We have had an awful mess
in Baltimore in this past week. People protesting the death of Freddy Gray who
was in police custody have been rioting and doing a lot of damage. Those who have been looting and destroying property
are no friends of Freddy Gray. They are people
taking an opportunity to do some very bad things in their neighborhood. But there is an underlying problem: relations
between the black community and the police department have deteriorated badly. The economic condition in those neighborhoods is
also appalling. The problem in Baltimore
is only one of a number of this kind of events that have triggered rage all
over the country. Race relations on the
part of police have reached a place where something needs to be done before
things get visibly worse. We need very much to address this issue, an issue of
loving our brother and sister as a person like ourselves. The result of our lack of love can be
devastating.
This isn’t only something that exists in poor neighborhoods.
I went to vote in our precinct a year or
so ago and was asked for identification, even though it had been made clear to
everyone that it wasn’t required. I
refused and asked the man behind the table why he was asking me. He said “there are some people who come in
here who look like our President.” I was
outraged and said to him that what he said was the most bigoted thing that I
had ever heard from an official in public.
That probably wasn’t technically truthful because I have heard many
public officials say things that were even more bigoted. But there we are with our lack of love for
each other calling into question our love of God. Those who love God must love their brothers
and sisters also. That is a clear
commandment that we have from the lips of our Lord Jesus, who told his
disciples to love God and to love one another.
In John’s first letter, there is a wonderful phrase that
we all need very much to hear: Those who say, "I love God," and hate their
brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister
whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment
we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and
sisters also.1John 4:21 In a culture that constantly draws lines around race,
ethnic origin and gender, we violate this constantly. We have a terrible time loving those of a
different nature than ourselves. We have
had terrible culture wars in this country, pitting black against white, often
without understanding. Voting rights are
still an object of argument, with people trying still to take them away.
The Acts of the Apostles is the story of what the
Apostles did after they discovered the resurrection of Jesus had actually
happened. They built the church. In Philip’s case, he was sent by the Spirit
to go south on the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. When we were in Israel a long time ago, we
went through Gaza into Egypt by bus all the way to Cairo, so I know where that
is. On the way, Philip saw an Ethiopian
in a carriage and was told by the Spirit to go to him. The man was reading Isaiah but didn’t
understand it. Philip explained to him
what Isaiah was saying and told him the story of Jesus from his birth to his
resurrection. They came to a pond and
the Ethiopian said that he wanted to be baptized, and Philip did that with
him. This is a beautiful story of one of
the apostles spreading the good news of Jesus into the heart of a person whom
he happened to meet on the road.
Certainly the Ethiopian was black, and was a man of wealth, being the
finance minister of the leader of his country.
Philip had no problem with this brother of his, accepting him for who he
was and simply telling him the story of God’s love and welcoming him into his
arms as a fellow Christian. This is
exactly what is meant by loving one’s brother and sister being a sign that we
love God. Whoever it is that you meet on
the street is visible to you. God is
not. We know God through each
other. Our role as Christians is to tell
the story of God’s love as far and wide as we can. We do that by the way that we live our
lives. If we live lives full of hatred
and bigotry, we spread a message that God is also one who hates and is bigoted. That is contrary to everything that I know
about God, who loved us so very much that he sent his Son Jesus to come among
us, to live like us and to die like us.
The churches that we have built are sanctuaries . Places where those who need love and respect
can find it. We place no signs on our doors limiting who it is who can come in to these places. They are open to all. That is what the Love of God is all
about. God loves us, so we are asked to
love one another. That is, in a couple
of words, the message of the Gospel. God
bless us as we try as hard as we can to do this.
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