Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 27, 2018 “Changing Identities: Transgender Renaming Ceremony” Mark 4: 35-41 On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. In Mark chapter 4, Jesus stilled the storm, to which the stunned disciples ask, “who is this?” They will keep asking for a long time. Jesus even asks them later in chapter 8, “Who do people say I am?” Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets. Who is this? Today we are going to celebrate a name change. A rite of passage for someone who is transitioning from the identity of one gender to another. Some religious communities have begun to recognize this as an important rite of passage for which it is appropriate that we ask God’s blessing. In light of that, Rev. Jah and I discussed having a dialogue on “identity.” Our conversation began by my musing that I don’t know who I am in the country of people celebrating cruelty. She reminded me that as a white person, I must not have noticed this is not a new reality for African Americans. Changing names and identities, though perhaps not gender, happened in both Old and New Testaments among some of our most important ancestors, like these four: Abram became Abraham Sarai became Sarah Saul became Paul Jacob became Israel Abram went from Exalted Father to Father of Many – after God promised 99 year old Abram that his name, his descendants, will become as numerous as the sands on the beach. Likewise, 90 year old Sarai went from My Princess to Mother of Nations. Saul, famously known as a particularly nasty persecutor of Christians, saw a vision Jesus, who asked “Why do you persecute me.” Saul of Tarsus was blinded and fell from his horse. He was blind for three days, after which he became Paul, meaning, small or humble. Jacob wrestled with an angel at night, one of my favorite biblical passages, and refused to let go until he received a blessing. The angel even put out his hip. In his mother’s womb, he grabbed the heel of his twin Esau so Jacob could come out first. Jacob means to supplant, circumvent, overreach – or heel. After wrestling for the night, he was given the name Israel, which means God Perseveres. Or, in our wrestling, May God Prevail. So, if I may, Jah changed her name from Lorraine. Jah, spelled J-a-h, is the first half of the proper name of God – Yahweh. This first half means The Everlasting. This name change is from her given name Lorraine, which her mother explains, means she was named after the French province of Lorraine. My name means Beloved. When I was in middle school I remember wishing my name was Christopher. I don’t know why. Christopher means Bearer of Christ, so I guess, it would have still fit. But I like the addition in the Urban Dictionary – “Christophers are usually handsome, caring, generous, and funny guys.” Today we celebrate the changing of names from Thomas to Aimee. A,i,m,e,e. That means her name is changed from Twin to Dearly Loved. And that’s why we surround you as a church community, to recognize that you are indeed Dearly Loved. Name changing ceremony[1] From Thomas Creed Davis to Aimee Melissa (meaning bee) Davis. We affirm that this new name symbolizes who you are becoming through the grace of God. We honor the names given by your parents. We release them into your history and acknowledge that the time has come to declare a new name. This name is the culmination of a long and difficult journey, including being told to leave another church, but as well, this is a time of beginning. People of God: Will you support Aimee on this journey? All: We promise our love, support, and care Let us pray: Dynamic and holy God, we remember how you changed the names of Abraham and Sarah as they set out to follow you into the unknown. We remember how you changed the name of Jacob, after a long night of wrestling with you. And how Saul, the persecutor, became Paul, the founder of dozens of Christian communities. We now publicly declare and affirm the name you have bestowed upon Aimee Melissa. May Aimee walk in the spirit this day and always, knowing that God made an everlasting covenant with her from her birth, regardless of name or identity. And that covenant shall never be cut off. Amen. Aimee: We rejoice that your name is written in heaven. Everyone repeat after me: Your name is Aimee. [1] Adapted from liturgies of the UUA and Memorial Congregational Church, Sudbury, Mass. Prayer from www.manyvoices.org
1 Comment
Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 20, 2018 “I Just Heard the News. Sigh…” Romans 8: 22-27 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. On Tuesday, Jeff Sessions announced that if an unauthorized migrant brings a child across the US-Mexico border without documentation, “we will prosecute you, and your children will be separated from you. If you don’t like it, don’t do it.” Your child will be taken from you, including asylum seekers fleeing persecution. It’s been denounced as inhumane by such human rights organizations as Amnesty International. Others have argued it is by definition torture.[1] Whatever it is, it is cruel. Add it to the list. Sometimes when I’m watching the news anymore, all I can do is groan. Lately, I’ve found myself not getting mad as often as I just <sigh>. What words are left to be spoken? Of all the emotional states summoned up in people since the election and in the months that have passed – whether amusement, bewilderment, rage or resignation – more than ever, sometimes it feels like the only thing left is to <sigh>. That doesn’t mean we accept what is happening. It’s not the fifth stage of grief after we’re done with bargaining and denial and so forth. It’s not just in the news, of course. It’s the news we hear in the doctor’s office when she shares that the latest treatment plan has not performed as hoped. The cancer is more aggressive than we thought. It’s the news of addiction once again taking a loved one off their path to recovery. How often is the response to simply <sigh>? After the latest failed job interview, after the last test you helped a child study for so hard, when word comes back that it wasn’t enough… In ways big and small, our lives are filled with disappointments and much worse. We may get mad. We may cry. We try to hold on to hope. But how many times have you simply had to <sigh>. As I was writing this sermon, I literally did it again. As I saw the news come across my phone that were another 10 dead at a Texas high school. In today’s reading, Paul said, “all creation is groaning.” Isn’t that true. But “the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for [when] we do not know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” Pentecost is often celebrated for its dramatic visuals – tongues of fire dancing on the heads of the apostles, violent winds, speaking in strange languages – also known as speaking in tongues. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. The mainline church is often criticized for not having enough Pentecostal zeal, a more outward expression of exuberance through such forms as dance and shouting. Yvette Flunder is a Pentecostal UCC minister. Yes, there is such a thing! She describes herself as Metho-Bapti-Costal, blending a mix of styles and concerns. She has often said UCC folks need a little more “glory” with our “justice.” Just as she has said others need a little more justice with their glory. I can appreciate her nudge, but I will admit my bias for such texts as the story of Elijah in 1st Kings:[2] “There was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then came the voice of God to him in a whisper.” I’m more “Be still and know that I am God”[3] so it’s probably not surprising that I love this passage today: “The Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” And I was pleased to see it was included among the lectionary passages for the Day of Pentecost, along with the classic story in Acts of rushing winds and tongues of fire. There are days for that. And then there are days like today when, like the two sides of glory and justice, our silence needs noise too, on the streets and in the halls of Congress and on the steps of the Capitol. And it’s not that we don’t know what to do, which would mean things are truly hopeless. Scripture is clear, "God's will," for example, in the Book of Leviticus chapter 19, verses 33-34: When immigrants live in your land with you, you must not [mistreat] them. 34 Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens, [your native born]. You must love them as [you love] yourself, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God. More clarity of God's will in verses 9-10: When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather up every remaining bit of your harvest. 