Pentectost 14
I have been a student of sociology since my college
days. Sociology examines the ways we all
are shaped and impacted – for good and for ill -- by the social systems in
which we participate. Some of these
impacts are conscious. Many of them are
not. The fact that I was born a white
male, in a middle class, blue collar, Lutheran family with a German heritage,
in Wisconsin in the United States significantly shapes who I am and how I look
at the world. These realities impacted
the opportunities that I had, the challenges I faced and privileges I enjoyed
growing up. The human systems I was born
into provided me, and still provide me, with traditions, customs, perspectives
and practices that I simply take for granted.
That is true for all of us.
It is very important for all of us to be aware of the way
the systems in which we participate affect our lives. I think this is especially true for people of
faith. As Christians, we need to ask
ourselves if the human traditions, customs, perspectives and practices we take
for granted actually conflict with God’s expectations and the way of Jesus we
claim to follow. These can be hard and
sobering questions to wrestle with. Jesus
boils God’s expectations down to two:
“…you shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.” And, “…you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:29-31). In Mark 7, Jesus challenges the Pharisees,
and us, to measure all our human traditions against God’s command, and to
understand that, where they conflict, God’s command always takes
precedence. Always. Frequently, I have learned, that’s not easy,
or comfortable or convenient.
Over the past eighteen months, a group of us in the
Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod have been meeting together to discuss and learn and
confess the reality of racism in our society and, even more, in our lives. We have read together, talked and listened to
one another, prayed with one another and shared our stories with one
another. For me, it has been both
enlightening and difficult. I am
exceedingly grateful for the brothers and sisters who have been my companions
on this journey. Through those
conversations, I have come to understand that we all participate in systems
that perpetuate racism and privilege those who, like me, are white and
male. There are things in my life that I
just take for granted, that a person of color needs to think about continually. There are opportunities in my life that I
have enjoyed that persons of color have to struggle to achieve. One simple, but telling, example: I have never once had to stop and ask whether
the fact that I am white and male would be a determining factor in receiving a
call to minister in a particular place.
Rarely, have I needed to consider my race or gender as I carry out my ministry after I received the
call. My colleagues and friends who are
persons of color and/or female have to consider daily how their gender and/or
the color of their skin will impact their ministry. The
human traditions which shape this reality are not in line with God’s
command. Unexamined, they do untold
amounts of damage in our communities, in our churches and in our lives.
Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, the Presiding Bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has called upon our church to
join the African Methodist Episcopal
Church to recognize Sunday, September 6 as “Confession, Repentance and
Commitment to End Racism Sunday”. I
join her in that call. We all need to
join the conversation. We all need to
find ways to combat both the blatant and often violent racism that is still
alive and well in our Land, and also the much more insidious systemic racism in
which we all participate. To love our
neighbor as God commands demands nothing less.
Peace,
Bishop Mike.
