A Reflection on Our Times

Thom Hagerth · Reflection On Our Times

June, 2020 

During a hearing held on June 17th by NY State's Attorney General Loretta Lynch, demonstrators recounted harrowing experiences with the New York police during protests over George Floyd’s death.

One protester said a police officer used a baton to pin him by his neck against a squad car. Another said she was tackled by an officer who then drove his knee into her back so hard she could not breathe.

A third — a registered nurse — was tending to a young man with a head wound, but claimed the police would not allow an ambulance to drive through a crowd to fetch him. A fourth described rushing through a line of police with batons to help a sobbing teenage girl, then escaping with her just before an officer tried to grab them. “It felt,” she said, “like warfare.”

For many of us, old enough to remember the civil rights movement of the 1960s there is an immediate and unmistakable feeling of Deja vu. Like today, we were moved then by the injustice we saw or experienced, by the suffering of those like us but whose skin was a different color. We thought we had made some progress since then but an article in the NY Times days later proclaimed;

"The gospel of the American dream teaches that as people make it in America they will feel more accepted by America, more at home in America.

 

This is not happening for many African-Americans."

Jesus, in the great commissioning, tells the disciples that what lies before them will be difficult. He warned his disciples to prepare for persecution. Christ foretold troubles, not only so that the troubles might not be a surprise, but that they might confirm their faith.

He tells them what they should suffer, and from whom. And Jesus tells his disciples; “persecutors are worse than beasts, in that they prey upon those of their own kind.”

Discipleship therefore is a difficult Journey. Jesus knew that. He knew that the disciples might face the same fate that he faced. Further, the Gospel account this morning tells us that doing the right thing can often produce division, putting us at odds with those who are close to us and do not see things the same way; “a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's enemies may well be the members of his family.

But unlike the witness accounts of those abusing power, inflecting pain, suffering and even death or those that incite violence in the name of a righteous cause while demonstrating for change, Jesus is saying discipleship is not taking up the sword but taking up the Cross.

So I've been thinking a lot lately about the state of humanity and the way our world has responded. Politics aside, we have witnessed either first hand, on the nightly news, or internet the full range of emotions; anxiety, fear, loneliness, abandonment, at its worst hopelessness, desperation, hate, and at its best generosity, compassion, and Love.

This brings me to my reflection this morning … the question is, what are we called to do in the struggle to right injustice, fight prejudice, and effect change in the face systemic racial bias and discrimination?

God has given us a powerful weapon to use … Love!

When confronted by the Pharisees’ question, as to which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second is like unto it. You shalt love your neighbor as thyself.”

Not only is love an important Christian topic but we are commanded, to love. But do we? We use the word “love” a lot … but it’s still not clear what it means or what we are to do about it. We are told to love with our minds, love with our hearts, love our neighbors. We see it in these few scriptural examples and those from ordinary people. We see people making masks for health workers, volunteers collecting and distributing food for the hungry, birthday parades for shut-in youngsters, buddy-checks on the sick and elderly, and so much more. But we also see hate. Hate from white-supremacists, anarchists, people rejecting social distancing, police shooting innocent black men and women, and workers shot doing their jobs trying to keep us all safe from infection.

It raises the question, in my mind at least … is there a love crisis facing Christians today? If not, why are so many disillusioned and disenchanted? And why are so many just silent when in the presence of injustice?

What does all this mean? What does God want from us? What does it mean to love?

In Fritz Ridenour’s book “How to Be a Christian without Being Perfect” there’s a poignant illustration of such sacrifice involving twin brothers, one of whom was dying of kidney failure. The only hope for the sick boy was a transplant from his healthy twin.

When asked if he would donate a kidney to save his brother’s life, the youngster swallowed hard and agreed to do it. Just before the operation, the doctors found him weeping as he was being prepared for surgery. Why? Because he was quite sure that if he donated a kidney he would die and, while he was willing to die for his brother, he was understandably not too overjoyed by the prospect!

But what if we can’t lay down our lives for someone? John has an answer. You don’t have to die on a cross, battlefield, or operating table for your brother. Just give him what he needs out of your abundance, or even your inadequate resources. In other words, quite simply stop talking about love and do something loving. One of the finest examples today is that of our doctors, nurses, and first responders … selflessly working in the face of great personal sacrifice. They are literally risking their lives for us.

One way to define this action-oriented love might be: Love is to willingly give up something that you want or need to - bless, help, or positively affect someone else.

I wonder, have we become used to suffering alone and less able to respond to others? Have we been locked in our “stay-at-home” prison with our troubles … unable to reach out and touch someone else or be touched? We have been told, "Let us not love with word or tongue but with action and truth." To do that we have to be involved. Remember the opposite of love is not hate but apathy.

So to be loving don’t we have to risk with a Love that stands up and speaks out?

William Falkner said in a wonderful quote "If I had to choose between pain and nothing I would always choose pain."

So what to do? What does our church say about all this?

In March 1994, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church published a letter entitled “The Sin of Racism.” The letter declared that at the heart of racism is fear. The Bishop’s tell us, “Racism, perpetuates a basic untruth which claims the superiority of one group of people over others and that this lie distorts the biblical understanding of God’s action in creation, wherein all human beings are made ‘in the image of God. For Episcopalians, the implications of the new community in Christ are spelled out in the baptismal covenant. The letter goes on to establish a new covenant for what the Episcopal Church goals and actions are to combat Racism.

I should add that fear isn’t the only driver of Racism - misconceptions about work ethic, family and financial responsibility, intelligence, and intellect, among other false stereotypes, are woven into the fabric of racism.

Notwithstanding the Bishop’s letter, in my mind the best weapon we have to use personally against Racism is still Love - and, to recognize that love doesn't start with us.

We are told God is love. That love comes from God. And if this is true then we are in fact conduits of God’s love. Therefore we must surrender ourselves to God and allow the Holy Spirit to produce natural fruit in our own lives which flow while extending ourselves in love to one another.

Earlier I asked, “What does it mean to love?” Since the Bishop’s letter declared that at the heart of Racism is fear one way to view this question is to compare love to fear. Some of my own comparisons are:
LOVE IS BRAVE (fear is afraid), LOVE TRUSTS (fear suspects), LOVE FORGIVES (fear blames), LOVE IS COMPASSIONATE (fear pities), LOVE IS KIND (fear is angry), LOVE HEALS (fear hurts), LOVE ACCEPTS (fear rejects), LOVE BELIEVES (fear deceives), and LOVE FREES while fear imprisons us.

So, if we are to break the chains of Racism’s fear the thing to do is something loving, knowing that like in our Gospel lesson Jesus is telling us that what lies ahead of us will be difficult … warning us to prepare for ridicule or persecution. I was disheartened, as an example, to learn that a speaker at a recent BLM rally held in Moodus, CT has received threats for sharing his expression of action-oriented love. Yet even faced with threats, silence should not be a Christian option. Today’s Gospel commands us to go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Yes, discipleship is a difficult Journey. Jesus is asking, can we find the will to surrender ourselves to God, our protector, and truly become his disciples and conduits of God’s love?