10 Also do not pick your vineyard clean or gather up all the grapes that have fallen there. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant. Or from the Book of Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 49, for all the “let’s kill the gays” Sodom and Gomorrah people: Now this was the sin of your sister, [the city of] Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. If you want to take scripture literally, well… How about, let’s not mistreat immigrants. We may not know what to say, but scripture says a lot about what is right. And, if we don’t know what else to do, when we don’t know what to say, when we don’t even have the words for prayer, we can sigh. But not because we have no hope. But if we feel frustrated, how do you suppose God feels? Children snatched from their mothers. More students killed in gun violence. 60 Palestinians, many of them young, killed at the border. It reminds me of a passage from the Book of Jeremiah. A voice is heard in Ramah, bitter weeping and lamentation. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be consoled, because her children are no more.[4] The Gospel of Matthew quotes the same passage following the birth of Jesus. Herod, the deranged, delusional, paranoid King, ordered the Massacre of Infants and toddlers he feared might be a threat to his reign. The story in chapter two says: 16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under. 17 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” How does God feel? I’ve often said that God weeps too. Listening to the news, whether on TV or in the doctor’s office, God’s heart breaks too. Which is exactly where we meet the Holy Spirit. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for [when] we do not know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” Theologian Bruce Epperly asked, “When I pray for another person or some concern, am I the one who initiates the prayer? Is it my idea? Or, is the Spirit of God praying through me, inspiring me to pray and we are channeling her energy? Like a conduit of the divine.”[5] But that’s kind of passive. When you pray for someone, why do you do it? I had honestly never thought about it before. Is it our idea to pray? We often say about our work in the world that we God’s hands and feet on the ground. “God’s work. Our hands.”[6] So, is that also true of prayer? God’s prayer. Our voice? Epperly speaks of a “divine-human spiritual connection so integrated that as God inspires us to pray, our prayers are also God’s prayers.” So, let me think about that: a divine-human spiritual connection / so integrated / that it is God inspiring us to pray, which means, our prayers are also God’s prayers. It’s not passive. As I sigh listening to the news, they are really mutual sighs. And if they have become mutual sighs, well, that means instead of resignation, <sigh>, leaving us feeling hopeless, we are in mutual relationship. Therefore, hope-full. Wow. That’s actually pretty powerful. It’s a different idea of prayer. Many of us may approach prayer as a kind of transaction. Without meaning to, we may think of prayer as “I pray, you give.” If I pray for a job, I’m supposed to get a job. Or we may think of prayer as a task to accomplish. Something we have to get done. Whitney was a member of her church’s prayer team. Every week she would receive a list of prayer requests by email. One really busy morning, like we’ve all had, she grimaced at the long list of needs – illnesses, relationship struggles, all kinds of challenges. She knew each request was important but she didn’t have a lot of time so she simply read the list out loud, added “In Jesus’ name,” and deleted the email. She was happy she had accomplished her task and drove to her first appointment of the day. On the way, she stopped at McDonalds for an Egg McMuffin. As she spoke into the speaker, she said it felt an awful lot like her prayer that morning, not to mention, expecting God to be as timely as the restaurant worker should be holding her bag as she came to the second window. But praying, she realized, is not speaking into a microphone and hoping God gets the order right. Thinking about prayer as a transaction between ourselves and God, we set ourselves up for disappointment. Either we blame God for not answering as we asked, getting the order right, or we blame ourselves, for example, I must not be doing something right. Or I’m not doing enough of it. It’s a lot of pressure. Prayer shouldn’t be hard. So instead, how about we think of prayer as relational. Like Amaya. Jamal heard his young daughter in the other room. It sounded like she was practicing her A,B,Cs, but it also sounded like she was saying her bedtime prayers. When Amaya finished, Jamal entered her room and asked what she was doing. “Just praying.” “But it sounded like you were simply saying the letters of the alphabet.” “Well,” she said, “I don’t want to forget anyone, so I just say the alphabet over and over and let God figure it out.” To me it sounds like she understood that being in prayer was more important that the words of prayer, or getting it right. Now, a serious adult theologian would praise Amaya for artfully combining an intercessory prayer with a receptive prayer, “ask, seek, knock” meets “thy will be done.” We could point out that she was being more relational than transactional. I’ll leave that for the theologians and come back finally to the meaning of Epperly’s statement: When the Spirit meets us in our weakness, in our sighs, “your prayers are also God’s prayers.” He didn’t mean to imply that somehow our prayers are right and others are wrong. “God is on my side.” Rather, it is to think less of outcomes and more of intimacy. Not about getting it right but being in relationship. It’s as easy as sighing when we hear the news. That’s not praying “to” God. Those sighs mean we are praying “with” God. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/05/15/separating-children-from-parents-at-the-border-isnt-just-cruel-its-torture/?utm_term=.789ffd1fe06b [2] 19: 11-13 [3] Psalm 46 [4] Jeremiah 31:15 [5] Bruce G. Epperly, “Who Prays? A Process-Relational Reflection on Petitionary Prayer,” Encounter 69.4 (2008) [6] A Lutheran slogan Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 13, 2018 “Regarding the 12th Disciple: More Corporate Boardroom than Beloved Community” Acts 1: 15-17, 22-26 During this time, Peter stood up in the company—there were about 120 of them in the room at the time—and said, “Friends, long ago the Holy Spirit spoke through David regarding Judas, who became the guide to those who arrested Jesus. That Scripture had to be fulfilled, and now has been. Judas was one of us and had his assigned place in this ministry. 21-22 “Judas must now be replaced. The replacement must come from the company of men who stayed together with us from the time Jesus was baptized by John up to the day of his ascension, designated along with us as a witness to his resurrection.” 