with Mary was so short before he told her to go and tell! He could have said anything to her but he said to go and tell the others- this was the only thing needed to be done. Tell what you have seen. Be brave. Let your knowledge be your power.  

 We can either make decisions and actions that bring about life or that bring about death. Sometimes it really is that simple.  I know that’s a lot of power and responsibility to put on each of us- but it is no one’s responsibility to care for each other than our own.  We serve a God of resurrection. Do our actions and the policies we support promote life? Each day, each action is a decision to live into new life.  We serve a God that continually offers us new life if we choose to live into it and we are called to make decisions to help others live into it too. Our Easter message this morning is one of how we are in the world. Do we witness to truth as God instructed the first witness? Do we tell the good news in all that we do? Are we willing to risk our comfort to do so?

Every time we see someone do this- we are reminded that God reigns supreme. That all truth will be told. That life overrules death, that light banishes away darkness. To be a witness in this world is to fight for love and equality and life. it’s to bear witness to who God is. To be a witness in this world is what it means to be an easter people. To be constantly pointing out the progress, the beauty, the transformation we are actively going through. I encourage us all to be willing to risk our comfort to be an easter people and make decisions and actions that bring about life, not death.

The beauty of Easter is this- without Jesus’ resurrection, death would be the end. The trauma of unjust death would haunt people forever. As we know,  currently we still experience death, injustice, trauma. The good news in my opinion is not that one day all will made well- after all Jesus came back to be with us here and now and not in the future- He is not some far off God. The good news is that before his death Jesus gave us everything we needed to bring about new life and justice on this earth. We are equipped with bravery and courage through Christ to bring about the Kingdom of God that is in the process of being resurrected- we talked about last week that Jesus exemplified to us that victory and justice are accomplished through humility, vulnerability, and love. Jesus gives us two examples of what the kingdom of God is like- 1^st a mustard seed which is the smallest of all seeds but when sown and nurtured becomes the biggest of trees. 2^nd– leavened bread which is bread that rises- it was small and flat and becomes big and robust. Both of these examples show us that the kingdom of God is not something that just happens but it is a process- it is through growth and nurturing. Jesus’ resurrection brought about the indwelling of the kingdom of God and now it is our job to continue to nurture it until its transformation is complete. We have the chance to cause less death, to bring about more justice, to help each other heal. We have the chance to bring about life in all that we do, for all peoples. Let us take an example from mary who exemplified, strength and bravery, and courage, and from all those that witnessed to the injustice done to George Floyd. Let this Easter message today be that you are uniquely called and equipped to nurture in this kingdom of God that is upon us- so let this be our work! Amen.