STANDING UP FOR WHAT JESUS TAUGHT - A REFLECTION

.

Romans 6:1-11*

So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.

Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.

Matthew 10:24-39*

“A student doesn’t get a better desk than her teacher. A laborer doesn’t make more money than his boss. Be content—pleased, even—when you, my students, my harvest hands, get the same treatment I get. If they call me, the Master, ‘Dungface,’ what can the workers expect?

“Don’t be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don’t hesitate to go public now.

“Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.

“What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.

“Stand up for me against world opinion and I’ll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail and run, do you think I’ll cover for you?

“Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over me, you don’t deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don’t deserve me.

“If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.

REFLECTION

by

Norm Wright

+IN THE NAME OF OUR LIFE-GIVING, LIBERATING GOD+

You may have noticed that the assigned lessons for this Sunday read differently. They are taken  translation of the original languages, Hebrew and Greek.  The translation being used comes from a Bible called, The Message, which was translated by Eugene Peterson, a Presbyterian pastor. The Message was first published in 1993.  

My attraction to his particular translation is its use of contemporary, idiomatic language to bring out the force of the original texts in a narrative format.  I find it beneficial when dealing with prophesy and some of the more pointed teachings of Jesus, which often lose their impact because of the familiar language we have developed an immunity to.  

Today I would like to draw our attention to the second lesson from the Gospel of Matthew.  It’s a tough read no matter what translation one uses because, as a popular contemporary idiom puts it, Jesus is telling it like it is.

So what set Jesus on this tough-talk tirade?  

Evangelism.  

Evangelism in this case is not spreading the good new of Jesus’ death and resurrection as a one’s personal ticket to salvation; rather this good news is Jesus’ message of liberating love as a force for changing the social landscape: the love of neighbor and the love of one’s enemy, and the blessedness of humility, suffering, mercy, and peacemaking.  Evangelism in this sense is bringing those messages to fruition though active evangelism, by bringing healing and relief to those most in need.  

If one is going to bring the Kingdom of God to fruition, one cannot avoid talking about love, forgiveness, and blessedness like Jesus did in his Sermon on the Mount, which is recorded five chapters before than today’s second lesson. 

You wouldn’t think we’d need a locker room pep-talk to get us ready to spread those messages, but we do!  

What’s so difficult about discussing love? 

What’s so hard about a discussion of blessings?

How has forgiveness become a taboo subject?

Who would bully someone for talking about such things and why would such messages cause divisions in family relationships?

It is all about the context of Jesus’ message.  It’s all about the way in which love, forgiveness, and blessedness is cast.

Let’s be honest, we’re okay with talking about love and blessings in the confines of church hall or listening to such messages in a sermon delivered from a pulpit, because those are the safe places to do so.

I think we all know and perhaps have experienced how difficult it can be talking about loving one’s enemies and the blessedness of showing mercy and peacemaking outside the walls of church building 

Try taking those messages to the streets or, better yet, try bringing up loving our enemies and the blessedness of mercy or peacemaking during a family reunion or when sitting down to family meal with family members we know who possess strong opinions about politics, race, sex, and religion.  See what kind of reaction one gets; especially, if one tries to insert those messages in to a conversation where someone starts talking about his or her dislike of Muslims, black protesters, undocumented immigrants, people who are on welfare, gay rights, and the like.  

Even if we disagree and know that those opinions are fundamentally contrary to what Jesus taught, we are prone to sit back, take a deep breath, and move on by trying to change the subject or biding our time in the hope the person runs out of steam. 

It really isn’t easy being a Christian.  

It can be downright terrifying if someone says we need to get out there and talk about what Jesus taught, yet alone be prompted to do something about it. 

We have been largely trained how not to talk about them or bring up divisive issues in social settings, much less try and do something about them.  For the most part we have been trained to throw money at someone who will do such things on our behalf so we can remain incognito. 

Jesus’ tough talk was meant to strengthen the resolve of the twelve disciples who he was sending out in to the countryside and villages of Judea and Galilee to get their feet wet in spreading the his message by word and deed.  

He is warning them that when they do such things, they are going to run into a people who will resist anyone and any message that could rock their boat; those who are content with their personal status and don’t want anyone suggesting ideas that may tamper with their wallet.

