What
follows is an expanded for readability purposes version of a sermon delivered
at New Song Community Church (Columbus, Ohio) on July 21, 2013, one week after
the verdict of the George Zimmerman trial.
***********
God
of Grace and Mercy and Might-be here now for these your people. I yield myself,
all that I am, to your righteous will and way.
Let your message go forth to ears that would hear. In
Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. Amen.
I, like many of you, have had a tough week. This
week, I found that I was so angry that I couldn’t speak. Do any of you remember the “pressure cookers”
they used to have back in the day? I don’t know maybe they still have those.
You would put the food in the pot with the special lid, that had the little
thingy on top that would spin and hiss every few seconds, so that the food in
the pot would cook at a consistent pressure.
Made great pot roast as I recall!
That’s what I felt like--a mini pressure
cooker. I knew on some level that it wasn’t
even safe for me to speak. I intimately
understand the power of words, and how words are alive and have creation power
in them. It wasn’t that I didn’t have
words to say. It’s just that the words in my heart and in my mind were in
conflict with my inner Christian witness.
Truthfully, this pressure cooker in my heart and
mind had been bubbling for a few weeks prior to the Zimmerman verdict. As a Social Worker by trade and training, I
was already pretty steamed by the gutting of the voting rights act that put the
constitutional right to vote in jeopardy for thousands, potentially millions of
the poor, the marginalized and populations of color. Following that, the powers that be in this
great state of Ohio blindsided us, we who are pro-reproductive freedom, with
restrictions that set back the women’s movement by 40 years. As if that wasn’t personal enough, the two by
four upside the head of the Zimmerman verdict might have been enough to simply
push me over the cliff of good sense.
Fortunately, the steady and grace filled voice of
Sybrina Fulton pierced through this place of righteous anger I was locked in,
and by connecting with her grief; I was able to connect with my own. Sybrina Fulton leaned to her faith by quoting
her favorite scripture passage Psalm 3:5-6, which from the NIV reads:
Trust
in the Lord
with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
And .. this same passage from “The Voice”:
Place
your trust in the Eternal; rely on Him completely;
never depend upon your own ideas and inventions.
6 Give Him the credit for everything you accomplish,
and He will smooth out and straighten the road that lies ahead.
7 And don’t think you can decide on your own what is right and what is wrong.
Respect the Eternal; turn and run from evil.
never depend upon your own ideas and inventions.
6 Give Him the credit for everything you accomplish,
and He will smooth out and straighten the road that lies ahead.
7 And don’t think you can decide on your own what is right and what is wrong.
Respect the Eternal; turn and run from evil.
Sybrina Fulton stood, not only as Trayvon’s mother,
but also as the mother of us all in a way – teaching us that if she can stand
there, head held high, with her heart breaking, with her dignity intact, then
we as a people can do the same. Trayvon
Martin’s parents stood
up for him, and became walking candles in the darkness …
pointing the way, leading us …taking their place in line to STAND, not just
for Trayvon, but for a long list of martyred children and adults in African
American history.
So, now, here, in 2013 we ask that age old question
….. what
do you do when justice is denied? Do you fight? Do you flee? Do you
bury yourself in food, drink, or potentially negative social engagements? I couldn’t give energy to any of those
actions or re-actions because there was nothing that I could step up or down to
that felt effective for dampening my fury or to assuage my grief.
These two emotions were kissing cousins for
the better part of three days before finally the grief won over, and I was
quiet enough to feel the gentle nudge of the Spirit and to look to scripture
for the balm for my own hurting heart.
I make an effort to follow along with the lectionary
readings for a given week. And of course it is always my first stop when doing sermon
prep. In my emotional turmoil, as I scanned “the text this week”, looking to scripture
to grab hold of a little peace and calm, the last thing I needed was the
prophet Amos (Amos 8:1-12) doing his smack down to Israel about their idolatry
and inhumanity to the needy. But for a
while, I have to admit, it felt good to know and to remember that Almighty God is
a God of justice, and is always on the side of the poor, the powerless, the marginalized
and the oppressed. But God, in her infinite wisdom, will meet me at a place, only
to take me to a new place where he wants me to stretch and grow and heal.
