Matthew 24:9-14
9 ‘Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. 10Then many will fall away,* and they will betray one another and hate one another. 11And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. 13But anyone who endures to the end will be saved. 14And this good news* of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come.
Today is the feast day of the Martyrs of Uganda. In 1886, 32 christian young men were burned alive because they refused to renounce their faith. This spurned a huge growth in Christianity in Uganda, almost all of which was done underground by Ugandan men and women on fire for Christ.
In Africa, like so many places, Christianity began as a protest movement and believers put their lives on the line for their faith.
As you reflect on today’s reading from Mark, consider the Christian roots of protest. our origin of being hated, put to death, the lawlessness that will make love grow cold. What does it mean for Christians to protest? How far are we from the roots of our faith? How closely connected do you feel to the protestors? What sacrifice does this reading ask of us? And what is the promise offered?
At Memorial we ave done a good job of having open and honest conversations about how institutional racism, White Supremacy, tacit support for police violence, class divisions anti-thetical to the gospel and general ignorance about the reality of growing up black in America, lead to a church that is at best deaf to the calls for justice and at worst antagonistic to any cultural change that might impact our current way of life.
Today those conversations continue in the context of a global health epidemic that in America has disproportionately impacted black and Hispanic Americans, in spite of those two populations being a small percentage of the overall population. Inequality and race based disparities are baked into our system. Perhaps no more obviously than in healthcare and the justice system.
I encourage you all to visit the diocesan webpage Click Here for a growing list of responses from clergy around the diocese.
Perhaps now it is time for us to move from talk to action. To identify black led organizations and businesses that deserve our support. To advocate with city leadership for a better quality of life for citizens on the other side of Eutaw place, and to partner with groups doing that work. Perhaps now is the time to stop talking like Jesus and start living like Jesus.
A word about white supremacy:
The first time I heard that phrase - to be honest the image in my head was of Nazi-Skinheads. White nationalists. the KKK. Avowed and open racists who celebrate their racism.
I had no concept that this term could apply to me or my world.
So what IS White Supremacy?
to quote Scholar Frances Lee Ansley
“By ‘white supremacy’ I do not mean to allude only to the self-conscious racism of white supremacist hate groups. I refer instead to a political, economic and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings.”
This is a system that made jim crow possible. that made school segregation, housing discrimination, and the segregation of every part of common life in some parts of our country possible.
It is a system that has resulted in an even more segregated educational system today than when Brown v. Board of Education was passed.
It is a system that makes a black man 5% more likely to be incarcerated than a white man. and that their sentence for the same crime will statistically be longer and less likely to receive parole.
and one that makes it possible for a police officer to kill a black man in broad daylight and the system to assume that ‘they must have done something’
It is a system that means that a white person born anywhere in this country has a leg up from their birth, all other things being equal.
Now. I am not advocating any particular policy response. and it should be noted that the many many laws passed over the years - some tried fully and some not fully tried - have not succeeded in overcoming the reality of white supremacy.
as Eddie Blue reminded us at our last convention -- passing a resolution doesn’t do anything if we don't change our hearts.
I am also not saying that white people can’t be poor, can’t bear misfortune, can’t suffer at the hands of the state, and are not subject to bad schools, broken neighborhoods, or an unjust justice system.
We still say, in 2020, that when a black kid from Baltimore makes good they ‘beat the odds’.
We haven’t worked to change the Odds.
Today in 2020 America still operates under the assumption of White Supremacy.
Despite being only 14% of the population African Americans make up close to 50% of the incarcerated population and 2% of American presidents.
Despite only being 14% of the US population, African Americans are 3X more likely to live in poverty. and only 1% of fortune 500 ceos.
As Christians we are called to see Jesus in the disinherited. To see victims of police violence in Jesus on the cross. And to work to lift them and the whole body of Christ up in the process.