Sermon Text - May 18, 2008
"A Conversation on Race"
Rev. David Kratz
Genesis 1:1-2:4
This Sunday, we are invited to have a conversation, or begin a conversation I should say, about race in America. The lectionary text assigned for this Sunday is a familiar one. It is an important text, it is one of the two creation stories and the one that we often read about this time of year. This morning, we're not going to listen to it. Originally I had thought that we would have only read two or three versus that I want to concentrate on, but it's such a great text that it's worth listening to, whether were talking about race in America or science and evolution or were just wanting to find our place in the world. Listen to these important words from the first chapter of the book of Genesis.
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’ So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’
God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
It’s a great text. Every time I read it I love the rhythm of it and the feel of it. The commentary in the United Church of Christ has a little devotional thing for the scriptures of the day and in it today someone named Quinn Caldwell said the best way to read the text of the go outside, sit under a tree read it every time you come to a new day just look at the light or look at the sun or look at the trees or look at the bugs and just then, when it’s time to relax, just let yourself relax in it's goodness. It’s a wonderful text. It’s a wonderful text about the creation of human life too – the creation of male and female.
The text allows us to see the great equality of humankind's creation. And this day, we want to think about that in the context, not of the debate over evolution or science, but in the complex reality of race in America it is our starting place for thinking about it as a Christian people, as the people of the book of the Bible are always important to begin at the beginning. Two months ago, actually the collegium of the United Church of Christ, that is the five officers of the church, head of our so-called covenanted ministries, got together instead race is an issue and you know we’ve looked at that text for May 18, we think that would be such a good text. We think that you aught to use that text to talk about race this year.
No, it didn’t happen quite like that, it didn't come because some people got together and thought it was a nice idea out of the blue. It came out of, as you probably already know, out of a political conversation. And whatever else I say, today I went to go on record to say I'm not endorsing any candidate, any party, I'm reading a booklet that Enid Haven has given me, about how what how clergy have to watch our language in this political year, because I don't want to endorse a particular candidate today or any day. It's not of my place.
But it is, I think my place, to listen to our officers in the Church of Christ and to have us begin today a conversation on what Anna Quinlan calls our great unspoken issue. Anna Quinlan talks about how the great taboo about talking about sex in public, we don't pay attention to that – newspapers are full of it, billboards are full of it, we talk about sex a lot.
We no longer have a taboo about politics – I mean the whole world is full of political conversation. You can hardly have a drink at a drinking fountain and somebody talking about one of the other candidates, or how we’re overwhelmed with information or that we have a vote next Tuesday. And we no longer really have a taboo about talking about religion in mixed company. I’ve been surprised about how often religions on the front page of the Seattle Times and how much it’s the lead story for everything from the New Yorker to Newsday to Harper's Magazine.
But we have a difficult time talking about race. It's difficult thing for us to talk about because it's a complex issue. So it was after of the speech by Senator Barack Obama on March 18 in Philadelphia. Where Barack Obama did not sit down in October and say, ‘you know, about the middle of March in the Pennsylvania primary I think I'm been in need to give a little speech about race right then, don't think that’d be good?’ It didn’t happen that way, did it? It happened out of a political contest and the speech that he gave in Philadelphia on March 18 was not a doctoral dissertation, or sociological review, or an unbiased research paper. It was a campaign speech and so a good thrust of the speech, especially it’s ending was, one of the answers to the race issue is to elect him.
But he does raise an important issue that is difficult for us to talk about and for all of the difficulty in the speech, it was an important one and I think well said. Many things about it were well said, and I want us to think about a couple of them anyway this morning. And you all know that that speech came out of a political situation where his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, who is the pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, or was for many years – 36 years I believe. Someone, and I still don't exactly know who, had excerpted 4 or 5 of his comments that were highly controversial and some, at least in “out of context” seemed a very anti-American. You've heard them.