What I also didn’t need was an image in my head of
Jesus the Christ, arms outstretched and nailed to a wooden crossbeam, asking
God the Father to “forgive them for they know not what they do”. I didn’t want that image. I wanted something
or someone to answer for this travesty. Yet that is the image that remained,
firmly imprinted.
With that image, Holy Spirit spoke saying …. time to
breath, time to let go of the rage, time to cry and sit with the grief – look
at it from all sides—look and listen, make note of the ones talking, make
closer note of the ones who are silent.
In this place of tears, breathing and stillness … blessed
and surprised was I to find the voices of those who didn’t share my culture or my
history, but shared my pain; blessed and surprised was I to find that the God
of Grace and Mercy and Might, had wrought a new thing right under our
complacent noses. So many progressive
prayers and voices raising questions about judicial fairness and how the lack
of it it serves to deny justice to the poor, the powerless and the
marginalized.
Iyanla Vanzant has a saying.. “All things are lessons that God
would have us learn”. So finally,
my prayer and my plea, for you, and for me this week, was, “God,
what would you have us learn out of this devastating turn of events?” What, Dear God, do you require of us? And when I say us, I don’t mean just any “us”.
I mean the “us” that are the ones called to the way of Christ. The ones who can put themselves at the foot
of the cross and see the image of the outstretched arms of a dying Christ.
Hear this familiar reading from “The Voice”
Micah 6:6-8
6 Israel: What
should I bring into the presence of the Eternal One
to pay homage to the God Most High?
Should I come into His presence with burnt offerings,
with year-old calves to sacrifice?
7 Would the Eternal be pleased by thousands of sacrificial rams,
by ten thousand swollen rivers of sweet olive oil?
Should I offer my oldest son for my wrongdoing,
the child of my body to cover the sins of my life?
to pay homage to the God Most High?
Should I come into His presence with burnt offerings,
with year-old calves to sacrifice?
7 Would the Eternal be pleased by thousands of sacrificial rams,
by ten thousand swollen rivers of sweet olive oil?
Should I offer my oldest son for my wrongdoing,
the child of my body to cover the sins of my life?
8 No. He has
told you, mortals, what is good in His sight.
What else does the Eternal ask of you
But to live justly and to love kindness
and to walk with your True God in all humility?
What else does the Eternal ask of you
But to live justly and to love kindness
and to walk with your True God in all humility?
And
more from Psalm 15
O Lord,
who
may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? 2Those who walk blamelessly and do what is right, and speak the
truth from their heart;
3who do not slander with their tongue, and do
no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors; 4in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who
fear the Lord; who
stand by their oath even to their hurt;
Many do not know, and choose to dismiss the hurt,
the pain, the anger that fueled the wave of protest following the verdict. They
have not lived our history. They do not know that the story of Trayvon Martin
is a familiar one. They do not know and choose to dismiss that this grief of
injustice has touched us intimately, and with this event, we are forced to
relive our own unhealed history.
For many of us the grief of injustice has a name.
For my husband’s family the grief of injustice is named Gilbert Williams,
Jr.—an older brother who, though unarmed, was shot down and killed by police
some 40 years ago. These words from my brother-in-law were shared on our family
Facebook page this week:
“He
had no weapon but did run and was shot in the back and killed.
Remember how well natured he was? He was in
the Navy, protecting our nation,
right after the Viet Nam conflict. He was a
wrestler, a member of the state
championship 440 relay team. He was a good son,
and he was my brother
and my protector because I was the baby boy then. My
father hired a
private investigator to handle this case (a young Johnny Cochran)
but
two weeks into the investigation, Mr. Cochran gave my father his retainer
back
stating that he (Johnny) was told to leave this one alone…
Why does
Justice have to hide?” my brother-in-law asks.
