God Gives Growth

  I find it wholly wrong and astoundingly foolish that conservatives in our country don't want public schools to talk about racism, slavery, and gender identity because it makes our kids feel uncomfortable, but are OK with school shootings because that is the price of freedom to ensure the 2nd Amendment. Yes, both liberals and conservatives have contradictory stands on certain issues, because no one person or group has it fully worked out. But, isn't it time to sink our teeth into some hard things to digest meat such as Critical Race Theory, identity and orientation of human beings, and why weapons are such an idol in our country. We, obviously, are not going to solve this morning, however, it is a good reminder that to get to just peace community, nation, and world, we can't bottle feed our children and we can't avoid the hard conversations as a society and as the body of Christ. 

Paul writes to a new Christian community in Corinth about many  problems that they were struggling through and bluntly tells them that he has been feeding them with milk because they are aren't ready for solid food. Why aren't they ready for solid food? Because they are filled with jealousy and fighting. Whether this is in regards to a church or a nation, if we divide ourselves out and don't recognize each other's humanity, how can we have any deeper conversations?

Back in Aberdeen there was an Old Time Musicians Jam at the Red Rooster Coffee House, which Kileen and her brother owned, where I learned how to play the bass and it was mostly retired folks. Being South Dakota, they were more on the conservative side and during one of our breaks, a retired Air Force person quipped, "I wish we could go back to the 1950's without all of the racism though." I didn't have time to tell him, because we were about to go back on stage that white Americans had a good decade because of racism in our nation. After WWII, over 1 million Black men served in the war but less than 1,000 received the GI Bill, while the majority of white soldiers did. After WWII, the government built the suburbs and housing for the whites who served and in their property titles it was written they couldn't sell the property to any non-white person or family. As Black families moved north to escape segregation of the South, whites moved out of the cities and then redlined the sections of the city so that banks and local government were barred from making any real investments in those areas that weren't white. And there was segregation all over the United States. Met one Black man who grew up in the 1930's and said living in the South was easier because up North you didn't know which business or community place was safe until they were chasing you out. 

How do we talk about this and move forward? Do you remember Mr. Rogers who invited a Black officer to share his swimming pool by taking off their shoes and socks and cooling their feet on the lawn? Mr. Rogers, an ordained Presbyterian minister, used television to show that it was OK for blacks and whites to share a swimming pool which was still a thing in the late 1960's and 1970's and even today as you can watch videos of white people freaking out about Black people being in public spaces. The way to move forward is to fully digest our history. To let people know today about slavery, Jim Crow, and the way our nation, government and society, has had two tiers of citizenship and social standing in our history that still affects today. It's time we plant seeds of humanity and compassion for all people and it's time to water what has been planted for grow the kin-dom and kingdom of God. 

It is time for us as a nation to wean ourselves off of the bottles of privilege that blame communities of color and recognize that harm that has been done and is still being done that is perpetuated by patriarchy, by the social construct of race that elevates white over everything else, and to put into place real reparations that invest in the people and communities that have been left behind. 

Paul writes that how can we say, I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollos? In our nation, we can no longer say, "I belong to the Republican Party, or Democratic Party. I am urban, suburban, Mid-Westerner, Southerner, or West Coast." For we are all Americans and all bear the image of God, loved by God. Paul reminds us in chapter 13, that love is patient, kind, not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, tells us to look past the letter of the law and dig into our own hearts, minds, and motivations. It is time for us, as the church, as citizens of this nation, and as children of this planet to dig into what really drives the jealousy and fighting in our nation. As we clear away the crud that weighs us down, then we will truly grow as a people, as a nation, and with the world. Amen.