"Jump In!" - Galatians 3: 26 - 29 - Marvin Daniel
Jump In!
Let Us Pray
As we are gathered here today, we ask you, Living God, to shower onto us your wisdom and your knowledge. We pray that as we listen to your word, we may have the ability to see what you are calling us to do. We seek to live to fulfill your purpose so that we can see your kingdom. Illuminate our eyes and reveal to us your glory.
Amen
Good morning. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here this morning. Thank you for having supported me on this journey to becoming your Lay Pastor for Mission and Advocacy. The leadership of this church, the Session of this church and the members of this church have been with me all along the way and for that I am grateful. If you’ll indulge me for a minute or two, I’d like to share something on a somewhat personal note before I talk about our scripture passage and what I want to talk with you about today. I guess you might call this my “Call Story”. When did I feel the call to do this work? Recently as you can imagine, I’ve been asked the question many times about how I decided to do this Seminary study? I don’t believe that I have ever answered that question until today…certainly, not publicly. When I was about 12, I got up one Saturday morning and had this idea that I was going to ride my bike from my house on Three Chop Road to First Presbyterian Church on Cary Street where my family worshiped. I did just that. I approached the door on the Locke Lane side, tried the knob and the door opened. I went into the sanctuary, walked down the center aisle and knelt. I asked God to tell me what he wanted me to do. His answer was that I should do the work that needed to be done; that I should make a difference. That when the time came, that I should JUMP IN. We chatted over the years; He would ask occasionally if I was still on board with the plan. I always answered yes, but that things were always in the way. About ten years ago I said, “Lord, I am finally ready to jump in and start the journey of doing the work for your Kingdom that needs to be done.” And yesterday my commissioning at Presbytery sort of pulled it all together. I am blessed to have so many “doers” here at Second ready to work alongside me!
The renowned African American theologian, Howard Thurman, said that “the basic fact is that Christianity, as it was born in the mind of this Jewish thinker and teacher, appears as a technique of survival for the oppressed. That it became, through the intervening years, a religion of the powerful and the dominant, used sometimes as an instrument of oppression, must not tempt us into believing that it was thus in the mind of Jesus. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Wherever his spirit appears, the oppressed gather fresh courage, for He announced the good news that fear, hypocrisy and hatred, the three hounds of hell that track the trail of the disinherited, need have no dominion over them.”
I think that most of you probably know that our congregation has been engaged in a six-week study of the Jemar Tisby book:” How to fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice.” We’ve had roughly 100 courageous Christians involved in this study both on Zoom and here at our church, in person. There have been 10 congregations participating in this series organized by Richmond’s Clergy against Racism.
I think that it was the Courageous Christianity part of the title that grabbed me. It made me wonder and want to know more about what the Bible says about racism and how to practice courageous, faithful Christianity. What does the law of Moses say, what do the prophets teach us, what do the gospel writers teach, and what does Jesus say about how to be an anti-racist? As it turns out, there was a lot of material for me to work with in the scriptures. So much, in fact, that I concluded that, with all due respect to Mr. Tisby and other writers who have penned numerous books on this subject, this book was actually written a very long time ago. As Christians, as members of this church, how do we live courageously as we seek to be an anti-racist church? How do we hear the word of God and also do the word of God? We heard recently from Alec when he preached on being “Doers” from the book of James that we should be “doers of the word, and not hearers only… deceiving ourselves”
Recently, at our church’s Annual Session Retreat, we were tasked with coming up with answers to three questions. The first of these questions was ‘What is God calling forth from us …..as leaders at the church…..more than anything else…in these unusual times? At the top of the list that we came up with that Saturday, was the fact that we are called forth to focus on mission and advocacy, strengthening congregational community within Second and establishing wider connections with the wider community. Becoming a seven day a week church, playing some of our games at home and some of them away.
Immediately after that first response was this phrase:” we are called forth to have a greater awareness of structural racism. Called to be doers and to strive toward being an anti-racist church.”
Our scripture passage this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the third chapter, verses 26-29 and can be found in your bulletin.
Please listen for the word of God.
“So, in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abram’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”
This is the Word of God for the People of God
Thanks be to God
How do we even begin to begin to fight this thing called racism? How do we begin to fight this thing that from a Christian world view dehumanizes and devalues our fellow Christians? I think we just have to jump in!
It’s our natural inclination to feel uncomfortable around people that are different than us; we like to gravitate towards those who are just like us. What I have learned is that when we separate from our fellow believers because we are different, we are paying no attention at all to biblical teaching.
