Dear St. John’s Family and Friends,
Before you enter into worship today, I want to share with you that the sermon was recorded on Wednesday evening. For that reason, the sermon does not adequately reflect current events that have taken place late in the week. So, there are a few thoughts that have been heavy on my mind that I wanted to share with you.
To say that this week has been an emotional roller coaster would be the understatement of the year. And I’ll admit that I’m overwhelmed by it. My heart aches over the death of George Floyd. It came on the heels of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery that left us raw. And between these stories, more stories of racism and hatred are being brought to light. A white woman calls the police on a black man because he asked her to leash her dog in a park. Another black man that works for a delivery company is blocked from leaving a gated community by a white man that calls the police. A white woman verbally accosts a group of Puerto Ricans in in a park because their music wasn’t sung in English. Sadly, that’s just a sampling of racism in America. And we have finished off the week with riots, looting and protests. There have been so many thoughts and emotions running through my mind. How did we get from point A to point B? How did we get from the death of George Floyd to looting and riots?
I grew up in an all white community where racism was prevalent. Yet, I didn’t really know it until I got older. I was blessed to have parents that let me form my own opinions about people. I really didn’t understand diversity and the ugliness of racism until I went to college and started working on a sociology degree. I learned about racism, stereotypes and bias in a classroom setting. It was 1992 and the topic was Rodney King, police brutality and the paraphrase, “Can’t we all just get along?” Since then and through the years that followed, I have blindly believed that race relations were getting better. I live in a diverse neighborhood and my neighbors are my friends. My children have friends from diverse backgrounds. And I’ve naively thought that Martin Luther King’s dream was coming to fruition. I mean I knew racism still existed. I’m not that naive. But I really did believe that things were getting better… Until this week.
This week we’ve learned that people are angry and their anger is justified. The evil of racism has been revealed with every new video that’s been released on social media. We are being bombarded with images that reveal blatant racism that cannot be denied or explained away. In the last week, I’ve learned that in the last 29 years we haven’t come far from “why can’t we all just get along?” to “I can’t breathe.” I feel like not much has changed since 1991 in the way of alleviating racism.
In Christ Jesus there is no longer slave or free, male or female, black or white. We are all one in Christ Jesus When one suffers, we all suffer. As followers of Jesus, we represent Christ’s sacrificial love to the world. We cannot be passive or apathetic to the current outcry of pain and anger. We cannot spend time pointing fingers of who did what, when and where. It would be so easy to get caught up in pointing fingers and name calling. But I think we’ve had enough of that. I believe we need to call out the evil that has brought us to this point in history. Each one of us has a responsibility to work for peace, justice and equality for all people. We must continue to dream of a future where black and white children not only play together, but grow up with the same opportunities. While building relationships in community that fosters mutual respect where we all get along. So that we can live together in a world where everyone can all breathe freely.
Now take a deep breath. Remember who you are in Christ Jesus. This week was supposed to be a celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And it still is a celebration. Praise God for that gift. And this week we celebrate the graduation class of 2020! And it still is a rejoicing over the accomplishments and future plans for each one of these graduates. God is still at work in the big things and the small things. And is always worthy to be praised!
Peace,
Pastor Stephanie
To view the worship service, click the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myRN8ZE_gKQ