Saying we believe in what Jesus taught and then sitting tight and doing nothing about it or say anything about it when those teachings are being directly or indirectly under attack renders what we Christians confess and profess as meaningless and treats the Church as a joke and Jesus as a dreamer or a liar.

Christianity is not easy.

In our first lesson, Paul addresses sitting back and doing what we please because we’re Christians.  Paul asks, “So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving?” (MSG)  If we think the death and resurrection of Jesus gets us off the hook, it doesn’t. Jesus’ death and resurrection clearly put us on the hook.  It clearly put us on the cross and places us in the position of those charged with proclaiming the liberating good news of what Jesus taught.   

In one of the most blunt teaching moments in his ministry Jesus says, "Stand up for me against world opinion and I’ll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail and run, do you think I’ll cover for you?” (MSG)

That’s harsh!

But what does “world opinion” mean in today’s world?

World opinion has a political ring, doesn’t it?  

The truth is Christianity and all religions are involved in politics, and are political entities in their own right.  It’s unavoidable. 

If you talk about justice, you’re talking politics.  If you talking about the poor, you’re talking about politics, and so on down the line of a host social and ethical issues facing the nations of the world and issues that Jesus directly addressed in his teachings. 

In true democracies, the people take on the accountability for the choices their governments makes. In a democracy, people, Christians and non-Christians alike, don’t have an excuse for what their nation does when it foregoes its ethical and moral responsibilities.  

Take, for example,  how the term “political correctness” is being defined and used a pejorative today, and then consider that its opposite, political incorrectness, is a term that is conveniently avoided and ignored because it would expose “political correctness” as actually being correct; as in, being right.   What’s wrong with being right?

Such bizarre, rather devilish, and twisted thinking has a way of seeping into the Church.  It can numb us to what Jesus teaches because in the realm of politics many of those teaching are currently being cast into the pejorative category of the “politically correct” and therefore bad for the country and the world.  Sadly, we see notable Christian personalities buying into and promoting such a twisted mindset. 

We can easily get there when we turn a blind eye to political issues that are contrary to the teachings of Jesus on the premise that politics has no place in the church.  While churches should avoid associating themselves with party politics and telling congregants who and what to vote for, a failure to address political issues within a church setting that are contrary to the teachings of Jesus is a failure of the Church’s prophetic role in the world. 

And there are times when it becomes imperative to take to the streets when those messages are not being heeded. 

The teachings of Jesus found in the Synoptic Gospels are largely unambiguous, and that is what today’s second lesson is talking about.  Jesus is telling us to take his teachings, implement them, and heal the world through them.  Jesus is telling us to stand up for them in a world constantly engaged in political turmoil, until such time the world gets it. 

We need to take to heart that if we don’t stand with Jesus, if we don’t stand up for what he taught, and if we excuse ourselves and our leaders on the basis of being Christian when we, through them, promote messages contrary to the teaching of Jesus, we are denying Jesus.  

That’s when we participate in a lie.  

When we don’t stand up for Jesus, we are standing down and giving into popular world opinion, turning tail, and running away. 

* * * * * * * * * * * 

Gracious Father, strengthen our resolve to be practitioners, in both word and deed, of the teachings Jesus gave us. Give us the strength to boldly proclaim the liberating message of blessedness and love to those we meet on the streets, at the dinner table, and throughout the world, through the same Jesus Christ, the head of the Church.  Amen.

                                                                   

* Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Message, copyright (c) 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene Peterson, used by permission of NavPress.  All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.T

The Collects, Psalms and Canticles are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979

      

  

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH - A REFLECTION

THE  SECOND  SUNDAY  AFTER PENTECOST

Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”

[The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”]

Romans 5:1-8

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.

REFLECTION

+In the Name of our faithful God+

Paul is the apostle who presents what I refer to as the three affectual states of Christian life:  Faith, Hope, and Love.  I call them affectual because they shape one’s response to the uncertainty that abounds in this life.  Certainty is not a required condition of faith, hope, or love.  In fact, it is our certainties; our expectations of what we think and believe should be or what we think and believe should happen that gets in the way of the effectiveness of these states and blind us to their function.  Faith, hope, and love are fluid states of the heart, mind, and spirit that change every place, every time, and every situation into a thin place, a thin time, a thin situation in which to encounter and experience the numinous, the presence of God.  

