“Why Are We Doing This?”

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
January 31st 2010
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Why Are We Doing This?”
Ephesians 2:14-20

Did anyone hear the story about a Lt. Governor from a small southern state who compared welfare recipients to stray dogs? I wish that was a set up line for a joke in poor taste, but it is not. The Lt. Governor from South Carolina, who is seeking to run for Governor, this week, shared a story his grandmother used to tell him. It was meant to teach him how to deal with stray dogs. She said; if you feed them they will keep coming back and breed more strays. The Lt. Governor tells this story as a reason why there should not be government subsidies to people in need. But what was barely below the surface was this age old trick where white politicians say welfare recipient when everyone knows he intended to say black.
If you think I overstate that consider, how Ronald Reagan coined the phrase “welfare queen.” This political trick was as successfully as it was sick. It imbedded the belief in white and middle class communities that only black people are on welfare. Despite the majority of people on welfare being white, politicians continue to use this language to stoke racial hatred. We see it today with words like “real American,” or “the America we grew up with.” The coding of suck language is intended to feed racial fear in the white community and unfortunately it is working extremely well these days.
This week I heard an FBI agent talking on National Public Radio about the growing popularity of hate groups in the United States. Most disturbing, he said, was that the language once used exclusively in white supremacists circles is now being used by the likes of Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and other popular talking heads. He also pointed out that rhetoric coming out of the Tea Party movement also incorporates some of this same language. Speech that was once only coded or left for the fringe groups has gained new footing in our culture and it is disturbing to say the least. But, I believe there is hope not hope that someday it will change but hope that the grandson of a former clansman can grow up to turn from his own history. Hope that he comes to know that God does indeed break down the dividing wall of hostility. Let me share a personal story.
Why are we doing this? This is the question that came up in my mind as I sat in the morning assembly. The year was 1987 and I was a sophomore in high school. And for twenty minutes I listened to a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others who had struggled for civil rights. Though I never shared my question with anyone else I was confused and wondered: “What is the big deal? And, why are we doing this?” Despite growing up in the church what I knew of Martin Luther King was that he was a communist who sought to destroy our country. So as I sat through the assembly I was confused and uncertain about what was happening. Because the history I learned had been so whitewashed that to talk about the contribution of African Americans felt like someone was revising what I just knew was fact. Fortunately, that was not the end of my story. In fact, that was the beginning of my own questioning of everything I understood and believed. My questions ate at me and left me searching for more.
This week the world lost a powerful teller of truth in the person of Howard Zinn. His most well-known work A People’s History of the United States is without a doubt the best correction to the whitewashed history I and many others received. But his is not the only needed correction to the limited stories of history many of us receive or have received. Each one of us is called to be bearers of the story that is seldom heard. And I believe that calling is just as critical today. We have not reached a time where the contributions of African Americans have become part of the history told in our classrooms or are public knowledge. In fact, there is a growing backlash to the hard fought gains and we must continue to seek out and understand history all of it. We cannot talk about peace until we do so. And so that is why we, Westminster, will continue to highlight the life and witness of people of African Decent in the life of the faith community. We must continue to stand up and testify to the truth.
As followers of Jesus we have an ever greater responsibility. The growth of ignorance, arrogance and hostility cannot be allowed to go unchallenged by Christians.
For Jesus is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to God. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
Those are not simply words but the lifeblood of our faith. The peace found in Jesus Christ is a peace that comes through the telling of our stories. It comes when groups of people begin to share the deepest parts of their histories and lives. It is a peace that comes when the stories of our faith show that there is more to the short stories we have too often been fed as the whole story. So we are going to share stories. We are going to remind one another that the faith we share in Jesus compels us to look deeper and share the deeper stories.
And in doing so, who knows the lives which will be changed. It was a simple celebration in a school assembly that planted a seed in the heart of the grandson of a former clansman putting me on a journey that had brought me to this place. So as we cringe at the ignorance and evil coded language sure to continue in the coming days, let us not recoil or underestimate the threat. What we do in this place matters, the stories we tell matter, the history we have matters. It matters to us, to our children and even those we think are least likely to stand shoulder-to-shoulder as witnesses to the one who brings down the walls of hostility. It is not only possible but it is God’s plan. Amen.