Passage: Leviticus 19:9-18
Liturgical week: Proper 10
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the third book of Moses, Leviticus, the 19th chapter:
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Some of you may remember what it was like back during the time that the Civil Rights movement really picked up speed. Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Rosa Parks. I wasn’t alive back then, but I imagine that the country felt a lot like it does right now. Two young black men shot, and it seems to me, unjustifiably, by the police. Police members targeted for death during a peaceful demonstration by snipers. This really has been going on for years, but the feeling of restlessness, of the need for justice, of the need for change, has become palpable in just the last few months. You can feel it in the air.
Racism is an evil that the devil has brought into this world to separate us. Black versus white, White versus Latino, Trump versus the World, Planned Parenthood versus African-Americans. We love, because of our sinful hearts, to find the differences in people, exaggerate them, and all so that we can feel better about ourselves, protect ourselves, protect what we think is our way of life.
But, today, the evil of racism pervades our culture, and it has for centuries. We have the opportunity now to stand up and say, “No more of this.” We have the opportunity to teach our children, our grandchildren, our friends and family, that racism deserves just as much opportunity to exist as abortion, which is to say, it doesn’t at all.
I will readily admit that there are differences in cultures. When I lived in Hawaii, I was made fun of for being a haole, which is just a bad, but accepted, word for a white person. I was so white when I was kid there that Japanese tourists would stop me at the Pearl Harbor Memorial, not to take their picture, but to take their picture with me in it so they can show their family back home a white boy who doesn’t tan with white-blond hair. I was a kid; I didn’t really care. I can’t imagine why they would want to make that a piece of their scrapbook, but c’est la vie.
But, while I was there, racism was alive. That’s because those who mocked me really just couldn’t understand how it was that I grew up without their skin color, without their challenges. And it’s the same today. I can’t imagine growing up as a black man, with fear in my heart and mind that maybe I would be the next to be gunned down. I can’t imagine growing up a Japanese boy in the 1940s, shoved into an internment camp because the government was afraid of me and my family. I can’t imagine being anybody other than who I am, and how I was raised.
But, I can try to listen to those who struggle. I can empathize with those who hurt. I can try to understand. And I can do that, I want to do that, because our Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t see the color of skin. In fact, we worship a man whose skin was darker than most people here, whose culture was thoroughly different than anything we find in America; we worship a man who grew up Jewish, in a Middle-Eatern land, who spoke Aramaic, and paid for things in shekels and drachmas and denarii not dollars and cents. Jesus was more different than me than I can even understand, yet He calls me His brother. He calls me a son of God. He calls me friend.
From the beginning of the Law of Moses, it was clear that God knew that there would be differences among us. Men and women, adults and children, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor. And He made clear that no matter what, we were supposed to care for those people who would be our neighbor. Whether that is the poor man begging on the street, or the woman who comes into the fields at night because she can’t afford the market, or the traveler who comes into your land looking for a place to stay, God made clear that we are to take care of them.
You all know this, right? It’s a doctrine we in the Lutheran church call “vocation.” Vocation is a fancy word. It doesn’t just mean your job, but it truly means calling. God calls us into different roles. For instance, I am called to be a husband because my wife said, “I do.” Thus, I am faithful to her, love her, cherish her, serve her. And I’m called to be a daddy because my wife gave birth to our son. I’m called to instruct him, raise him up in the fear and knowledge of the Lord, serve him. And I’m called to be a son, a brother, a friend and serve people through those roles. In all of my callings, I am called to serve my neighbor in love. It’s the second greatest commandment. The first is, “shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus says it’s the second greatest thing you can do in the entire world. And all it is is a summation of what Moses wrote when he heard it from God’s mouth. From God’s mouth in Genesis to God’s mouth in Leviticus to God’s mouth in Matthew to God’s mouth in Revelation, the message is the same: love God, love your neighbor. Now, that could mean a lot of different things. Again, fathers love children, spouses love spouses, doctors love their patients, teachers love their pupils, judges love the plaintiff and the defendant and the lawyers (God bless them), carpenters love their clients, children love their parents. The list of possible vocations, even that you fill, can go on and on. But, today, it’s on my mind to speak to race, and how we can love our neighbors with different skin.
I’m not saying that we all need to go down and protest with those who are protesting, but if it is just, and if it is peaceful, and if it is obeying the law, then by all means, you are free to do so. But, maybe you start with prayer. Maybe you start by praying for peace and for reconciliation. Maybe you pray that the eugenics in our society, the false science of choosing which baby lives or dies based on the color of their skin or their genetic predisposition, would finally end and we can bury Darwin once and for all. Maybe you pray that God would affect someone by His Word during these tragic times and send someone of another race to you with whom you share the good news of Jesus Christ.
Because there is certainly good news in Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world, the whole world, red, yellow, black, and white, they are all precious in His sight, that He sent His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever would believe in Him would have eternal life. God the Son, Jesus Christ, died for black people. He died for white people. He died for Asian people. He died for all. And He died for you. He died to forgive all of your sins.
He lived and died, according to the Law, according to even the Law in Leviticus, so that you, you who deal with the racism that has become epidemic in this country, you who struggle to see each person as a valued, beloved child, you would be saved.
Jesus loved the whole world, so that as you struggle to do so, you may have confidence that He who is righteous counts you as righteous as well. Jesus loved the whole world, seeing, not culture, not skin, not body type, not hair color, not freckles or moles, but that each person was created to bear the image of God. And the image of God is one of love. God loved the world. God served the world. God served you, so that you might be saved by Him who has immeasurable riches and gives them all to you.
You are freed in Christ to love your neighbor to the best of your ability. You don’t have to work to do these things in order to be saved. None of your works are going to save you. But they will bring you joy. And they serve your neighbor who desperately needs them. Your neighbor needs your good works. And you can do those things, not fearing that God will condemn you because you haven’t done them perfectly, but joyfully, knowing that your sins are forgiven through the death of Jesus Christ.
What do you imagine a world without racism looks like? A world without letting differences divide us? I like to dream about that world. I don’t think we’ll achieve it here. I don’t. We all struggle with sin, and sin’s consequences always break up the love between neighbors. But I do know that world is coming. We won’t achieve it, and we don’t have to, because Christ has already done it. He’s already promised it is so.
And He told us He is coming back to show us that world. He’s coming back to take this broken world we live in and remake it into a new earth, where there is no sin, no sadness, no tears, no children gunned down in the streets, no questionable police activity, no growing up in violent homes, no begging for food, no lack of shelter. He’s coming back to resurrect us into that world. He’s coming back to bring our bodies up from the grave, to make us new, to make our bodies like His glorious body. He’s coming back to fulfill His promise to us that He will make us perfect like Him, having wiped away all of our sin.
Racism is a huge problem. It’s true. But it’s a part of sin. It’s evil because it is a child of sin and the devil. And it is something we should struggle against, to purge from ourselves, as we try through this life to leave our sins behind. Yet, thanks be to God, who has given to us all grace in Jesus Christ, who has died to set us free from our sin. And He did this for all people. In Christ, there is neither new nor Greek, slave nor free, black nor white, Asian nor Aborigine. Through Him who loves us, even when we should have been despicable in our sin, through this Good Samaritan, we are freed into an everlasting life of peace and blessedness, not only with God, but also with each other through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Believing in His name, we shall see that day. In Jesus’ name, amen,
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment