Racism Is A Spiritual Issue

Galatians:
Paul writes this letter to the churches in Galatia because a group has followed Paul to these churches proclaiming a gospel contrary to the one he taught. It appears that they were Jewish Christians teaching that even though the church now followed Jesus, they still needed to practice some of the Mosaic Laws and customs such as being circumcised. Paul again writes reminding them that grace, God’s unconditional love for all people is the basis of everyone’s relationship to God. There are no distinctions nor should we try to formulate any that signifies that some are more in than others. Hence Paul writes the following.

Read Galatians 3:25-28

Paul reminds us that there are no national distinctions, no ethnic distinctions, no philosophical distinctions, no gender or sexuality distinctions, and no economic and social distinctions in the kingdom of God. We are a united whole, all loved by God. Thanks be to God.

Luke:
The passage from Luke may be one of the most important verses in scripture, for Jesus describes for us the character of God, and then tells us to live our lives exhibiting this same character. Compassion challenges us to enter into another person’s life, even into their suffering, so we may understand life from their perspective. When we do this, we no longer relate to each other out of a sense of judgment, stereotypes or projecting our experiences onto another, but allows us to be fully present in the moment with a brother or sister in the family of God. We are reminded that what most humans cherish or wish for the most in their lives is to be understood. We hear Jesus tell us tat God understands life from our perspective, and now asks us to show the same respect toward each other.

Read Luke 6:36

SERMON:

I grew up in upstate New York. The high school I attended had over 1200 students, but he only students of color were our exchange students. So even though I did not really experience overt racism because of my lack of contact with people from other ethnic backgrounds, I can see now that I lived in a community that at least showed the consequences of the economics and opportunities denied to others.

The first time I actually experienced overt racism was when I was in the army. I was assigned to a post in the south, and one of the first things I noticed were bumper stickers that has a Confederate Flag and a person in a Confederate uniform with the words, “Hell No I Won’t Forget.” I was truly shocked and can remember writing home saying, “You’re not going to believe this, but they are still fighting the Civil War here.”

One of my platoon mates was from the south and he told me about his uncle who hated Martin Luther Kings Jr. In fact, one day when King was on television, his uncle went and got his shotgun and blew away the television. Now this seemed like just a few years ago, but it is about 35 years ago, still a short time in history. I share this, because I take great heart to see how far we have come in this great country of ours. That today, we can see a woman and an African American man as viable candidates for the Presidency of the United States. Its wonderful to see that we, as a nation, have begun to live the dream of judging people not by race or gender, but by the quality of their personhood.

I am reminded of a quote by Reinhold Neibuhr, a prominent theologian of the mid-20th century. Neibuhr said, “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in one life-time. It is why we are saved by hope.” This thought is important, for we recognize that as far as we have come, there is still more work to do when it comes to tolerance and acceptance of all the children of God. It is our turn to keep this journey going, to move us further along this path to inclusiveness. As Galatians reminds us, “There are no nationalisms, no gender issues, no social hierarchies in Christ our Lord.” I share all of this, as we have seen in the past few weeks the issues of racism and sexism in the news as the political process plays itself out. We see that in some ways, especially the issue of racism may be moving to a new group of peoples. The Phoenix Mayor just yesterday challenged the Sheriff’s Department for how they are handling ethnic issues, and that they may be profiling. The challenge remains.

Now, I recognize that I am indeed a WASP, and a male and a heterosexual to boot, so the question is, “How can I truly bring a sense of understanding to the issues of those who have indeed experienced the issues of racism and sexism first hand?” I can’t, although I will be able to address ageism in a few more years. But I can share some of what I have heard and the impact it has had upon my life, and maybe that is the compassion I can bring to the discussion. For those of us who have the ability to bring about change need to begin to be as present as we can to others, so we can know what kind of change we can help usher in.

As I have shared before the seminary I attended for my Masters Degree is Colgate Rochester Divinity School, Bexley Hall, Crozer Theological Seminary. Obviously many unions here. Crozer is the seminary that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. attended. So, obviously, there was a large Black Studies Program at the school. I remember sitting in a Theology Class discussing our images of God. I was adamant that God would never ever reject anyone or punish anyone, but would always try and meet us where we are in our lives to extend God’s grace and help us to move toward our own Christ-like nature. Arguing just as vehemently were a group of African American students that God would indeed punish those who hurt and diminished another human being, for it would be part of God’s just nature. I must admit I am a little slow at times, as it took me a couple of years of reflecting upon this conversation that what was being expressed by the African American Students was that indeed God is love, and that God loves them, and in that love God would not accept that others would diminish them. What took me awhile to understand was that if God did not feel this way and act this way, then for them, God would show the same kind of abandonment and lack of compassion for what they were experiencing as the world was expressing. That was totally unacceptable to what they needed to know about how God cared about them. I believe it was more a plea than an expression of anger.