In the New Testament, faith is defined as “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” [Hebrews 11:1]  Hope is described in Paul’s letter to the Romans, “…hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?”  [Romans 8:24]   In Hebrews 6:19 hope is described “… as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” against the uncertainty of life’s tempestuous seas, as a well-known hymns puts it.  Love is described by Paul at length in 1Corinthians 13, but if I were to choose a succinct definition that ties all three affections together it would be verses7, “(Love) always protects, always trusts (acts in faith), always hopes, always perseveres.” Whenever God is sought and wherever God is found these affective states are present, which bring me to Paul’s prime example of faith, Abraham.

One of the most intriguing stories in the Bible is the mysterious story of the three visitors who suddenly appear while Abraham is at the entrance of his tent in the ‘heat of the day’ by the oaks of Mamre.  What we encounter in this story is a liminal moment; a threshold moment (one of many) in Genesis’ story of Abraham.

Liminality here is associated with “the heat of the day” and the Oaks of Mamre.  Perhaps all of us can recall sitting alone in the shade on a very hot day and have experienced our thoughts melting away in the quiet heat of the day; a good time and place to be receptive to divine visitation. The oaks of Mamre is a place that in Celtic spirituality is described as a thin place; a place where the mundane is at the threshold of the divine, where the everyday borders the everlasting.  

In this receptive, mystical,  and atmospheric environment Abraham welcomes and recognizes the Lord in the three visitors who speak with one voice  In Hebrew, this  could be identified as a “Shekinah” moment, similar to the two men that sat at the head of the stone slab of Jesus’ tomb and its feet, speaking with one voice or the two men who pointed the disciples gaze back to earth at Jesus’ Ascension.  In that mysterious moment, Abraham is told, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” Sarah’s response was laughter and incredulity, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?”

The faithfulness of God is specifically demonstrated in the second part of today’s first lesson.  Sarah may have laughed, may entertained doubt, and expressed hopelessness but God is faithful even when things seems hopeless for us, even when our faithfulness wanes, but love never fails.  God never fails.

In closing,  I want to focus on God’s faithfulness as grace.

  

Justification by faith is generally understood as meaning we are justified “if” we are faithful.  The “if” part of this is unfortunate understanding readily can lead one to understand faith as a matter of intellectual assent regarding doctrinal beliefs about Jesus or God, but faith is not equivalent with assenting to specific ideological or theological beliefs.   Faith is active and  manifest in what we do within the situations we find ourselves in.  

Scripture; in particular, the letters of Paul juxtaposes justification by faith with another form of justification; justification by grace. In fact, one can almost interchange these terms, except that grace is reserved to describe God’s faithfulness.  Paul says, “all are justified freely by (God’s) grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” [Romans 3:24] 

Our catechism defines grace as “God’s favor toward us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins, enlightens  our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our will.” [BCP pg. 858]   True, but in my opinion that definition falls far short of what grace actually is; in that, it confines its application only to us human creatures. It treats grace in an anthropocentric manner; as something that came about only after the resurrection of Jesus.  Grace has always existed from the very start of creation, and we are a product of it. 

I would greatly expand the catechism’s definition to say, “Grace is God’ expression of faith in all Creation.  Grace is God’s expression of  hope in all Creation.  Grace is God’s expression of love for all Creation.”  

In God’s grace all creation is justified. The seal of God’s grace is recorded in Genesis 1, where it says, “ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”  That is God’s eternal assessment of creation, and God has never deferred from that assessment.  The Big Bang was an act of grace and grace will be there at our homecoming.

In the eternal presence of God’s grace, there is both creation and completion. We don’t see completion on this side of life because we’re still being created.  We’re still evolving.  We’re still living into being the offspring that God intended us to be.  

Human kind started down paths that appeared to have devolved from God’s grace but God proved God's faith, hope, and love in us when God declared one of us, Jesus, to be the beloved Son.  Jesus shows us the way and has made it possible for us, today, to take closer, faith-filled, hope-filled, and loved-filled walk with God in the here and now.  