Grief has a name … for me the grief of injustice is
named Marqus Anthony Ware …
a tall, proud, military veteran, also known as my
godson, or my nephew,
depending on who he was talking to. Marqus was the only
son to
my sister-friend who I’ve known since we were 15 and 16 respectively.
I
had known him all his life. Just as his mother and I were “sisters”,
my
daughter and he claimed each other as “siblings” or as “cousins”,
depending on
whom they were talking to. Marqus was a
natural leader,
a loyal friend, a beloved son and confidant, one who loved
hard. If he claimed you,
he stood up for you.
He didn’t back down. Three years
ago he didn’t back down,
and was shot and killed. He was unarmed. The man who shot him
was
never charged. There was barely an investigation.
His life didn’t warrant an investigation.
Just another Black man dead.
For many, many millions of us this day …. Grief has
a name.
TRAYVON BENJAMIN MARTIN.
And through these experiences, we carry our
collective hurt and grief and our cry for justice, and God calls us to
something else. For this time, during
this hour, I think God calls us not to stand our ground, but to stand and bear
witness. I think God calls us to stand for our loved ones, stand for those who
came before us, to speak our truth, but to stand as representatives or allies of
living history.
And while we do that, we draw strength from the
knowledge that out of our pain, comes our purpose.
God reminds us that the way of the cross is
not a journey of sweetness and light, meadows and wildflowers. The way of the cross is rocky and rough
shod. But God does not leave us
defenseless. God asks us to lean not to
our own understanding, but to yield to
the call, draw strength from God, slap on our armor and war with the powers
of spiritual darkness. We war by staying
prayed up – we pray for ourselves, we pray for our loved ones, we pray for
God’s people everywhere.
We stand for justice.
We stand for the ones who have paid the price.
We speak truth to power.
We do not suffer in silence.
Here these words of Ephesians 6:10-18 from The Voice:
10 Finally,
brothers and sisters, draw your strength and might from God.
11 Put on the full armor of God to protect yourselves from the
devil and his evil schemes. 12 We’re not waging war against
enemies of flesh and blood alone. No, this fight is against tyrants, against
authorities, against supernatural powers and demon princes that
slither in the darkness of this world, and against wicked spiritual
armies that lurk about in heavenly places.
13 And
this is why you need to be head-to-toe in the full armor of God: so you
can resist during these evil days and be fully prepared to hold your ground.
14 Yes, stand—truth
banded around your waist, righteousness as
your chest plate, 15 and feet protected in preparation to
proclaim the good news of peace. 16 Don’t forget to raise
the shield of faith above all else, so you will be able to extinguish flaming
spears hurled at you from the wicked one. 17 Take also the helmet
of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
The bible commentary from this
passage offers much: Paul knows that the real battles and dangers
we face are not against flesh and blood. The enemies we see are real enough,
but they are animated by spiritual
forces of darkness that stay strategically hidden from view. These powers often reveal themselves in
institutional evils—genocide, terror, tyranny, and oppression—but the weapons
needed to combat them are not earthly weapons at all. What is needed, Paul
advises, is to stand firm in God’s power
and to suit up in the full armor of God. Although the devil and his demon
armies are destined for destruction, they are serious threats now and must be
resisted and beaten back. For Paul, the best offensive weapons we have are the
word of God and prayer.
18 Pray always. Pray in the Spirit. Pray about
everything in every way you know how! And keeping all this in mind, pray on
behalf of God’s people. Keep on praying feverishly, and be on the lookout until evil has been stayed.
These powerful weapons are tools we need to make
sure that our fight remains righteous. We do not fight institutional evil with
the world’s weapons of war. We who are called to the foot of the cross are the
same ones who are called to be bold warriors on the battlefield of justice. We
resist evil by not letting it stand unaddressed. Standing our ground means
meeting the power of spiritual darkness with the power of a resurrected Christ.
We cannot do that in silence.
There is work to do my friends. We have just been
given a wake-up call.
DO NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP.
And all of God's people said …Amen.