sermon: trimmed and burning
Sermon: the 26th Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
The Community Church of Wilmette
November 9, 2008
Trimmed and Burning
Did you ever think that you would see the day?
Did you ever think that you would see the day?
Did you ever think that an African-American man would be elected President of the United States of America in our lifetime?
I am not sure that I truly believed it. I still have images of the intense segregation of my home town, Richmond. I still struggle with the deep divisions and segregation that exists in Chicago. Those wounds run so deep. The struggles and the blight of racism is still so very real...even here in the so-called enlightened north.
I was so disappointed the day that I realized how divided Chicago was. I came here thinking Chicago would show me a different way of living in a multi-racial community.
I never thought I would ever see an African-American elected to the highest office in our country. Never.
Maybe that makes me a cynic. I was hopeful but unbelieving. Does this make sense? I hoped I was wrong. I hoped that our nation would find some way to work around our own cultural divides. But I am not sure I ever truly believed that we would.
You have to understand...I knew Pearl. Maybe some of you know what I'm talking about. Pearl was the “girl” who cleaned my grandfather's house. She was the African-American woman who my grandfather hired as a maid. She was his peer. Yet, she was “that girl” to many people in my grandfather's generation...and think what you will, these were not mean people. They were church-going generous loving people. They loved Pearl, too.
That she changed my diapers and loved me...and all of us deeply and that we loved her deeply in return, however, never led to a change in anyone's social status. That she would, in the end, change my grandfather's diapers never changed that reality either. It's heartbreaking for me to remember.
So much of that kind of social geography seemed fixed to me...concrete, immovable. No matter how liberal, progressive, evolved, open-minded, active, loving, Christian, merciful, caring, or just I was...society seemed immovable.
That was until Tuesday night. I have been paying a lot of attention to Barak Obama ever since he emerged on the national scene five years ago with his speech at the Democratic National Convention. I watched out of curiosity more than affinity for his politics. And though I was there in Grant Park...watching people dance, embracing one another, or weeping openly, I am not sure the reality has quite sunk in for me yet...But there it is. It's undeniable now. Good grief, the man even has a “President Elect” website called change.gov...It's on the internet. It has to be real!
Certainly now I have to adjust my thinking. That's very clear. Many of us do...even some of our most hopeful leaders have to readjust their thinking. Did you see Jesse Jackson's tears?
An African American has been elected president.
The first generation immigrant's son has been elected president.
A man of mixed race has been elected president.
What was once immovable...unchangeable...
None of these things are supposed to happen. No matter what we claim as the American Ideal, our society is not really designed for this...
...then again, I've been wrong before.
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” proclaimed the Hebrew prophet, Amos. These words should sound familiar to us...The translation is lacking perhaps. The image is intended to be one of a torrent, like an enormous dam that has been broken apart. The waters of justice and righteousness crash down upon God's people...their force is crushing. It's not a gentle mountain stream that refreshes. Such justice and righteousness as Amos proclaims overturns everything. It's punishing. Literally.
“Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” reminds Matthew. He too knows that God's presence is not necessarily good news like a larger than expected tax return or a surprise visit from your best friend. It's still good news, but it is earth shattering good news. It is relentless good news.
Relentless...unyielding.
During his acceptance speech President Elect Obama used the phrase “unyielding hope.” Someone pointed that out to me. I missed it. I was still watching people cry.
What kind of hope is “unyielding?”
It is the kind of hope that keeps awake. It “knows neither the day nor the hour.” It does not know how it will circumvent a culture. It does not know the details of how it will overcome adversity. It does not know how it will awaken us...
...but awaken us it will!
It does not back down.
It hopes beyond hope.
It waits for the Lord.
That's what this kind of hope does.
Such hope is the oil in the lamps of the women in our Gospel passage this morning.
Such hope is the promise witnessed in the tears of African-American men and women in Grant Park Tuesday night.
Such hope says...”I know you didn't see me coming even when I was staring you in the face.”
Do you remember Rev. Dr. Alice Greene's sermon at our Revival? Step by step. Slowly and in love. A change is gonna come. Unyielding Hope.
Unyielding hope has a companion, of course. Amos is happy to remind us of this. Rigorous honesty must exist if there is to be room for unyielding hope.