23-26 They nominated two: Joseph Barsabbas, nicknamed Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, “You, O God, know every one of us inside and out. Make plain which of these two men you choose to take the place in this ministry and leadership that Judas threw away in order to go his own way.” They then drew straws. Matthias won and was counted in with the eleven apostles. Do you know how the Amish choose their pastors? When there’s an opening, usually because the previous pastor has died, church members come forward and whisper a name into the ears of the bishop. If a man’s name is whispered at least three times, he becomes a candidate. And then a large table is set with an equal number of hymnals to the number of candidates. In one of those hymnals there will be a piece of paper that reads “The lot is cast into thy lap.” The candidates come forward, oldest to youngest, and select a hymnal. The one who opens and sees that piece of paper is the new pastor – usually for the rest of their life. It is a form of drawing straws, or casting lots, that comes directly from this passage in the Book of Acts. Amish pastors are not college educated or seminary trained. They’re regular folks in the pews. Shall we try it? In the hymnal in front of you, one of you will find a piece of paper that instructs you to do the rest of the sermon. No!? But if we did, would you be afraid to see that piece of paper? Relieved (whew!) or excited? But note, “If a man’s name is whispered.” Obviously, one would ask: What about women? It’s the same question I have for Peter who listed the criteria to fill the position of 12th disciple left vacant by Judas Iscariot. First, did you know that the Book of Acts is really just The Gospel of Luke, Part Two. Or Luke, the Sequel. It was written by the same person to the same person – Theophilus. So, today’s story is really a continuation of Luke’s story, moving from the life of Jesus now to the life of the church. So, regarding the 12th disciple, according to Peter, it had to be someone who had been with Jesus from day one and who had been witness to the resurrection. Oh, and apparently, male. Except wait. No man fit either criteria. How do we reconcile this? In the Gospel of Luke (First Luke!) it says,[1] while Jesus hung from the cross, “those who knew him well, along with the women who had followed him from Galilee (where everything started), stood by and kept vigil.” I presume that among those “who knew Jesus well,” there would have been some men. But the Eleven are notably absent. And then it says, after his body was taken down from the cross, “the women who had been companions of Jesus from Galilee followed along. They saw the tomb where Jesus’ body was placed. Then they went back to prepare burial spices and perfumes.” The next chapter, 24, begins with the very familiar words of Easter morning, “At the crack of dawn on the first day, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared.” When they discovered he wasn’t there but had been raised, “the women left the tomb and broke the news of all this to the Eleven and the rest. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women kept explaining these things to them, but they didn’t believe a word of it, and thought the women were making it up. Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look for himself. All he saw were a few grave clothes. He walked away puzzled, shaking his head.”[2] I bring this back-story up to say, “Hey wait! Only women fit Peter’s criteria.” Women never abandoned Jesus and were the only witnesses to the resurrection. And one in particular: Mary Magdalene, named in all four gospels. In many ways the story of the early church is a story of a power struggle, a battle even, between Peter and Mary Magdalene. But not only did Mary not “win,” the church succeeded in creating a narrative that she was a sinful woman, a repentant prostitute even. Despite no word of this, no evidence of it in any gospel, the Church Fathers told this narrative and it stuck. Jesus, of course, wouldn’t have cared. After all, the very first person Jesus told that he was the messiah was the woman he met at a well during the hottest part of the day, a woman who had five husbands and was now living, unmarried, with another man. Jesus wouldn’t have cared whether Mary Magdalene was an adult film actress, porn star, or lady of the night. This was a smear job by the Patriarchy to create a narrative for why women cannot be priests because they were not among the 12, despite numerous times even Paul called women disciples of Jesus.[3] Mary was named in all four gospels, but you know, of course, there were a lot more than four. A lot more. Four were chosen for inclusion in the biblical canon, but among the others were Thomas, and even a Gospel of Matthias and a Gospel of Judas Iscariot. There was also a Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Fragments still exist. But obviously it was not chosen for inclusion in the Bible. Imagine if it had! Who decided what was “biblical” and what wasn’t?[4] More power struggles. Into the 3rd century, dozens of writings, perhaps hundreds of writings, circulated among Christian communities. Some of them, for example, had strong feelings about the divinity of Jesus and others didn’t. Eventually, those whose viewpoint didn’t prevail were called heretics. Efforts to create a uniform orthodox belief across the churches and a definitive biblical canon were largely settled at the Council of Nicaea in the year 325, establishing the 27 books of the New Testament, though disputes about some books continued. The Council of Nicaea included 318 men and how many women? It’s hard to judge them however, since we have to ask of ourselves, how many women were on the big committee that formed the UCC? Two. Did no one think that was odd? Not one person stood up to say, “What about…?” Since this appears to have become a bit of a history lesson, let me tell you briefly the story of Antoinette Brown. Antoinette is regarded as the first woman ordained in the United States in 1853, in any denomination. As a young woman, Antoinette wanted to study theology at Oberlin College. She was admitted and finished her coursework in 1850, but they did not allow her to graduate. Women can’t have degrees in theology! And therefore, she also wasn’t authorized to preach. She became an itinerant preacher anyway, in upstate New York, along with being a fierce reformer for women’s rights and the abolition of slavery. In 1853, the Congregational Church in South Butler wanted her to be ordained. They found one minister willing to consent, but her ordination was not recognized anywhere else. She may have been the first woman ordained, and she deserves to be honored as such, but no one beyond her church recognized this. Not to mention, she only stayed 10 months before resigning and becoming a Unitarian. Kind of a Debbie Downer end![5] On the other hand, (what’s the opposite of Debbie Downer?), in the UCC today, not counting those who are retired, 51% of ordained clergy are women. 51%. Women are 40% of our pastors, up from 30% just 10 years ago. The others are chaplains and so forth. And this trend will only continue, as 65% of In Discernment candidates are women.[6] So, back to the power struggle between Peter and Mary Magdalene. In the Gospel of Mary there’s a scene of all 11 disciples sitting behind locked doors after Jesus was crucified. Sounds familiar so far. Mary stood up among them to encourage them and said, “Do not weep and do not grieve, for His grace will be entirely with you and will protect you.” The disciples were deeply affected and even Peter said, “Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest. Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember but we do not, nor have we even heard them.”[7] And yet, in a later chapter, back to normal, Peter asked skeptically “Did Jesus really speak privately with a woman and not openly with us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?” Mary was taken aback and asked, “Do you think I made all of this up, or that I am lying.” Levi came to her defense and said, “Peter, you have always been hot tempered. You’re contending against Mary like she’s an adversary. If the Savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her? That’s why he loved her more than us.”