The scriptures are so very clear on this. We are told repeatedly how to behave, what God wants from us and repeatedly we neglect to follow the Bible. In Leviticus Chapter 19, God tells us that “when a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
What if Emmett Till, an African American, a” foreigner” from Chicago, had not been mistreated by white Christians in Drew, Mississippi when he visited his grandmother in the summer of 1955?
What if Sandra Bland, traveling from Chicago to Texas had been treated like a” native born”? Perhaps she would not have died in a Waller County Texas jail sixty years later in 2015.
What if Ahmaud Arbry had been loved as much by the murderers who gunned him down while jogging in South Georgia as they loved their own kind ? He might not have died.
Let’s think about George Floyd and Breona Taylor and Michael Brown and so many others as we contemplate the four things we are told to do at the end of the Book of Hebrews.
Keep on Loving One another as brothers and sisters
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers so by doing some people have shown hospitality to angels
Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison
Remember those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
God is so clear on the issue of how to treat one another. Scripture is so clear. How did White Christianity stray so far and how do we do the work that needs to be done now?
Jump in!
Understand that race is something that White Christian people made up. Race is what we refer to as a social construct. White Europeans simply made it up. It’s not spiritual or biological. This idea that race is determined by appearance, by hair texture, body type or nose or lip shape is all constructed. The Bible uses the word race in reference to the human race. In Job 28:28 “and he said to the human race, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.” In 1st Peter chapter 2, “But you a chosen race… a holy nation, a people of his own possession” Here the word race means those who are a part of God’s Holy nation, it has nothing not do with skin color or any other physical characteristics.
In Genesis 12, God promises Abraham that “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the people of the Earth… just allow me to break in here and reiterate what God has just said,. “All the people of the Earth will be blessed through you. That would be all nationalities and ethnicities … God’s salvation is for all the families of the Earth. Period. Full stop.
Jesus tells his disciples in Acts, at the Ascension, that they will be his witnesses to the ends of the Earth. The whole earth. Witnesses to everyone. To the Black, White, and yellow ends of the Earth, To the Gay, Straight ends of the earth. To the immigrant and indigenous ends of the Earth. To the “we are not leaving anybody out ends of the Earth. Jesus is telling us something here about inclusion. Everybody is in and nobody is out.
Why did we stop listening to God?
I am not sure that it matters so much as to why some Christians stopped listening and being courageous or why some Christians still turn a deaf ear to the teachings of scripture. What’s important is that we are listening now. We are being courageous Christians now. We at Second Pres are listening and ready to jump in. Don’t ask folks at second Pres where they stand on being courageous Christians. If we are standing, then our feet are not moving and our feet are moving. We are living Proverbs 31: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and the needy. “
We at Second are gravitating constantly towards where we see people being crushed because we are a just people. We choose to gravitate to the places where people suffer because the light of Jesus Christ is in this church and in its people. We are committed to not just talking about racism, but we are committed to being about racism. About being people of courage.
Dr. Martin Luther King wrote from the Birmingham jail to those who were readying themselves to march that, “When you prepare to march, meditate on the life and teachings of Jesus” Before we” jump in “let’s meditate on the life and teachings of Jesus, I know we will jump higher and further if we do just that.
Let’s be courageous Christians. Let’s have the courage to jump into the courageous Christian/anti-racist Jesus Movement and not be hesitant to encourage others to jump with us.
Jump in with Ephesians where the Gentiles are here together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise of Jesus Christ
Jump in with Revelations 7:9 “after this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe people and language standing before the throne and the lamb”
Jump in with Luke chapter 4 where the Kingdom is described as a banquet to which all, especially those on society’s margins are invited”
Jump in with Matthew 25. Feed the hungry, all the hungry
Quench the thirst for everyone who is thirsty. Invite all the strangers in. Clothe all the naked. Look after all the sick. Visit all the prisoners.
Let us be courageous Christians who listen to the word of God.
Friends, I took a long time to get to where I am standing today. LOTS OF YEARS since that Saturday morning bike ride many years ago. I had heard God, but I was not doing God. I am so thankful that when I decided to jump in, when I decided to be a doer, that you all were here in this church to support me and welcome me in this quest.
Amen
Benediction at conclusion of service.
“The Lord Bless you and keep you.”
All of you from East and West and North and South
“The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you”
May His face shine upon all the faces of the Earth, all the faces that are made in His Holy Image
“The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his greatest gift, shalom, the gift of Peace.”
May His countenance be made to shine on all people everywhere and his greatest gift, shalom, be for all the world to receive.
And the people say, Amen
And remember, life is short. We don’t have much time to gladden the
hearts of those who walk this way with us.
Be swift to love and make haste to be kind.
Amen