The 13th Amendment, to abolish slavery, was adopted on December 6, years

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "The 13th Amendment, to abolish slavery, was adopted on December 6, years"

Logan Lang
6 years ago
Views:

1 February 5, 2017 Fifth Sunday after Epiphany Isaiah 58:1-12/Matthew 5:13-20 Hearing Voices Joy Douglas Strome Prayer of Illumination: Among all the other voices that are clamoring for our attention, we pray, O God, that yours would be prominent, bless our listening. Amen. The 13th Amendment, to abolish slavery, was adopted on December 6, years before, Frederick Douglass, living in Rochester, NY, was asked to make a speech on the 4 th of July. Among all the other things he said in this eloquent yet scathing speech, it was his critique of the American church that stung most. After questioning, why he would have been asked to give such a speech he starts with the obvious line: What, to the American slave, is your 4 th of July? There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour. just a friendly little opener..he eventually turns to the church..i want you to hear a bit of the flavor, though you aren t going to like it: I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were nor stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it. At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity. The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in its connection with its ability to abolish slavery. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission

2 Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday School, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery, and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to the winds, and that they do not do this involves them in the most awful responsibility of which the mind can conceive. What a powerhouse of a leader: enduring slavery, scrapping for his own education, standing up to his overseer, risking his life by escape, exposing slavery for the crime against humankind that it was, persuading the American public and Abraham Lincoln that we are all equal, establishing a newspaper that gave hope to millions of enslaved persons, and on and on, a role model for all Americans for nearly 2 centuries. Douglass was one of 32 men who signed the Women s Declaration of Sentiments at the first Women s Convention on July 20, 1848, and I saw his name on the wall of signers in Seneca Falls, NY when I visited there last fall. How do we hear his voice today? Does his critique of the church seem harsh? Or if he were here today would he say we haven t been doing much better. Co-opted by the culture and the institutions of our time, do we actually stand apart enough from the culture to be prophetic any longer? In a recent interview WB said: the gospel has gotten all tangled up with a sense of Western white entitlement which in the US has to do with a history of political exceptionalism where we believe we are God s chosen people in the world. unless we can pull that apart we won t be in a position to speak critically to our culture (paraphrase--wb-work of the people video). Both indictments still have me churning a bit. Are we, too, entangled with the culture to the point we don t have anything important to say? How have we been guilty, like Douglass charged the early American church, of the sin of both commission and omission..so certain we are right about our positions that we can t really see much but our own viewpoint? One of my favorites rules that we have set up for our anti-racism conversations is a pledge for us all to listen as much as we talk. Not sure that s really been our style.

3 I actually talked with someone this week who did not vote the way I did in November..they were involved in their own set of critique of what was happening in our country.they said they had been made to feel like everyone who voted like they did must be a moron. Does that mean, they asked, that every moron in America, got up and somehow figured out how to get to the polls on the same day? The critique stung. I hadn t seen it that way. I have been so worried and abhorred about our predicament that I couldn t put a face on those who voted another way. What a conundrum. Listen and yet act on what we believe. Can those both reside in the same person? I hope I will be able to have more conversations like that one. And.I hope that my fears can be relieved, that justice will prevail, that my actions will matter and I hope I can do both without demonizing half of the American public. I m still thinking about Frederick Douglass and Walter B. I know that I have strong feelings about what it means to be chosen by God in the world, blessed, loved, called. Have I abused that status? Do I even have it? Does my certainty disqualify my claim? Others have the same certainty with a very different set of outcomes. Are they evil and I m guilt-free? Or vice versa? Lots of questions. Certainly more than I will have answers for.. What is the church s role in bridging this divide that we are just beginning to see? And how can we move differently going forward? Those are conversations I want to have, all the while marching and protesting, and calling, and ing about the things that just flat out feel wrong. All I know for sure is that what we are experiencing feels way more complicated than liberals just being asleep at the wheel. There is work for us to do on many fronts, but one important step is untangling ourselves from a culture that for the last 8 years pretty much supported our belief system. Now things have changed. Where do we stand as a church before God? What is distinct about what we have to offer to these troubled times? Anything? Well, as I often do..i ve backed myself right into the question corner. So, as I often say, let s turn to the Scripture and see if we can bail ourselves out of this.so, what does it really mean to be light and salt? Salt.we need it, but not too much. It is the common ingredient in almost every recipe you will ever read (except for heart patient diets). 1 teaspoon, 1 half teaspoon, just a pinch.salt does it s work, not alone, but by enhancing the flavors already present in a recipe. By itself it is bitter, mixed with the ingredients, it somehow changes the chemistry for the