[8] That 12th spot really belonged to Mary Magdalene! According to the Gospel, Levi stood up to Peter. And even called him out as a bully. Or was that just the wishful thinking of Mary’s supporters? It comes down to “Who gets to tell the story?” Hasn’t that been the gamer changer in the #MeToo movement? Whose stories have always been given the benefit of the doubt? Who gets to tell the story? Just like how cell phone videos have changed the narrative about police brutality. How often have videos told a very different story than the official line and proven what African Americans have been saying for decades? And yet, even now, whose stories are still given the benefit of the doubt? Those already at the table get to tell the story, make decisions, and set the criteria for others. Peter could have said the 12th spot is for someone who didn’t abandon Jesus on the cross. Or if not Peter, another disciple could have spoken up. Like Levi. Or another one. In fact, it says there were 120 people gathered in that room to choose the replacement for Judas. Surely at least one thought, what about Mary? But instead, Dr. Renita Weems said, “They chose what was expedient over what was prophetic.” “More like a corporate board room than the Beloved Community”[9] they chose someone like themselves. Weems is an African American biblical scholar, author, and was a professor at Vanderbilt School of Divinity for 15 years and Spellman College.[10] She’s also a minister, one of the first women ordained in a historic Black Church tradition, as well as a Black woman in the male dominated field of academia. She said she is used to being “the first and only one in the room,” but also, “You either grow or allow yourself to be diminished by the decisions of others. You learn to differentiate what’s happening to you from what’s happening within you.” She reminds me of Shirley Chisholm when she campaigned for the office of the President of the United States in 1972 – the first African American woman to do so. She said “I chose to run for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate sheer will and the refusal to accept the status quo. And,” she wrote in 1973, “the next time someone runs for office that the rest of the country is “not ready for,” they will be taken more seriously from the start.”[11] Unbought and Unbossed, she called herself. So, back to choosing the 12th disciple. Liberation theologian Justo Gonzalez said “it never occurred to them to choose someone unlike themselves. It maintains the tradition.”[12] But, with such closed thinking, can it be a surprise that the winds and fire of the Holy Spirit blew through town just one week later on Pentecost? So, ultimately, what do we do with all this? What’s the point? First, I can’t read this text without lamenting how Mary’s gifts were rejected and the ways that her exclusion continues to shape and affect the church, causing power struggles still playing out today. In the face of such adversity, I give thanks for Antoinette Brown and Beatrice Weaver, the first woman ordained in the Evangelical and Reformed tradition of the UCC in 1948.[13] And Yvonne Delk, the first African American woman ordained in the UCC in 1974. For all “the firsts and onlys in the room,” and for the tireless, but I’m sure exhausted, Shirley Chisholms of the world. Secondly, I want to take seriously the statement from Dr. Weems about Corporate Boardrooms vs. Beloved Community. And that the disciples chose what was expedient rather than what was prophetic. Challenging that kind of thinking should be Church 101. As well as Discipleship 101. Regular Person in the Pew 101. How do we make choices in our own lives that are more prophetic than expedient? How do we make decisions that aren’t the least fearful option? Certainly, we could always draw straws or cast lots and leave decision making to either fate or the Holy Spirit. But, probably, mostly, that’s not such a great idea. I learned a different method of decision making, or discernment, from The Benedictines Sisters of Erie called four-fold listening.[14] It is listening with your heart, listening to scripture, listening to wise counsel, and listening to the needs of the world. Heart, scripture, wise counsel – like a good friend, or pastor, or spiritual director. And finally, the needs of the world. In so doing, you are attempting to make sure that you are not making decisions just because that’s what you want for yourself. It tries to make choices less self-centered, yet, it doesn’t leave the self out. We must still listen to our heart. The interplay of heart, scripture and counsel will challenge the status quo. But then adding, how would consciously asking “what are the needs of the world, of people in my community, my neighborhood”; how would asking that affect my decisions? Might we become more prophetic than expedient? Heart, scripture, wise counsel, the world. In the chaos and divisiveness of our Trumpian world, I’m afraid exhaustion will increasingly cause people to step back and simply say, “let things play out as they may.” What good is being prophetic? Let’s just all get along. It’s more expedient. But perhaps it was the fear of being divisive that meant not a single one of those 120 people in the assembly stood up and said, “Hey, what about Mary?” The whole story of Christianity might have been radically different. We can’t change what happened then, but who can we speak up for today? Perhaps even ourselves. [1] 23:49 [2] The Message [3] https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/women.html [4] http://www.uscatholic.org/church/2012/03/who-decided-which-books-made-it-bible [5] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antoinette-Brown-Blackwell [6] http://www.ucc.org/research_statistics-and-reports [7] It is a classic trait of Gnostic writings that she was privy to knowledge the others didn’t have. [8] www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp [9] http://www.30goodminutes.org/index.php/archives/23-member-archives/506-renita-weems-program-4813 [10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renita_J._Weems [11] From her book The Good Fight, Harper Collins, 1973 [12] Gonzales, Acts: The Gospel of the Spirit, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001 [13] http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/unitedchurchofchrist/legacy_url/13196/microsoft-word-beatrice-weaver-mcconnell-a-trickle-of-ordained-women.pdf?1418439482 [14] https://www.eriebenedictines.org/ Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 6, 2018 “Love and the Lynching Tree” John 15: 9-17 As God has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept God’s commandments and abide in God’s love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from God. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that God will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. By now most of us know the story about Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson, two men arrested at Starbucks in Philadelphia for Sitting While Black. The details are remarkably simple. They were meeting someone and wanted to wait for all the parties to arrive before ordering. In the meantime, one asked to use the restroom. Within minutes, the manager called the police claiming, “They refuse to order anything.” The police arrived two minutes later, put the men in handcuffs, and led them out the door, while the man with whom they were meeting walked in. The men very carefully and thoughtfully did not object; they didn’t say anything so as not to get shot, after all, that would have been resisting arrest, not to mention, one of them might have put his hand too close to his pocket, leading the officer to believe his life was in danger. Donte and Rashon’s parents had given them “the talk” so they knew to comply. Don’t object. Don’t ask questions. They were held at the jail for 8 hours. 