Difficult Messages
Real Christianity: The Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 4 viewsNotes
Transcript
I’ve had the pleasure of being your Associate Pastor here at Tri-Lakes United Methodist Church for a little over three years now. During that time, I’ve written somewhere between 40 and 50 sermons. When preaching those messages, I’ve had my fair share of times where I felt nervous just because public speaking can be an intimidating thing, but usually once I start preaching, those nerves fade away. There have, however, been a few times when I have been nervous for a different reason. The reason being that I felt led to preach a message that I knew was going ruffle some feathers. To be transparent, I have never been as nervous about the response to one of my sermons as I am about today’s message, but woe be unto me if I only preach what I think people want to hear, and I avoid the difficult messages that I believe God is calling me to deliver. It’s hard for us pastors to admit, but we really want to be liked by the members of our congregation and quite frankly that gets in the way of us saying some things that we believe need to be said because we want to keep everyone happy, and we want people to like us, but I can’t place being liked over my convictions, so today I believe I have a difficult message to share with you. Not all of you will take issue with it, but I think some of you will, but today I want to talk about racial reconciliation.
Before we get to the text, I want to preface this message with some comments.
I hope no one listening to this sermon will feel that they are being labeled a racist. I have no intention to judge or condemn anyone hearing this message with that label.
Also, and I am speaking to my white brothers and sisters here, which I would imagine is the majority of people listening to this message, I hope that I won’t communicate in a way that will make you feel guilty or ashamed because you are white. Just as being Black or Asian or Hispanic or Native American is something to be celebrated in God’s creation, so is being white. Being caucasian is not something to be ashamed of. I’ve been made to feel that way before, and I didn’t appreciate it. I don’t want to do that to you today.
Next, I hope you’ll hear an invitation to consider becoming an intentional peacemaker when it comes to racial reconciliation, and you will not hear a guilt-ridden lecture about what’s wrong with you and what you should be doing or not doing.
I hope you’ll hear my heart. I’m concerned about racism because I’ve seen how it has affected the everyday lives of my friends who are ethnic minorities, and my black friends in particular.
I hope you’ll hear where I’m coming from. I’m not coming from a place of trying to be woke or trying to follow some secular agenda of our culture, I’m coming from a place of where I believe that racism is not a political issue but a matter that strikes at the very heart of the gospel.
To make this last point a little clearer, I’d like to share with you a few thoughts from a wonderful article written by N.T. Wright entitled, “Undermining Racism.” In this article, he points out that addressing racism is not the church taking its moral cues from a secular agenda, but that addressing racism is a primary vocation of the church. I want to quote part of his essay at length because I can’t say it any better than he did.
There’s a double danger in just repeating the ethical imperative ‘not to be racist’. First, it makes it sound as though we are taking our ethical instructions from the more radical, or even ‘woke’, factions in our society, and are scrambling to get on board with a prevailing secular agenda. When the church tries to be politically correct it just looks pathetic, like wet clergy in the 60s trying to be ‘with it’ by quoting the Beatles. Woe betide us if we go that route – all sorts of other things will come down that channel, at least half of which we ought to reject.
As Wright helpfully points out, one of the first dangers we run into in the Christian community when addressing racism is the temptation to follow a secular agenda that is not grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel must be our foundation, our basis, and our starting point. Any other origin will saddle us with baggage antithetical to the gospel.
Professor Wright goes on to note a second problem with the generic moral imperative to not be racist. He writes,
But, second, what we now call ‘racism’ is not simply, for Christians, a failure to obey one or other moral standard – e.g. that we should love our neighbour as ourselves. It is deeper even than that. It is a failure of vocation. The church of the anointed Jesus, the world’s true Lord, was designed from the start to be a worldwide family, God’s new model of human life. The church in our generation has struggled, not very successfully, to re-imagine and sometimes to put into practice something that was always in Christian DNA but which we have all but forgotten. The point of being part of Jesus’ people was never that we as individuals could ‘get to heaven’, perhaps associating with other, slightly different, people on the way, or perhaps not. The point was that we were and are supposed to be, in our personal and in our corporate lives, small working models of the ultimate new creation which God has promised to make and has launched decisively in raising Jesus the Anointed One from the dead. That has always been our glorious vocation. Rejecting racism and embracing the diversity of Jesus’ family ought to be as obvious as praying the Lord’s Prayer, celebrating the Eucharist, or reading the four Gospels. It isn’t just an extra ‘rule’ we’re supposed to keep. It is constitutive of who we are.