4 good. And Jesus apparently wants us to be salt. The ingredient that brings out the best in others, that adds to the conversation, and makes it rich and flavorful. That s a provocative image I think. We are also called by Jesus to be light. Not just any light, but the light of the world. That s pretty heady. We know the damage that light deprivation can do. How many people have talked about the lack of sunshine in the last two weeks with someone? When the sun peeked out a bit this week, we didn t even care that it came with colder temperatures we were so glad to see it. Seasonal affective disorder is a real problem this time of year. All of us suffer a bit from it, even if we are in denial about it. WE are crankier, we are full of sloth, we are stressed more than usual and if we are honest, we are just hanging on by a thread til the days grow longer and include more sun. We gain 70 hours of daylight in February. Cheers should go off when you hear that! Light deprivation is real. And Jesus says: you are the light of the world. You are the ones to carry out my platform stated in the beatitudes. How can that be? I don t feel like the light of the world. But without us, Jesus claims, the world will not know God s good glory. OMG, that s a lot of pressure. Can it wait til spring we wonder? What does it actually look like? Some folks have taken their light and salt to the streets to stand up for what they believe is God s good news and there has been progress. Grace Gyori sends us a list this week: For everyone who DID something, small or big, your efforts have been successful. Because of you: 1. Federal hiring freeze is reversed for VA (Veteran Affairs). 2. Court ordered partial stay of the immigration ban for those with valid visas. 3. Green card holders can get back in country. 4. Uber pledges $3M and immigration lawyers for its drivers after #DeleteUber trends on Twitter. 5. (Affordable Care Act) enrollment ads are still going to air. 6. The ACLU raised 24M over the weekend (normally 3-4M/year). 7. HHS, EPA, USDA gag order lifted. 8. EPA climate data no longer scrubbed from website. 9. More people of different career/religious/economic/race backgrounds are considering running for political office than ever before. 10. MOST importantly, since we live in a participatory democracy, the people are engaged. In two weeks! So this is what salt and light look like.resulting in real changes that are for the good of all, not just the 50% who voted like we did. Someone sent me a picture at a

5 rally in DC where a person in the crowd was holding a sign that said: So I guess we are doing this every weekend now. In your bulletin you ll find each week going forward some real action items that might give your prayers legs. If there is something to be learned three weeks into this winter of our discontent, maybe it is this one of voices. Whose voices are we hearing? There are voices that make us cringe, like fingernails on a chalkboard. There are voices that are sad and angry. There are voices that are convicted and revved up. There are voices that are so afraid, that their world is about to come undone. How do we widen the circle of who we are listening to? We are grateful to the Social Justice Committee for challenging us each Sunday in Black History month to hear the voice of an African American leader. And we decided it was worth taking a few minutes each week to chat with someone next to us. So, maybe in the careful listening of these voices leaders in history and musical leaders and the neighbor next to us in the pew, we will hear a new thought, a new melody, a new perspective that will keep us honest before this God of ours who sees us clearly, even when some days we have lost our way. Maybe we will have a renewed sense of wonder about the gifts of other traditions..maybe we will rejoice at the thought: for each child that s born, a morning star rises and sings to the universe who we are. Maybe the distinct thing we offer is a safe place to be vulnerable about our doubts and our certainties. A safe place that still offers welcome, that still sings with our hearts, that still reads the scripture thoughtfully. A safe place that ponders salt and light and takes seriously, the responsibility that Jesus names, especially when that means hearing voices..new voices. A safe place is where we are.and together, our light combines to at least keep us from sitting alone in the dark. We are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. 45 people marched two weeks ago. 35 people came yesterday to learn about Chinese Spring Festival. Maybe light and salt look something like that. Let s discover what that means together. Listening to new voices. Celebrating the progress that arcs toward justice. Challenging ourselves to be humble in the process. And holding one another accountable for action that is needed. And, every once in a while, I think it s important to turn our lights on at the same time to remind ourselves of the potential of our collective action. Let s do it! Amen.

Step 1 Pick an unwanted emotion. Step 2 Identify the thoughts behind your unwanted emotion

Step 1 Pick an unwanted emotion Pick an emotion you don t want to have anymore. You should pick an emotion that is specific to a certain time, situation, or circumstance. You may want to lose your anger