8 hours?! This week they settled with the city for $1 each, twelve and a half cents for each hour they spent locked up, not unlike prison wages. Plus, the city agreed to create a program for young entrepreneurs.[1] And Starbucks will close their 8,000 stores for an afternoon of racial bias training. The temptation is to give Starbucks credit for acting so quickly and concretely, more than a mere apology, and for recognizing it was racial biasand therefore not just organizing some generic “diversity training.” But we have to be careful not to make Starbucks the hero. On Thursday I watched coverage of the story on the Today Show. In their banter, Savannah, Hoda, and Willie congratulated the young men for their actions and commented on how much good will come out of a bad situation. They all smiled and nodded their heads. It was a feel-good story of redemption. But something about that felt very wrong. I realized, it was just another cover for racial guilt. We don’t have to address the underlying issues if something good comes out of it. We can just move on because all’s well that ends well. Meanwhile, police were called to CSU this week because a white parent on a campus tour for prospective students felt uncomfortable with the presence of two young Native American men, also considering whether to attend CSU. The official statement from the university, apologizing for the incident, added, the officers were “obligated to respond to an individual’s concern about public safety.”[2] Perhaps that’s progress… At one time, a mob would have simply invited a crowd of onlookers to watch as those two prospective students were hung from a lynching tree, a celebratory event as “public safety” was restored. A man might have been lynched for smiling at a white woman, or looking her in the eye, or walking too closely behind. And likely for sitting at Starbucks without ordering anything. Or no reason at all. Thousands of men were lynched, but also hundreds of women, such as Laura Nelson and Mary Turner, who was 8 months pregnant, uncontrollably distraught over seeing her husband just lynched.[3] Men, women, and even children at events also known as “lynching bees.” Children such as Jesse Washington, a black teenager who was lynched in Waco, Texas, on a beautiful spring day in May 1916, charged with the rape and murder of a white woman. After the verdict, he was dragged out of the court by observers and lynched in front of Waco's city hall. Over 10,000 spectators, including city officials and police, gathered to watch. There was a celebratory atmosphere and, it’s reported, many children attended during their lunch hour. Members of the mob castrated Washington, cut off his fingers, hung him over a bonfire and then repeatedly lowered and raised him over the fire for about two hours. After that, his charred torso was dragged through the town and parts of his body were sold as souvenirs. A professional photographer took pictures as the event unfolded, providing rare imagery of the lynching of a child in progress. The pictures were printed and sold as postcards in Waco.[4],[5] I debated whether to actually read all those gruesome details but I wondered, are we so fragile that we can’t take the truth? That’s Bryan Stevenson’s vision behind a lynching memorial that opened last weekend in Montgomery, Alabama, which he said addresses a topic inadequately acknowledged in our country. Lynching was domestic terrorism; a means to sustain white supremacy and racial hierarchy. One new thing I’ve learned so far: Did you know that Black Veterans were particularly targeted? Stevenson wrote: No one was more at risk of experiencing violence and racial terror than black veterans who had proven their valor and courage as soldiers during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Because of their military service, black veterans were seen as a particular threat to Jim Crow and racial subordination. Thousands of black veterans were assaulted, threatened, abused, or lynched following military service.[6] Why? A man who has been valiant in service will not be subservient enough at home. Uppity. Stevenson’s project is officially known as the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.[7] It stands alongside The Legacy Museum, an important complement to the memorial to show the succession of slavery, lynching, Jim Crow, to mass incarceration today. Each one newly devised to restore “public safety,” or rather, racial order, including loitering laws.[8] Also known as “You don’t belong here.” The project identified more than 4,000 victims, which of course is only a fraction of the overall total. The Smithsonian developed an interactive map with colored dots to show where documented lynchings happened.[9] Naturally, the South is saturated with color. I was, however, disturbed to learn that a black man had been lynched off a train bridge in Grand Forks, not far from our farm. Given the domestic terrorism of the KKK in Denver, including by Mayor Stapleton, I expected to see more dots on the map in Denver. There were 4 in the city, 2 Chinese men and 2 Italians. In the West, these incidents more often victimized Native Americans, Chinese, Italians, and Mexicans than African Americans, but that would not give much comfort to 16-year-old John Preston Porter, lynched and burned at the stake in front of 300 in Limon, or Calvin Kimblern, lynched by a mob in a mass spectacle before 6,000 in Pueblo. He was dragged, stripped, and hung twice from a telephone pole at Eighth Street and Santa Fe Avenue. Afterwards, the coroner decreed that he 'was not a human being' and declined to investigate his death.[10] The opening of the lynching memorial just so happened to occur mere hours before the death of the Rev. Dr. James H. Cone, the author of the book The Cross and the Lynching Tree.[11] The timing of Cone’s death and the opening is almost unnerving. Dr. Cone wrote, “The crucifixion was clearly a first-century lynching. Both are symbols of the innocent, mob hysteria, humiliation, and terror. They also both reveal a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning.” Calling the crucifixion a first-century lynching is powerful. Doesn’t that make you think? Hung from a tree. Hung because it was demanded of a mob screaming “Crucify him, Crucify him.” Executed unjustly. Done to send a message to terrify their communities. And all to keep order in the Empire, to restore public safety, also known as order. Therefore, Dr. Cone provocatively asserts, African Americans are Christ figures. Dr. Cone is considered the father of Black Liberation Theology, writing even before Central American theologians such as Gustavo Gutierrez.[12] The broad concepts of liberation theology began in Latin America in the 1950s and 60s by priests working among the poor. But Vatican officials sought to denigrate liberation theology as Marxism. Kind of how Dom Helder Camara was quoted as saying, “When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a Communist.” Dr. Cone died last week at age of 79.[13] He was an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a professor at Union Theological Seminary for 50 years, a peer of the perhaps more well-known Dr. Cornell West, who described Cone as a “theological genius, the greatest liberation theologian to emerge in the American empire.”[14] Since our scripture text today is about love, I began this week by looking for writings on love by Dr. Cone. He said, “The ethic of liberation arises out of love.” That was about it. He was hesitant to speak of love.