“Help then, O Lord  our unbelief; and may our faith abound to call on you when you are near, and seek where you are found; that, when our life of faith is done, in realms of clearer light we may behold you as you are, with full and endless sight.**  

Amen.

* * * * * * * * * * 

Until next time, stay faithful.

Norm

  

    

          

The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.

BLACK LIVES MATTER AND THE TRINITY - A REFLECTION

These devotions originate as devotions I prepare for the small parish I belong to in South Dakota, Christ Episcopal Church in Yankton, South Dakota.  The reflections/homilies are my own.  This particular devotion is focused on the systemic injustice people of color live with in our nation and around the world.  

TRINITY  SUNDAY 

So God created humankind in his image

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come!

Lord open out lips, and our mouth shall proclaim your praise!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.  Amen.

Psalm 8

Domine, Dominus noster

1 O Lord our Governor, *

how exalted is your Name in all the world!

2 Out of the mouths of infants and children *

your majesty is praised above the heavens.

3 You have set up a stronghold against your adversaries, *

to quell the enemy and the avenger.

4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, *

the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,

5 What is man that you should be mindful of him? *

the son of man that you should seek him out?

6 You have made him but little lower than the angels; *

you adorn him with glory and honor;

7 You give him mastery over the works of your hands; *

you put all things under his feet:

8 All sheep and oxen, *

even the wild beasts of the field,

9 The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, *

and whatsoever walks in the paths of the sea.

10 O Lord our Governor, *

how exalted is your Name in all the world!

THE FIRST LESSON

GENSIS 1:26-31a

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them male and female he created them.  God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.

THE SECOND LESSON

Jesus cleanses the temple as recorded in all four Gospels.

Matthew 21:12-13

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

MARK 11:15-17

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

LUKE 19:45-46

When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

JOHN 2:13-17

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.

REFLECTION

by

Norm Wright

+In the Name of God+

The dread of many priests and preachers is to preach on Trinity Sunday because one can find oneself trying to explain a doctrine that comes across as being abstract or attempting to turn it into something people can apply in their daily lives.  

Events, however, have a way of changing one’s perspective on abstract things like the Trinity.  The recent killing of a black man, George Floyd and the resulting protests has caused me to take a second look at the Trinity because I found in it an application to what we are currently experiencing within our nation.   In particular, what came to mind was the Trinity window of our church which displays the well-known equilateral triangle, symbolizing the three persons of the Trinity in unity, being of coequal substance in One God.  

I want to take that image and focus our attention on unity in diversity by considering these words from the first lesson, “So God created humankind in his image… .”  

Humankind means every kind of human, every type of identifying feature found in humankind - the human diversity we see throughout the world.   If we are created in the image of God and Christians define that image as the Trinity; as three distinct persons, three distinct identities coequal in substance as God, and if we are made in that image, then the Trinity serves as a model for the coequality we should be striving for as children of God.  We should be rejoicing in the glory of our diversity because at our core, we share the same coequal identity, the image of God.

Where this model starts falling apart for us is when it comes to behaving in an unequal, discriminatory manner that sees difference and diversity as a threat.  It has been a problem, if not the problem, since the creation of humankind.  

Scripture addresses this lack of coequality with the term - justice.  Justice is addressed in the Holy Bible roughly 145 times, in the sense of doing justice as a means to correct injustice; especially, when justice is perverted by discrimination against the poor, the homeless, the widow, the foreigner, and those perceived as different.    

Coequality can serve as a model for how justice for all people regardless of their identity can result in bringing about a “more perfect union.”  

Why coequality?  Why not just good, plain old equality? 

Currently, there is a sense of equal justice under the law as experienced by white people. There is a different sense of equality under the law experienced by Blacks, Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and LGBTQIA individuals.  Until there is a coequal sense of justice under the law, we will continue down the path of division, discord, and disunity.  

A coequal application of justice will not happen overnight.  Black leaders understand that, as do other minority leaders. Many civic leaders understand it. Many police departments and other law enforcement agencies are trying to find and implement ways to ensure coequal justice, but it is far from the point of being realized.

It would be nice to get to the point where justice is coequally blind, but at the moment, Lady Justice cannot afford to be color blind because she needs to keep an eye on the scales of justice to ensure that they are balanced and that justice is applied coequally.   