How many of heard at least two or three of them. You know the one about not bless America but damn America. Have you heard that one? Have you heard the one about after 9/11, where he says ‘well it’s all about chickens coming home to roost’ How many have listened to all of Barack Obama’s speeches? It a very difficult thing – it’s much easier to deal with one liners, taken out of context, that is the deal with the seriousness that Barack Obama brought to that speech March 18. In fact I think it was a Friday he gave that speech. By Sunday, all the commentaries were not about that speech. The commentaries were, once again, talking about God damn America, chickens comin’ home to roost. It's interesting to me that we much prefer to deal with two black men fighting than we do about taking a look at the complex issue of race in America. And I believe the way we’ve handled this whole thing, notwithstanding Jeremiah Wright’s need to be in the spotlight, but the way that we’ve handled it publicly, has reflected our deep and abiding racism. Because we've been unable to really take a look at what it means to be a culture that has endured or has created a system of institutional prejudice.
Now, that's not to say that Jeremiah Wright made some mistakes, and I certainly think he did. I though he did a nice job actually on Bill Moyers’ show, but he really kind of blew it with the National Press Club but anyway. The issue of race is not really just about this political campaign, although there is a black man running for the highest office in the land, which is actually a great challenge and privileges and I think in Barack Obama even sees it as one of the great ways that black people have ascended the ladder of possibilities in our country. But the issue is really much deeper than that. And I believe will not be solved or certainly healed by the election of Senator Obama as the president.
It’s not to say that America is the only culture that has institutionalized racism. My guess is that the Romans and the Britains, and the Chinese – every dominant culture finds a way to deal with minorities and to keep people in their place, and they do it not only by cultural forms of personal prejudice but also by laws and the way we practice our life together. So it's not to say that America is unique, or that were the only guilty party in the world. In fact, I suspect were not, we’re very un-human that way, but to say that we're not the only people that have practiced institutionalized racism does not excuse us does it? Do we want to be just like Romans? Do we want to be just like ancient cultures that have turned people into slaves? Is that how we want to excuse ourselves from injustice?
And it's not to say that black people are the only objects of racism in America. We have a long history of the way we deal with Native Americans for instance, not just the way we've talked about them, but the way we separated them and made them dependent, while also calling the sovereign, it’s an odd combination. And take a look at and down the Jews throughout history. Anti-Semitism has been a significant political reality within our system for at least a hundred or more years.
Or take a look at what was once called the yellow peril. Ever heard of it? When we moved to Lewiston Idaho, a few years ago we found out about the murder of 23 Chinese people who were working on the intercontinental railroad. Some white woman was raped and 23 Chinese workers were hung because of it. Or think about the internment of Japanese people during the World War II. Think about what happened after 9/11 and the people of Middle Eastern descent or Muslims from various parts of the world. We have a long and actually continuous history of the way we’ve dealt with minority people with in our culture.
As William Sloane-Coffin said about some other issues ‘we have a lot to be forgiven for.’ But that's not to say that just because we do it to everybody that dealing with black people is especially difficult for us, it comes out of what John Hope-Franklin called that ‘peculiar institution of slavery.’ That is to say that black people were the only people that we bought sold and treated as a commodity. They are the only people that we legally defined as 3/5 of her person. They're the only people that we have provided actual laws, passed by a majority vote that prohibited them from buying a house or drinking in a drinking fountain.
So we have a particular issue with black people in our culture, because they have become institutionalized as a minority. Now that’s not to say that we need to go back and relive all that history. I was impressed with Obama’s speech and the way he said that the issue is complex, we all have our roles to play and in fact, one of the things he said to the black community, he said they need to embrace the burden of the past and not be victimized by the past. That was a good line, wasn’t it? It’s true about all of our lives by the way but in that case it was a really important line to say. He was saying they need to take responsibility for their lives and not be succumbed to cynicism and despair. It’s a very important thing. But racism is not just about black people. It's about white people and what we do.