[15] Though he called Martin Luther King a great theologian, Cone said his analysis of love, particularly of God’s love for both oppressed and oppressor, didn’t take seriously enough white violence in America. It treats the love of Jesus as if it were “indifferent to social and political justice. How can anything in the name of love leave intact the structures of oppression and the power of the oppressors” who perversely demand that love applies to them too? (Which, I must say, sounds awfully familiar to ALL Lives Matter). Dr. Cone suggests, that would mean they are pardoned from any responsibility, left with their riches and power intact. Cone’s book Black Theology and Black Power provided a counter-point to Dr. King. Love, he feared, becomes the justifying word of the oppressors. Kind of like a mob boss who goes to Mass on Sunday to be absolved of killing all week, only to go again the following Sunday to cover another week of murders, etc. This is pretty heavy stuff for such a beautiful Spring morning, isn’t it? And it begs the question, among this talk about lynching, where is the Good News? Sometimes we simply need to sit in reality. Let the pain soak in before we move on. We always want to move on. Like Savannah, Hoda, and Willie. “Well, at least some good came out of it.” Smiling, nodding, and “Now here’s Al with the weather.” But what about the 4 black women escorted off the golf course in Pennsylvania? The cops were called on these members because they were allegedly playing too slowly.[16] Or what about the two men at the fitness center in New Jersey, one a member, a regular, and one with a guest pass, who didn’t look like they belonged there… Call the police. Though Dr. Cone was an AME minister, he was a regular church-goer at The Riverside Church in New York City, a federated UCC and American Baptist. I want to conclude with what Dr. Amy Butler, Riverside’s current senior pastor, said of her congregant.[17] She started with the old Sunday School song “Love, love, love, that’s what it’s all about. Cause God loves us, we love each other, mother, father, sister, brother. Everybody sing and shout! Cause that’s what it’s all about. It’s about love, love, love…” “Yes, God is love,” she said. “It’s true. But moderate and liberal people of faith tend to cook down the fierce love of God. We boil the wrath of God right off, until we’re left with a kind of shallow, impotent, teddy-bear-kind of God that we can take out and cuddle when we feel sad, or self-righteous; a God of, in Dr. Cone’s words, ‘mere sentimentality.’ But the God we meet in the Book of Amos and many places in the biblical text is definitely not a God of sentimentality. God among the prophets is a God of righteous anger, or wrath, even.” “Now confession: the wrath of God is not really a go-to topic for most preachers. But in a world filled with oppression, poverty, and violence, we have to understand (and keep saying) that God is always on the side of the oppressed, outraged at the injustice we perpetrate on each other, filled with righteous anger. God is certainly love, but true love is more than just accepting everybody. What gives love its heft and the power to change things is its perpetual insistence on justice.” As Dr. Cone said, “‘The wrath of God is the love of God in regard to the forces opposed to the liberation of the oppressed.’” Another wow moment. The wrath of God is the love of God for the oppressed. Yes, God is love. And if we stand with the oppressed, we stand with Christ. The cross and the lynching tree. Whether he was hesitant or not, Dr. Cone just gave me one of the most powerful and inspirational sayings about love I could ever hope to find. We can end today by once again affirming the Good News that God is love, just not sentimentality. Nor can love be used as excuse not to change or to excuse the structures of white supremacy. Fierce love. That’s the God I want, not one who leaves me comfortable where I am but draws me toward what I haven’t yet become. How about you? 8 Victims of lynching in and near Denver (Not a complete list)[18] Pepino Tologrino ⸬ Italian male lynched in May 1891 ⌖ Denver, Denver Co. He was lynched by a mob after being accused of murder. He drowned in the South Platte river trying to flee the mob. Nicolai Arata Also recorded as: Daniel Arata ⸬ Italian male lynched in Jul 1893 ⌖ Denver, Denver Co. He was lynched by a mob after being accused of murder in a mass spectacle before some 10,000 people Unnamed ⸬ Mexican male lynched in Jun 1866 ⌖ Golden, Jefferson Co. He was lynched by a mob after being accused of Attempted murder Edward Bainbridge ⸬ Italian male lynched in Apr 1867 ⌖ Georgetown, Clear Creek Co. He was lynched by a mob after being accused of assault Look Young ⸬ Chinese male lynched in Oct 1880 ⌖ Denver, Arapahoe Co. He was lynched with no alleged offense Unnamed #1 ⸬ Chinese person killed in late Dec 1880 ⌖ Denver, Arapahoe Co. In Nov 1880 a mob raged through Denver on the (false) rumor that 2 Chinese men had killed a white man during a fight. One Chinese person was killed by the mob and many more injured. John Preston Porter, Jr., Also recorded as: Preston Porter ⸬ Black male lynched in Nov 1900 ⌖ Lake Station, near Limon, Lincoln Co. Porter was a 16-year-old accused of raping and murdering a 12 year old girl. A vigilante mob of about 300 people burned him at the stake. Calvin Kimblern, Also recorded as: Calvin Kunblern ⸬ Black male lynched in May 1900 ⌖ Pueblo, Pueblo Co. He was lynched by a mob after being accused of murder in a mass spectacle with over 6000 participants. He was dragged, stripped, and hung twice from a telephone pole at Eighth St and Santa Fe Avenue. Afterwards, the coroner decreed that Kimblern 'was not a human being' and declined to investigate his death [1] http://www.philly.com/philly/news/starbucks-arrest-black-men-settle-philadelphia-rashon-nelson-donte-robinson-20180502.html [2] https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/csu-police-called-on-two-native-americans-who-were-on-campus-for-tour [3] https://theconversation.com/lynching-memorial-shows-women-were-victims-too-95029 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Jesse_Washington [5] https://theundefeated.com/features/the-waco-horror/ [6] https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-targeting-black-veterans-web.pdf [7] https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/ [8] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/04/20/starbucks-la-fitness-and-the-racist-history-of-trespassing-laws/?utm_term=.4c01d54ba2cc [9] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/map-shows-over-a-century-of-documented-lynchings-in-united-states-180961877/ [10] Each of the dots on the map gives the name, if known, and a description of the lynching, if known. [11] Orbis Books, 2011 [12] A Theology of Liberation, Orbis Books, 1973 [13] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/29/obituaries/james-cone-dead.html [14] https://utsnyc.edu/james-cone/ [15] Thanks to https://veeritions.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/james-cone-on-the-liberation-of-love/ for these insights [16] https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/25/us/black-women-golfers-pennsylvania-trnd/index.html [17] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/talkwiththepreacher/2016/07/17/when-god-gets-political-enough/#_ftn2 [18] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/map-shows-over-a-century-of-documented-lynchings-in-united-states-180961877/ Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 6, 2018 “Love and the Lynching Tree” John 15: 9-17 As God has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept God’s commandments and abide in God’s love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from God. