We Shall Overcome…Someday.
A Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Michael Giansiracusa
February 2, 2014
Dear God, we present ourselves to you today—our hopes and joys, our fears and sorrows. We humbly ask your guidance in looking at our lives honestly so that when we hear your word preached, we make be ready to act in the service of your kingdom. Amen
The work team is led off for a full day in the fields. Clothed in loose fitting shirts, they are accompanied by the overseer on horseback. Rifle draped over his left arm keeping a watchful eye.
America, God shed his grace on thee…
Another work team walks at an even pace in rows of two. They walk on land purchased by money gained through the profits made from a slave-trading firm located in VA and MS. The guard on horseback follows the work team, shotgun draped over his left arm keeping a careful eye upon the group as they make their way out into the fields.
I have come to liberate the captives to let the oppressed go free…
The first scene is from a Louisiana plantation in 1840s and depicted in the film, 12 years a slave. The other is from a picture in 2013 of Louisiana State Penitentiary also known as Angola.
We shall overcome, we shall overcome…
We shall overcome someday
How many have seen the film “12 Years A Slave”?
See it.
I think it may be a seminal event for understanding where we are today. Why our churches, our society is so segregated. And while we may have a relative diverse population for an Episcopal Church here at St. Mary’s among so called “mainline churches,” we are still known by many in our own Ardmore community as “the white church next to the post office.”
Do you know that the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of PA was one of the first denominations to actually collect money for reparations for slavery? Of course, those efforts were opposed and eventually ended.
The sad history is that those who were slave owners were considered good Christian people who abided by scripture that they said justified slavery. It is the same religious argument that was used to keep women from leadership positions and to keep gay and lesbian persons in a perpetual state of sin if they dared to express love.
Slaveowners used religion to simply justify the lifestyle and oppression that benefitted them.
Today, one of the most common things I hear, and it isn’t meant to be mean, is that really all religion is about is to be a good person.
How many have heard that? I have even heard parishioners say that here and I especially hear it when I am in an interfaith context as a way of glossing over our real religious differences.
It is also another way to simply continue to live the way we want. If religion comes down to being a good person, then most of us are just fine. No need for introspection, no need to look at systemic injustice. No need to go beyond our neighbors and economic class.
Jesus paired Loving God and loving neighbor as the prophets had done before him. And yet, he broadened the definition of neighbor to include enemies.
You see, and with all do respect to all good people, being a good person is not enough to transform the wrongs of the world.
A “good person” is not called or demanded to take a risk that would place them in danger. Good people are not called to seek out the lost and brokenhearted.
All those martyrs gave their lives because they were good people? We have domesticated our Jesus to just being a good person.
This is the true faith of so many and it’s nice but it is not the Gospel.
Jesus did not lay down his life in sacrifice because he was a good person. He did it because he was committed to principles of a radical justice that included loving to the point of dying. He laid down his life because it exposed the selfishness of religious leaders who wanted to preserve the safety of the Temple, it exposed the power of empire to kill without remorse, it exposed the weakness of people who run when a friend is in critical trouble and they do nothing to help because they are scared for their own safety.
We are all good people. But that does not make us disciples. As disciples, we must push ourselves to ask deeper questions and wrestle with the potential answers especially if they make us squirm.
As Bishop Lee prompted us to think about two weeks ago, have our buildings and campuses made our churches an insular kingdom unto ourselves?
If we understand the word “parish” then we realize that St. Mary’s parish extends far beyond the driveway.
Jesus is presented to God in the Temple. Today, we present ourselves to God in our Temple. But there is so much more we are called to present to God.
The stuff of our lives, our dinner tables, our moral dilemmas, our budget decisions and our deepest hopes and fears happen in our homes, in our workplaces and in the quiet tumult of our own hearts and minds. That is the stuff we also need to bring into the Temple: To present to God and one another.
Many times however, church is a place to feign that all is ok. What if someone asks, how are you and you are on the brink of bankruptcy? Can you tell the truth here?
I have been made aware of three such dilemmas this year. It’s freezing cold, our churches are locked and there are people out on the street. IS this a good thing?
I know the liability. I know the potential for destruction but I also know the scripture that says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…”
You too may have also read the mind-blowing statistic that the richest 85 owns as much as half the population of the world—that is 3 billion people! My brothers and sisters, we can be good people and eat at least three times a day, own multiple homes and have several cars.
85 own as much as 3 billion.
But as we present ourselves in the Temple this morning and since we, as Hebrews says, “God's children share flesh and blood” we are called to examine that lifestyle against the lives of 3 million of our sisters and brothers.
We cannot be satisfied by making religious discipleship the stuff of charity balls, check writing and being a good person.
Is that really the embodiment of the longing expressed by Simeon for a savior…
Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel."
Are we the Body of Christ that Simeon longed for today?
I think we can be but only of we celebrate and laugh, sing and cry and listen to and present all that is good and bad in our lives.
We shall live in peace, we shall live in peace
We shall live in peace someday
Amen