Sermon for February 27

God's Peace and Love, a sermon for Black Heritage Sunday
Edgar Hayes

As we move along on our journey, the one Jeff (our pastor) began so we could get to know, understand, hear and learn more about Jesus, I want to talk about a personal story of mine. As an African American male growing up in America, this is one of many stories I could tell, this one in particular stands out most to me. It was when I was a young lad in college many moons ago.

After leaving college one day, I walked to the train to get home. The station lies at the bottom of the hill and the hill itself curves so the person at the top cannot see the person at the bottom and vice versa. As I walked around the curve headed down to the station, I suddenly encountered a woman who was coming up the hill, and when she saw me, she quickly tucked in the gold chain around her neck. This many years later that incident sticks with me, one of many, but so glaring in its stark outline, she saw my skin color and immediately reacted.

Years later after the incident, I wrote a mini drama in Shakespearian tongue and performed it at a coffee house I conducted. I named it “The Encounter”. As the protagonist and antagonist approach each other it crescendos into a climax of fear, anticipation, purse clutching, nervous anxiety until they pass. And then it ends with “What did he sayeth? What words had he spoketh? ‘Good morning?’ What doth it mean?”

What doth it mean? What doth it mean for a Christian to feel humiliated, misunderstood, and degraded because of the color of his skin? What doth it mean for a Christian to degrade, fear, dehumanize, another Christian, or any human being for that matter, because of the color of their skin or for any other reason?

It all boils down to our misunderstanding or lack of understanding of who Jesus is and what it means to be a Christian! The word Christian first appears in the book of Acts 11:26. It was used in Antioch to describe the followers of Jesus

Are there any believers, disciples, followers of the Word in God’s house today?

How about Sunday Christians?

Any part-time, every other day Christians?

Are there daily Christians in the house of God?

We believe Jesus died for our sins and that he is our Lord and Savior so we put on this Christian tag. (Edgar puts on a big tag with “Christian” written on it!)

But do you know the price of this tag? Do you know the weight of this tag? It’s too heavy a burden to bear. We should be walking with our necks bent because of the weight of this tag. We should all be coming to the Lord praying “Lord help me carry this heavy load”. And the grace of God will come to us and lift us up by the shoulders to help us stand upright. And then we can ask, where do you need me Lord?

And he’ll say, “the people in Roscoe aren’t doing too well, can you mend a broken home? An earthquake tore through a nation, can you help build a school for the children! People have lost their jobs in your area, can you help me get them together to figure out a way to lighten their burden? A neighbor needs prayers of healing, can you pray for her?

You’re not asked to be perfect and do everything. God knows what you are capable of and how He can use you. “My word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Yet, instead of listening to and leaning on God, we tend to lean on our own understanding by conforming to what the world says a Christian ought to be. Thus becoming a Sunday Christian a part-time every other day Christian.

“You mean I have to love my neighbor, I can’t stand that ole bat.

I’m too busy to pray.

Feed the hungry! Tell them to get off their lazy butts and feed themselves.”

And when we talk like that, what are we moving closer towards? Old forked tongue, the ear-whisperer himself!

“Why is your back bent,” he asks? “You know, it’s only a piece of paper with writing on it.” And we begin to listen to the world around us. “It’s ok if you begin to stand up on your own. You see, it’s just a piece of paper with writing on it. Why don’t you take it off and let me hold it for you.”

So you hold onto it just for a rainy day.

But it has to be more than just a passing name, more than just a get into heaven free card. John the Baptist said to the Israelites it’s not automatic. He said, “out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.”

Let’s take a look at what happens when we call ourselves Christians yet follow the world: slavery - control and enslavement of human beings; Jim Crow - laws created to segregate, repress; “separate but equal”, apartheid in South Africa, the Holocaust in Germany, the Rwanda massacre…all perpetrated by Christians. How can that be? How can that be the practice of followers of Christ Jesus?

Because all the “ok”-ers, the local, state, and federal government put it into law, and neighbors, radio, schools, media, newsprint, family members, friends, and even the church gave their tacit approval!

(Using Mr. Potato Head and slowing pulling off the parts – arms, legs, ears and all to illustrate what harsh words and actions do to people.) These people are animals, the reasons why we are having so many problems is because of these people, they stink, they’re dirty and nasty, they’re beneath us, they’re inferior, cock roaches, and savages!

"It will be seen that when we classify mankind by color, the only one of the primary races, given by this classification, which has not made a creative contribution to any one of our twenty-one civilizations is the Black Race." - Dr. Arnold Toynbee, famous historian The Study of History, Vol. I, page 233. Even academics gave their approval when they wrote such nonsense as this! They became the ok-ers of dehumanization.

It becomes easy for a Christian to kill, torture, enslave, bully, terrify, and destroy another human being once we start listening to the ok-ers and start dehumanizing individuals in our heart. But ultimately, we end up dehumanizing ourselves in the process, because it moves us further and further away from Jesus and God Almighty. “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”

Our misrepresentation also causes others watching us to lose, leave, or just not want to be a part of such an ambiguous faith. To be an everyday Christian, we have to take everything to Jesus. We must not conform to the ok-ers of this world. We have to turn to the One who said “whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” And by our love, they will know that we truly are Christians. Amen