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that God will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. By now most of us know the story about Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson, two men arrested at Starbucks in Philadelphia for Sitting While Black. The details are remarkably simple. They were meeting someone and wanted to wait for all the parties to arrive before ordering. In the meantime, one asked to use the restroom. Within minutes, the manager called the police claiming, “They refuse to order anything.” The police arrived two minutes later, put the men in handcuffs, and led them out the door, while the man with whom they were meeting walked in. The men very carefully and thoughtfully did not object; they didn’t say anything so as not to get shot, after all, that would have been resisting arrest, not to mention, one of them might have put his hand too close to his pocket, leading the officer to believe his life was in danger. Donte and Rashon’s parents had given them “the talk” so they knew to comply. Don’t object. Don’t ask questions. They were held at the jail for 8 hours. 8 hours?! This week they settled with the city for $1 each, twelve and a half cents for each hour they spent locked up, not unlike prison wages. Plus, the city agreed to create a program for young entrepreneurs.[1] And Starbucks will close their 8,000 stores for an afternoon of racial bias training. The temptation is to give Starbucks credit for acting so quickly and concretely, more than a mere apology, and for recognizing it was racial bias and therefore not just organizing some generic “diversity training.” But we have to be careful not to make Starbucks the hero. On Thursday I watched coverage of the story on the Today Show. In their banter, Savannah, Hoda, and Willie congratulated the young men for their actions and commented on how much good will come out of a bad situation. They all smiled and nodded their heads. It was a feel-good story of redemption. But something about that felt very wrong. I realized, it was just another cover for racial guilt. We don’t have to address the underlying issues if something good comes out of it. We can just move on because all’s well that ends well. Meanwhile, police were called to CSU this week because a white parent on a campus tour for prospective students felt uncomfortable with the presence of two young Native American men, also considering whether to attend CSU. The official statement from the university, apologizing for the incident, added, the officers were “obligated to respond to an individual’s concern about public safety.”[2] Perhaps that’s progress… At one time, a mob would have simply invited a crowd of onlookers to watch as those two prospective students were hung from a lynching tree, a celebratory event as “public safety” was restored. A man might have been lynched for smiling at a white woman, or looking her in the eye, or walking too closely behind. And likely for sitting at Starbucks without ordering anything. Or no reason at all. Thousands of men were lynched, but also hundreds of women, such as Laura Nelson and Mary Turner, who was 8 months pregnant, uncontrollably distraught over seeing her husband just lynched.[3] Men, women, and even children at events also known as “lynching bees.” Children such as Jesse Washington, a black teenager who was lynched in Waco, Texas, on a beautiful spring day in May 1916, charged with the rape and murder of a white woman. After the verdict, he was dragged out of the court by observers and lynched in front of Waco's city hall. Over 10,000 spectators, including city officials and police, gathered to watch. There was a celebratory atmosphere and, it’s reported, many children attended during their lunch hour. Members of the mob castrated Washington, cut off his fingers, hung him over a bonfire and then repeatedly lowered and raised him over the fire for about two hours. After that, his charred torso was dragged through the town and parts of his body were sold as souvenirs. A professional photographer took pictures as the event unfolded, providing rare imagery of the lynching of a child in progress. The pictures were printed and sold as postcards in Waco.[4],[5] I debated whether to actually read all those gruesome details but I wondered, are we so fragile that we can’t take the truth? That’s Bryan Stevenson’s vision behind a lynching memorial that opened last weekend in Montgomery, Alabama, which he said addresses a topic inadequately acknowledged in our country. Lynching was domestic terrorism; a means to sustain white supremacy and racial hierarchy. One new thing I’ve learned so far: Did you know that Black Veterans were particularly targeted? Stevenson wrote: No one was more at risk of experiencing violence and racial terror than black veterans who had proven their valor and courage as soldiers during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Because of their military service, black veterans were seen as a particular threat to Jim Crow and racial subordination. Thousands of black veterans were assaulted, threatened, abused, or lynched following military service.[6] Why? A man who has been valiant in service will not be subservient enough at home. Uppity. Stevenson’s project is officially known as the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.[7] It stands alongside The Legacy Museum, an important complement to the memorial to show the succession of slavery, lynching, Jim Crow, to mass incarceration today. Each one newly devised to restore “public safety,” or rather, racial order, including loitering laws.[8] Also known as “You don’t belong here.” The project identified more than 4,000 victims, which of course is only a fraction of the overall total. The Smithsonian developed an interactive map with colored dots to show where documented lynchings happened.[9] Naturally, the South is saturated with color. I was, however, disturbed to learn that a black man had been lynched off a train bridge in Grand Forks, not far from our farm. Given the domestic terrorism of the KKK in Denver, including by Mayor Stapleton, I expected to see more dots on the map in Denver. There were 4 in the city, 2 Chinese men and 2 Italians. In the West, these incidents more often victimized Native Americans, Chinese, Italians, and Mexicans than African Americans, but that would not give much comfort to 16-year-old John Preston Porter, lynched and burned at the stake in front of 300 in Limon, or Calvin Kimblern, lynched by a mob in a mass spectacle before 6,000 in Pueblo. He was dragged, stripped, and hung twice from a telephone pole at Eighth Street and Santa Fe Avenue. Afterwards, the coroner decreed that he 'was not a human being' and declined to investigate his death.[10] The opening of the lynching memorial just so happened to occur mere hours before the death of the Rev. Dr. James H. Cone, the author of the book The Cross and the Lynching Tree.[11] The timing of Cone’s death and the opening is almost unnerving. Dr. Cone wrote, “The crucifixion was clearly a first-century lynching. Both are symbols of the innocent, mob hysteria, humiliation, and terror. They also both reveal a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning.” Calling the crucifixion a first-century lynching is powerful. Doesn’t that make you think? Hung from a tree. Hung because it was demanded of a mob screaming “Crucify him, Crucify him.” Executed unjustly. Done to send a message to terrify their communities. And all to keep order in the Empire, to restore public safety, also known as order. Therefore, Dr. Cone provocatively asserts, African Americans are Christ figures. Dr. Cone is considered the father of Black Liberation Theology, writing even before Central American theologians such as Gustavo Gutierrez.[12] The broad concepts of liberation theology began in Latin America in the 1950s and 60s by priests working among the poor. But Vatican officials sought to denigrate liberation theology as Marxism. Kind of how Dom Helder Camara was quoted as saying, “When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a Communist.” Dr. Cone died last week at age of 79.