* * * * * * * * * *  

What compels me to speak on this subject today is that our president crossed over the wall separating church and state to disperse a peaceful protest through use of force in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. so that he could take a leisurely stroll in order to stand in front of it and hold up a Bible and say nothing of substance.  Later he described that event as a “very symbolic.” 

This was followed the next day by a presidential visit to the Roman Catholic basilica, The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for another “symbolic” photo-op where he and the First Lady placed a wreath of red, white, and blue flowers on the statue of St. Pope John Paul II   There he said nothing at all.  

Both of these photo-ops by the president were called out for what they were by the Episcopal Bishop of Washington D.C, Maryann Budde and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington D.C., Wilton D. Gregory along with a number of other mainline church leaders throughout the United States.

In a NPR interview Bishop Budde said, “He used violent means to ask to be escorted across the park into the courtyard of the church.  He held up his Bible after speaking [an] inflammatory militarized approach to the wounds of our nation. He did not pray. He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving. He did not seek to unify the country, but rather he used our symbols and our sacred space as a way to reinforce a message that is antithetical to everything that the person of Jesus, whom we follow, and the gospel texts that we strive to emulate ... represent.”   

In later reporting on Fox Radio News, President Trump stated, “Most religious leaders loved it. Franklin Graham and Robert Jeffress liked it.  I thought it was a great symbol. It’s the ones, the other side, that didn’t like it.” Then he asked, “Why wouldn’t they (the other side) like that? I had the Bible.”

In an article in The Hill,  Archbishop Gregory stated, "I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree,”

As leaders of the Church, they have a responsibility to speak out against using  churches as a backdrop for a vacuous, silent photo op for the obvious purpose of gaining some personal profit from it.  His silence about what was taking place around him in those locations spoke volumes to the world about the lack of moral leadership our nation is dealing with. 

What came to mind in watching these two events was the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple.

Jesus railing against using a place of worship for personal profit is recorded in all four gospels.  When something is recorded in all four gospel, we need to pay attention.  When people wonder and ask what’s the big deal about the President holding up a Bible for a political photo-op to appeal to his political base, they need to read these scriptures.  

It is a big deal when the leader of this nation crosses over the wall separating church and state and forcefully disperses a crowd of people peacefully protesting against racial injustice for a photo-op in front of church just to raise a Bible or place a wreathe to further his personal political ambitions in a photo-op.  The unspoken message that came across was that this was President Trump’s “Gott mit uns” moment; as in, God is on my side moment.

* * * * * * * * * * 

Jesus was a protester and his teachings, his death, and his resurrection stand as a protest against injustice in all times and in all places. 

Jesus engaged in a violent protest against people who were legally sanctioned to  use the Temple for personal profit. Jesus was motivated by moral outrage at what he was seeing; the poor, the widow, the homeless and the infirm being discriminated against and taken advantage because their lives didn’t matter.  This is not being pointed out to exonerate those who take advantage of a peaceful protest in order to commit criminal acts, but rather to pose the question what would we make of Jesus’ actions today?   How would we respond today?  If we were required to pick a “side,” whose side would we be on?

So let us pause on that thought and consider the event that led us to this moment.

On May 25, George Floyd, a black man, was arrested and handcuffed for passing a counterfeit $20 bill. He was  placed in the back of a police car, then was forcibly removed from that police car, forced to lay prone on the street with his hand handcuffed behind his back, and then a police officer placed his knee and the weight of his body on George’s neck for almost nine minutes during which he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.  Bystanders also pleaded with the police officer to stop, but to no avail.  As result, George Floyd died.

That moment will be etched into the collective memory of this nation and the world.  It will serve as an icon of the domestic domination and racial injustice that is taking place in the twenty-first century America.  

As difficult as it is to see that image, we need to sit with that icon for awhile and let it sear our consciences as people of faith, followers of Christ, and as Americans.

* * * * * * * * * * *  

Being a white man, I will not pretend to know what it is like to be a black person or a person of color in this country.  Seeing racial injustice and hearing about it is not the same as experiencing it.  I can see it, but I have not experienced it.  I have heard about it, but I have not lived it.  Those who have a different skin color than I live it every day.  