Some years ago when I was on the church council for greater Seattle we had several days of diversity training as maybe you have done in your work life. One of the sessions was actually right here in our Fellowship Hall and during the course of it we were sitting around his big group of 35 people or something like that. I can't remember what the issue was exactly but this big black guy gets up and says ‘hey you know I am just tired of trying to help you white people figure out the race issue. I don’t like to be the only person to come and tell you what all black people feel so that you can feel better about your life.’
No, the race issue from the white side is one that we really need to have some serious conversations about what our lives are like, where we stand, how we feel, how we treat, how we have benefited and privileged by our status as being white people. One of the things he implied in his speech and somebody else has said is that we white people, the first thing we need to do is understand that this anger within the black community that Jeremiah Wright gives voice to, is that not just because they were enslaved a hundred years ago. It's because they have continuous reminders of their place in society.
One of the things Anna Quinlan talks about in her little article about racism is a riddle and she says, what do these people have in common: 1) a professor at Princeton University, who was arrested because he was driving too slow in s 25 mile an hour zone 2) a dress designer and a graduate student at Columbia have been arrested while you're walking down the streets of New York City – I can’t remember the 3rd. Anyway the point was is that they were all guilty of being black at night. We don't understand this, but there is a phrase in the black community called being a getting arrested for a DWB – that is driving while black. We just don't understand – we may understand being afraid of passing three black boys walking down 3rd Avenue, we may understand that kind of fear, but we don't understand the fear of being arrested or detained just for being black. It’s just a constant reminder to them, and a constant source of frustration that puts them in their place.
Now, Obama did suggest that there are some things we can work on. We can try to improve schools and housing, try to cut the gap between the white people earn 10 times more than generally speaking, black people do, to take a look at the difference between the number of black people who are incarcerated, especially on death row as opposed to white people in percentage of the population, we can look at all of that to try to get some justice. But he said the most important thing is an internal one, or at least I think it’s an internal one, and that is we need to understand our stake in our common humanity.
That is to say that our dreams are do not need to be based on other people not getting their dream and they're seeking their own dream does not threaten our dream, whether they're black or brown. By the way, one of the things that I believe is very much a part of our racial prejudice is the way were so frightened of Hispanic people right now. But any case, Obama’s point is that white people need to know that we are all in this together. Or, which brings us back to the text, which is to look back at how we were created male and female.
What color were they do you think? What color do you think those first people were created? Were they definitely white, were they definitely Native American, black, yellow, brown? In any case, there is this beginning point. I'm not sure what will heal the racial chasm, I'm not even sure what the next step of our conversation needs to be but I am certain that our beginning point needs to be standing in the presence of God without our excuses. Somewhere between God's justice and God's mercy and to find ourselves with people of all different kinds of races and colors and experience and to know that somehow God shows no partiality.
It’s not just our beginning either, the Bible for all of its flaws also paints a picture of where were going. It is a picture of a new Jerusalem coming down in the 22nd chapter of Revelation, where God kisses away all the tears and the suffering, where the doors of the city are open, there are not gates, people coming and going, there’s no temple in the middle of it. And all the races of the world, all the peoples of the world, come to this Holy City, this reconstruction heavenly city, where a river runs through it and the leaves of the trees that grow by the water are the healing of the nations.
We have a picture of both our beginning as equal before the eyes of God and our conclusion as people coming together at the end of life. We have the beginning and the purpose and one of my heroes in the story about race in America is Elliot Couden. Many of you knew him and know Erma. But Elliott was fearless, a courageous speaker in favor of integration during the 60’s. Actually he suffered some loss because he was a realtor and tried to break the color barrier. He went on to be not only to take responsible positions in the life of the Church but also on the human rights commission for the city. And once upon a time in a speech in Bellingham, he said this, “to be truly free of racial prejudice is to be free of qualification or compromise. To be free of the perpetuating words that keep myths alive, to be faithful to our very beginnings of our relationship with our God, who created us equal and who in eternity will not accept any human made concept. That is in conflict with equality.”