What I also learned from my African American classmates is that racism can often be expressed very subtly and even by those who want to be well-meaning. Many said that welfare was the worst thing that ever happened to Black America for several reasons. One of those reasons was that it created a climate for Blacks and the general populace that said, African Americans are only capable of receiving handouts. A climate was created that did not allow for the reality that truly provided their children to know that they were beautifully created, capable, intelligent human beings. Many of us can remember the response to this when African American leaders started the mantra for their children that, “Black id beautiful.” Sadly many misunderstood what they were trying to do and they were criticized for what they said.

I said earlier that I could use any of the “isms” in my sharing. One of the things I learned about the consequences of addressing racism is actually from some colleagues who shared some of their realities as they faced the issues of sexism in their lives. They said that they lived in a kind of no win situation. When Affirmative Action was implemented, it finally opened doors that had been closed to them, but it still kept them in a place where they were prejudiced against and were not acknowledged for the capable and competent people they were and are. If someone who had been discriminated against was given a position of leadership or power, she was simply labeled as someone who received the position because it was given to them. So no matter how hard they worked, how capable they were, they would never be recognized for what they achieved.

Nancy can tell you many stories about what it has been like to be a woman who has worked in non-traditional female positions. As many of you know she was a Construction Engineer before she entered into the realm of pastoral ministry, also a predominantly male oriented vocation. But one of the observations Nancy made was how important our appointment process is in helping us, as the church, move toward justice and acceptance. Nancy had felt a call to ministry for a long time, but was afraid to answer it when she was in her former denomination, for they had a call system, which means to people of the church chose their own pastor. She was so afraid of experiencing the rejection of the church she loved so deeply if the church would reject her calling because they did not want a woman pastor. But in our appointment system, the Bishop sends the church a pastor, and if the Bishop sends a woman, or an ethnic person, that is who you receive. What Nancy observed was how our denomination was able to move much more rapidly in the acceptance and embracing of women in ministry. Given the chance, she and her colleagues were able to show how capable, even extremely competent they could be when given the chance. I am sure there is no one here who would question Nancy’s or Carol’s calling to ministry. Amen!

I want to quickly look at the model that is in your bulletin and also on the screen, as it shows us how what we experience affects us, and how all I am sharing is a matter of spirituality.

The model shows in the middle that we have primary feelings that impact how we respond to situations in our lives. One of the things we can see that anger is a secondary emotion, meaning we are always angry about something else that happened to us. I felt rejected, so I am angry. I felt put-down so I am angry. I felt abandoned, so I am angry. We can also see why Paul tells us we should never let the sun set on our anger, for when anger is left unresolved it can grow into rage. Rage can find expression both in how we diminish and even hurt ourselves or others. But, what we can also see is if we experience anger, to resolve it we have to go back and experience the primary feeling and make peace with it. I would simply say, before we become too critical of those who have experienced prejudice, rejection, and who have had their personhood diminished from the earliest recollections of their lives, that in compassion we may show some patience and understanding. To heal, we are asking them to enter yet again into all that has diminished them in their lives and feel it yet again and again.

The other side of the model is to show that love is something we experience or choose to do based upon primary feelings. I believe this is what Paul means when he says, “Love is patient and kind,” or when we see all the fruits of the spirit. When we live this love, this part of the Christ-likeness of our lives it indeed fulfills our call to be peacemakers, to be people who care so deeply for others that we do all we can to bring the possibility and hope and the fullness of life to them. That we open the doors to them of expressing self-love and their love toward others.

Also, the expression of compassion as finding expression from different aspects of our feelings and experiences is extremely important, as it reminds us that God can work for good in each and every one of our lives no matter where we started and what we have felt and experienced in our lives. God can help us use it to move into a character of compassion. Even anger can be an expression of compassion if it motivates us to stop practices that we label “isms” which diminish the life of another human being.

I want to simply point out that if we do not move from our anger into a path of healing or a path of compassion then we are the ones who suffer the loss of our spiritual grounding. If we allow ourselves to move into our own expressions of rage and hatred toward others, it is we who are diminished. As Lewis Smedes in his book, Forgive and Forget, says, “Hatred is a snarling tiger within our souls, and it is us it shreds.” As we can see in all we do and the attitudes we live, it ultimately becomes a spiritual issue for us and all people. It is why I can never accept that any expression toward any group that is based upon stereotypes and exclusions is acceptable. For it not only diminishes the person or group that is attacked, it causes the attacker to live out of the furthest reaches of their own humanity as a child of God created in the image of God.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on Palm Sunday, March 30, 2008.