Nevertheless, I can not nor will not allow my lack of personal experience with injustice lead me to ignore it when I see it or say nothing when I hear it.   I cannot ignore the pleas of those who say, “I can’t breathe.” 

Being human and being children of God requires us to do something about it, to say something about it, and to pray about it because regardless of a person’s skin color, that person is our brother and our sister by virtue of our shared life on this planet home and by virtue of our common Creator who breathed life into all of us. 

* * * * * * * * * *

Black lives matter! 

Are we hearing it?  Are we paying attention to it as people who claim to follow Christ; in particular, those of us who promised in our baptismal/confirmation vows  to “strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being?”

Are we hearing it as Americans when we pledge “liberty and justice for all?”

Do we understand its importance?

When “Black lives matter” is countered with the familiar “All lives matter,” we’re plugging our ears and closing our minds.  When we say things like that, we’re highjacking the message and diminishing its force. 

Our great American prophet, Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out that “ Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”   If we want to move “All lives matter” from being a meaningless platitude to a practiced reality, then let’s begin by making sure Black lives matter; let’s start by ensuring coequal justice for our black brothers and sisters. 

If we start there, then all people who are marginalized because of race, ethnicity, gender identity, and economic situation will breathe more freely; then all will freely breathe the fresh air of liberty.

The Church’s role in the world and in this nation, is to be a prophetic voice, to point out the ignored obvious, and to speak against injustice wherever it resides. 

We who live in rural America; in its small towns and who attend its small congregations are not exempt from that role.  We cannot afford to ignore or take comfort in our relative isolation when the killing of George Floyd occurred a few hours drive from the doorstep of our church.

When we see injustice anywhere, we must respond to it with faith, with hope, with love, and with a commitment to heed the words of the prophet Micah who said, “What does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  Micah 6:8

And how do we act justly?  

It doesn’t have to be hard. 

A first step is to not to justify injustice in our private conversations or minimize the consistent pattern of systemic injustice towards people of color in our country because we’re fearful of offending a friend or an associate who is doing so. We don’t have to be Black to explain why Black lives matter and why suggesting the use domination over our citizens is antithetical to what this nation stands for and is  antithetical to what Jesus taught us. 

The second step is to stop making excuses for leaders who are not helping the situation through their lack of judgment, their inappropriate statements, and their misguided actions.  We must hold them accountable when the line of civil decency and discourse is crossed over to promote domination and disunity.  

The third step is to pray that coequal justice prevails and for the peace and unity of our nation.

As dismayed and disheartened as I was this past week, I found faith, hope, and love on a CBS Nightly News segment (June 3rd), where we were gifted with the voice of black, teenage girl reciting a poem that presciently and poignantly spoke to what we are going through as a nation at this time; a poem that in the pathos of its longing offers hope.  

So I’m going to step aside, take a knee, and give breathing room to another one of America’s great prophetic voices, the black poet, Langston Hughes who shows us precisely why Black lives matter:

LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN

by Langston Hughes (1938)

[All emphasis are mine - nw]

Let America be America again

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain 

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed — 

Let it be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme 

That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty 

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, 

But opportunity is real, and life is free, 

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek — 

And finding only the same old stupid plan 

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, 

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!

Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! 

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean — 

Hungry yet today despite the dream. 

Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream 

In the Old World while still a serf of kings, 

Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, 

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned 

That's made America the land it has become. 

O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my home — 

For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, 

And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, 

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came 

To build a "homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today? 

The millions shot down when we strike? 

The millions who have nothing for our pay? 

For all the dreams we've dreamed

And all the songs we've sung

And all the hopes we've held

And all the flags we've hung,

The millions who have nothing for our pay — 

Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again —

The land that never has been yet —

And yet must be--the land where every man is free. 

The land that's mine — the poor man's, Indian's, 

Negro's, ME —

Who made America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, 

Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, 

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose — 

The steel of freedom does not stain.

From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America!

O, yes,

I say it plain,

America never was America to me, 

And yet I swear this oath — 

America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, 

The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, 

We, the people, must redeem

The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless plain — 

All, all the stretch of these great green states — 

And make America again!

 **************************

The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.

The Collects, Psalms and Canticles are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979