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” The rigorous honesty that this demands is beyond comprehension for many of us. It may even seem cruel at times...like a God who says to those who gather in praise and prayer, “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.”
It comes to us with the force of a rushing torrent. It does not simply ask us to change. It plainly declares “Things are different now. Life is not what you thought. Repent for the day of the Lord is at hand.”
I don't know if the election of an African-American man is the Day of the Lord.
I don't know if it was “God's will” in some bizarre version of predestination.
But I have no doubt that God is present in such hopefulness and in such honesty. For America...whose self-inflicted wounds of racism and bigotry run so deeply...such a moment in history begs us to have unyielding hope. It asks us struggle with one another in rigorous honesty...for me to be rigorously honest with myself. I never saw the dam break. I never heard the floodwaters. And I was watching, too. It seems my lamp had gone out.
Suddenly now, though, everything is different. I have been crushed. Healing has come.
Unyielding Hope is not an illusion or a fantasy. It is about preparing for the extant and expected presence of God. Rigorous Honesty is an expression of the presence of God. It is truth telling, soothsaying, faith sharing, and mutual dependency. Such a life cannot be lived alone.
Have Unyielding Hope.
Offer...Receive...Rigorous Honesty.
I have never been so glad to be so wrong.
Thanks be to God.
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Did you ever think you'd see the day?
Tripp,
Great sermon. Like many I am still in shock, still in awe of saying, "President-elect Obama". While I feel I can now breathe a bit, it still seems a bit surreal.
President Obama. Man, does that ever sound good.
Now the challenge is "No more excuses". My wife teaches senior high Biology classes, a course all students must pass in order to graduate. She has a co-teacher who specializes in providing assistance to "special needs" students. In her 3rd period class she has a "gang of 8", as we have been calling them; male, low achievers, poorly motivated, mixed races and very disruptive. She and her co-teacher spend most of their time in disciplinary actions dealing with this gang, totally diverting their time away from serving the special needs kids. It was so upsetting her over the weekend that we talked about how to deal with it.
I suggested that she appeal to their pride. She took the African-American and Hispanic boys aside yesterday and told them first she and I had voted for Mr. Obama and were just as happy seeing him elected as they were, which surprised them. She then told them how his African father left him at age 2, that his white mother died when he was young and was raised by his grandmother, that he had to work very hard to achieve everything he has done, that they too, can achieve greatness, that if they want to show their pride in him, then they must dedicate themselves to graduating, that to do so they must first pass this class.
She also told the two Hispanic boys that the Hispanic vote was crucial in electing Mr. Obama in four states; New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Florida, that for the first time their peoples vote made a powerful visible impact, that they should be proud, and to show that pride by passing this class and graduating.
While the response was generally postive she'll have to see what long term impact her pep talk makes. They do have a guidance counselor who wants to work with them. These boys are well known in the HS and are getting extra attention from many.
So no more excuses for African-American kids, the guy in the white house now looks like them.
Rich
that gave me chills
and I could almost hear you giving it. Not just some great rhythm going in there, but a lot of truth. Thank you for blessing me with the chance to embrace it.
Great Sermon
Great sermon, Tripp, I wish I were there to hear it. I am in Northern Michigan and get to Chicago about twice a year it seems, for whatever reason, so maybe I can drop by sometime.
I am 57 and my mother was from Virginia. When I was about 6 or 7 and we were traveling around the South. I had to go to the bathroom and told my parents I was going. We had been living in Detroit for a few years and they forgot about the caste system in the South. I went in to the restroom for "Colored Men". From a kids point of view, I just saw a urinal and other men so I went in. We were in some sort of official building that was busy, perhaps a train station or bus station of some sort.We might have been in Atlanta and were returning North from Florida.I think we were going to sell our car and take a train back to my mom's people in Virginia. Oh, how my parents were chastised for not watching me and allowing me to wander in the "colored" bathroom. My parents apologized to the man chastising them. They apologized over and over and were so embarassed. I was the cause of all this trouble and felt terrible, even though I wasn't sure exactly what I did wrong. I still remember this with vivid clarity. It was one of those life time incidents that a person remembers all their life.
We certainly have come a long way. May our evolutionary path continue.
thanks
Thanks, Jim. I appreciate it...and yeah, the progress is exciting and yet still...gradual. Peace to you! May you always walk into the appropriate restroom. Heh.