[13] He was an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a professor at Union Theological Seminary for 50 years, a peer of the perhaps more well-known Dr. Cornell West, who described Cone as a “theological genius, the greatest liberation theologian to emerge in the American empire.”[14] Since our scripture text today is about love, I began this week by looking for writings on love by Dr. Cone. He said, “The ethic of liberation arises out of love.” That was about it. He was hesitant to speak of love.[15] Though he called Martin Luther King a great theologian, Cone said his analysis of love, particularly of God’s love for both oppressed and oppressor, didn’t take seriously enough white violence in America. It treats the love of Jesus as if it were “indifferent to social and political justice. How can anything in the name of love leave intact the structures of oppression and the power of the oppressors” who perversely demand that love applies to them too? (Which, I must say, sounds awfully familiar to ALL Lives Matter). Dr. Cone suggests, that would mean they are pardoned from any responsibility, left with their riches and power intact. Cone’s book Black Theology and Black Power provided a counter-point to Dr. King. Love, he feared, becomes the justifying word of the oppressors. Kind of like a mob boss who goes to Mass on Sunday to be absolved of killing all week, only to go again the following Sunday to cover another week of murders, etc. This is pretty heavy stuff for such a beautiful Spring morning, isn’t it? And it begs the question, among this talk about lynching, where is the Good News? Sometimes we simply need to sit in reality. Let the pain soak in before we move on. We always want to move on. Like Savannah, Hoda, and Willie. “Well, at least some good came out of it.” Smiling, nodding, and “Now here’s Al with the weather.” But what about the 4 black women escorted off the golf course in Pennsylvania? The cops were called on these members because they were allegedly playing too slowly.[16] Or what about the two men at the fitness center in New Jersey, one a member, a regular, and one with a guest pass, who didn’t look like they belonged there… Call the police. Though Dr. Cone was an AME minister, he was a regular church-goer at The Riverside Church in New York City, a federated UCC and American Baptist. I want to conclude with what Dr. Amy Butler, Riverside’s current senior pastor, said of her congregant.[17] She started with the old Sunday School song “Love, love, love, that’s what it’s all about. Cause God loves us, we love each other, mother, father, sister, brother. Everybody sing and shout! Cause that’s what it’s all about. It’s about love, love, love…” “Yes, God is love,” she said. “It’s true. But moderate and liberal people of faith tend to cook down the fierce love of God. We boil the wrath of God right off, until we’re left with a kind of shallow, impotent, teddy-bear-kind of God that we can take out and cuddle when we feel sad, or self-righteous; a God of, in Dr. Cone’s words, ‘mere sentimentality.’ But the God we meet in the Book of Amos and many places in the biblical text is definitely not a God of sentimentality. God among the prophets is a God of righteous anger, or wrath, even.” “Now confession: the wrath of God is not really a go-to topic for most preachers. But in a world filled with oppression, poverty, and violence, we have to understand (and keep saying) that God is always on the side of the oppressed, outraged at the injustice we perpetrate on each other, filled with righteous anger. God is certainly love, but true love is more than just accepting everybody. What gives love its heft and the power to change things is its perpetual insistence on justice.” As Dr. Cone said, “‘The wrath of God is the love of God in regard to the forces opposed to the liberation of the oppressed.’” Another wow moment. The wrath of God is the love of God for the oppressed. Yes, God is love. And if we stand with the oppressed, we stand with Christ. The cross and the lynching tree. Whether he was hesitant or not, Dr. Cone just gave me one of the most powerful and inspirational sayings about love I could ever hope to find. We can end today by once again affirming the Good News that God is love, just not sentimentality. Nor can love be used as excuse not to change or to excuse the structures of white supremacy. Fierce love. That’s the God I want, not one who leaves me comfortable where I am but draws me toward what I haven’t yet become. How about you? 8 Victims of lynching in and near Denver (Not a complete list)[18] Pepino Tologrino ⸬ Italian male lynched in May 1891 ⌖ Denver, Denver Co. He was lynched by a mob after being accused of murder. He drowned in the South Platte river trying to flee the mob. Nicolai Arata Also recorded as: Daniel Arata ⸬ Italian male lynched in Jul 1893 ⌖ Denver, Denver Co. He was lynched by a mob after being accused of murder in a mass spectacle before some 10,000 people Unnamed ⸬ Mexican male lynched in Jun 1866 ⌖ Golden, Jefferson Co. He was lynched by a mob after being accused of Attempted murder Edward Bainbridge ⸬ Italian male lynched in Apr 1867 ⌖ Georgetown, Clear Creek Co. He was lynched by a mob after being accused of assault Look Young ⸬ Chinese male lynched in Oct 1880 ⌖ Denver, Arapahoe Co. He was lynched with no alleged offense Unnamed #1 ⸬ Chinese person killed in late Dec 1880 ⌖ Denver, Arapahoe Co. In Nov 1880 a mob raged through Denver on the (false) rumor that 2 Chinese men had killed a white man during a fight. One Chinese person was killed by the mob and many more injured. John Preston Porter, Jr., Also recorded as: Preston Porter ⸬ Black male lynched in Nov 1900 ⌖ Lake Station, near Limon, Lincoln Co. Porter was a 16-year-old accused of raping and murdering a 12 year old girl. A vigilante mob of about 300 people burned him at the stake. Calvin Kimblern, Also recorded as: Calvin Kunblern ⸬ Black male lynched in May 1900 ⌖ Pueblo, Pueblo Co. He was lynched by a mob after being accused of murder in a mass spectacle with over 6000 participants. He was dragged, stripped, and hung twice from a telephone pole at Eighth St and Santa Fe Avenue. Afterwards, the coroner decreed that Kimblern 'was not a human being' and declined to investigate his death [1] http://www.philly.com/philly/news/starbucks-arrest-black-men-settle-philadelphia-rashon-nelson-donte-robinson-20180502.html [2] https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/csu-police-called-on-two-native-americans-who-were-on-campus-for-tour [3] https://theconversation.com/lynching-memorial-shows-women-were-victims-too-95029 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Jesse_Washington [5] https://theundefeated.com/features/the-waco-horror/ [6] https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-targeting-black-veterans-web.pdf [7] https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/ [8] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/04/20/starbucks-la-fitness-and-the-racist-history-of-trespassing-laws/?utm_term=.4c01d54ba2cc [9] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/map-shows-over-a-century-of-documented-lynchings-in-united-states-180961877/ [10] Each of the dots on the map gives the name, if known, and a description of the lynching, if known. [11] Orbis Books, 2011 [12] A Theology of Liberation, Orbis Books, 1973 [13] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/29/obituaries/james-cone-dead.html [14] https://utsnyc.edu/james-cone/ [15] Thanks to https://veeritions.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/james-cone-on-the-liberation-of-love/ for these insights [16] https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/25/us/black-women-golfers-pennsylvania-trnd/index.html [17] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/talkwiththepreacher/2016/07/17/when-god-gets-political-enough/#_ftn2 [18] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/map-shows-over-a-century-of-documented-lynchings-in-united-states-180961877/ |
AuthorI love being a Archives
March 2024
|