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Sacred
Conversations:
A Single Garment of
Destiny
Matthew 28:16-20,
Colossians 3:12-17
Today is a very important day in the life of the United Church of
Christ. This morning congregations across the country are turning their
thoughts and prayers toward a Sacred Conversation on race.
The
invitation to join in this Sacred Conversation, however, reaches beyond the
churches of our denomination. As I wrote in this month’s newsletter, when I was
in Omaha, Nebraska in April, I opened the door of my hotel room only to find the
weekend edition of USA Today at my feet. As I browsed through the pages, I
stopped at the full-page advertisement that extended this invitation to its
entire readership. “Let’s talk about race.” The advertisement
continued:
On Sunday, May 18, many pastors across our church, the United Church of Christ,
will be preaching on race in hopes of beginning a sacred conversation, a
dialogue that is needed in our pews, our homes and the hallways of power across
our country.
Sacred conversations are never easy, especially when honest talk confronts our
nation’s painful past and speaks directly to the injustices of the present day.
Yet sacred conversations can, and often do, honor the diverse life experiences,
requiring an openness to hear each other’s viewpoints.
We pray that this effort will be an important step toward a holy and reconciling
dialogue within our church and for our nation.
And, so, for
weeks now, I have been pondering how to approach this conversation and the first
thing I found myself contemplating is “what makes a conversation, any
conversation, sacred.”
I have raised
this as a question in several small group settings. I have relived
conversations that, in retrospect, struck me as sacred. I have spent hours in
deep thought about how to articulate when I think and believe about this ideal
of “sacred conversation.”
And what I
began to focus on was the manner in which Jesus engaged people in discussion
around issues that polarized people in his day—questions about what you can and
cannot do on the Sabbath, issues relating to purity laws and what and who should
be considered clean or unclean, questions about the place of women in religion
and society, issues relating to how to treat Gentiles and other people they
considered ‘foreigners’ and outside the circle of God’s love.
And the thing
I notice about Jesus is that he didn’t get defensive. He didn’t interrupt
people in mid-sentence. He didn’t jump down people’s throats. Rather, he
listened. He was patient. He asked open questions which led those around him
to move to a different or deeper way of looking at a situation. He told stories
that invited listeners to think and to put themselves in the other person’s
shoes and to consider their perspective.
And then I
began to think about the polarizing issues of our day—same-sex marriage,
abortion, capital punishment, immigration—and what I began to hear were all the
vitriolic voices—our own and those of political pundits—so convinced of their
own position that there isn’t even room to get a word in edgewise or to engage
in real conversation. Everyone is talking at once, everyone is in each other’s
face, everyone is pointing fingers—and no one is listening.
Or—on the
other extreme of this conversational spectrum—no one is talking—no one is
sharing anything about where they are in their thought process for fear of how
they will be perceived, judged, or pounced on by the group. And I will say
right now that just like you, I also need to step back and reflect on the ways I
am living up to creating an open and welcoming space for all to be heard.
In my
experience difficult conversations can happen only when we come to the table
with a willingness to acknowledge the intensity of our feelings around a given
subject and then set them aside in such a way that allows us to listen to each
other’s experiences. Difficult conversations, in my experience, can happen only
when we come to the table with no hidden agendas and when we can refrain from
jumping to conclusions, casting judgments, or becoming defensive. Sacred
conversations are never easy, but they are necessary if we are to grow into the
New Testament vision for the church: There is
no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer
male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
Today’s gospel
reading from Matthew, in which Jesus commissions his followers to go out into
all the world, represents a huge challenge toward living into the unity for
which Christ prayed. Today’s gospel reading brings home to us the reach of the
extravagantly inclusive love of God.
Jesus is saying to the “inner circle” that there will no longer be an “inner
circle” or an “outer circle.” There is a “breaking open” happening here. There
is a “breaking through” happening here. Jesus is breaking through the social
barriers that separate people—nationality, race, gender.
I share with you now commentary
remarks written about our text for this morning in light of our invitation to
engage in this Sacred Conversation on Race:
Racism, as it has emerged in recent centuries
out of colonialism and slavery, has deeply compromised the goal of the Great
Commission, cultivating the erroneous notion that some disciples are
intrinsically more worthy than others and sadly perpetuating, even reinforcing,
the oppression and discrimination visited on African Americans, Native
Americans, Latinos, Asians, and many other “marginalized” groups who for one
reason or another – often typified by skin color or physical appearance – are
denied full humanity and adequate livelihood.
Sacred conversations are never
easy. But we have had some practice here at St. Luke’s. There were many
conversations that led to our becoming an Open and Affirming congregation, a
church community that welcomes and affirms everyone regardless of sexual
orientation, a church community that celebrates loving and committed
relationships in all their diversity. At times those conversations were
difficult and challenging. At other times, those conversations led us to
places of deep reflection and vulnerability. And those conversations were
sacred, I believe, because of our openness to one another, because of the value
we placed on remaining in relationship, and because the presence of God’s Spirit
was palpable.
Talking openly and honestly about
race can be challenging. It is understandable that each of us probably brings
some degree of fear or ambivalence about participating in this Sacred
Conversation on Race. Confronting the impact of racism on our lives, our
communities, and our nation is difficult work. It requires openness of mind and
heart, as well as humility of spirit, to risk discovering things about ourselves
and the world we may not have known before. I hope you will choose to
participate in the conversation as the unhealed wounds and the pain of our
history meet the healing balm of understanding and the hope for our future.
I close with a quote from the Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He once said: “We are tied together in a single
garment of destiny caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.” Woven
together—many textures, many colors—in a single garment of destiny—our lives
entwined with one another no matter who we are or where we are on life’s
journey.
So, then, as
God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, let us clothe ourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone
has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has
forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, let us clothe ourselves with
love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Christine Paules
St. Luke’s UCC
May 18, 2008
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