So Wright is saying that another danger for Christians who want to be racial peacemakers is that we might see such work as just another way of being good people. Yet, as Wright points out, racial peacemaking is not merely one more right thing for us to do; it’s part of our identity and vocation as the church. It should be as obvious to us as the need to take Communion and read Scripture. It’s who we are, and this is why our concern about racial reconciliation is grounded in the gospel and not in a secular agenda.
Finally, I want to say that I do not believe racism is a problem of the past but is alive and well in our contemporary culture. Now, I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t admit that slavery is a shameful mark on American history except for those twisted souls who still believe in white supremacy. Yet, while acknowledging that scar on our past, I do know a number of people who would argue that racism is a problem of the past. They would argue that the civil war and the civil rights movements have accomplished their purposes, and it’s time to move on. However, when speaking with my Black, Asian, and Mexican friends, racism continues to be something many of them experience in their everyday lives, so I see racism as a present problem today.
Given that we will celebrate Juneteenth this coming Saturday (and by the way, if you’re not familiar with that holiday, I encourage you to look it up), given my convictions that racism is a present problem today, and given that I was assigned to preach on the topic of peacemaking, I sensed the Lord was prompting me to say something about racial reconciliation. With all the hurt, pain, and conflict surrounding this important matter, I simply could not stand up here in good conscience and say nothing about racism. In my heart and mind to do so would be cowardly and a failure of obedience to my call. I simply cannot place being liked over sharing the message I believe God wants me to share. I am not called to make people happy no matter how much I want to or how much I want to be liked.
With all that said, let’s look at our text for today.
In Matthew 5:9, Jesus says,
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Given the context of Matthew’s Gospel, this statement was probably directed at the Zealots. As you likely already know, the Zealots were a group of armed men who intended to use violence to bring about the Kingdom of God. The Zealots believed that their militarism proved they were the loyal sons of God. However, Jesus countered this notion by saying that the sons of God are not the violent but those who make peace. It is the peacemakers, not the violent who prove themselves to be sons and daughters of the King.
Since I have spoken about violence, there is an elephant in the room that must be addressed. I’m inviting you to consider becoming racial peacemakers and yet we saw violent protests erupt last year after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor. I want to say without qualification that I think such violence is absolutely incompatible with being a follower of Jesus Christ. As we just read, the path of violence is not the way of Jesus.
I’ve mentioned before that I loved playing baseball when I was growing up. One of our cardinal rules was that players weren’t to talk back to the umpires no matter how bad the call was. The coaches wanted to be the ones to deal with the umpires. If one of us got into an argument with an umpire, the conversation with the coach would go something like this.
Coach: You know the rule, you don’t deal with the umpire, I do.
Player: But coach that was a terrible call!
Coach: Maybe so, but I’m talking to you right now and you don’t talk back to the umpire. You let me deal with the umpire.
I see the violent protests in a similar way. Those who chose violence over peaceful protests made a bad call. My job however is to do what I’ve been called to do and that is be a peacemaker and let God deal with the violent protestors.
Now as we move to our final Beatitude, many scholars see Matthew 5:10-12 as one Beatitude because both verses address the same topic of persecution. Others see these verses as two separate Beatitudes because each verse begins with the word, “blessed.” Matthew 5:10-12 reads,
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
I fall into that first category of those who see these two verses as one Beatitude, and I don’t think it is a mere coincidence that this particular Beatitude comes after the call to peacemaking and brings the Beatitudes to a close. When the Beatitudes become descriptors of our lives and not mere aspirations, we are more likely to be rejected and insulted than we are to be welcomed and honored.
I find it provocative that this beatitude begins with the statement, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.” The Greek word for righteousness should be familiar to us from last week. It’s the word δικαιοσύνη, which as we pointed out last week not only refers to personal moral uprightness but also to justice in the sense of the fair treatment of all people. Thus, seeking the fair treatment of minorities is more likely to invite antagonism than it is to invite accolades. Yet Jesus says we are blessed when we are persecuted because we are seeking justice, the fair treatment of all people. I don’t believe that racism is an issue of secular justice but an issue of biblical justice, an issue of righteousness and blessed are we if we suffer for such things.
As I bring this sermon to a close, there are four groups of people I’d like to address:
The Resistant
I would imagine there are several people whether here in person or listening online who have taken offense to this sermon. You might firmly disagree with me and believe that racism is not a current problem. It was a problem of the past that the civil war and the civil rights movements have rectified, so it’s time to move on.
I’ve had a number of conversations with those who disagree with me that racism is a serious issue of biblical justice. The most common response I get is either to forward to me a video or an article of a black person commenting that racism is not a problem or tell me about a black friend they have who thinks racism is no longer an issue. While that take on the situation is surely representative of some Black people, there are a number of our black brothers and sisters who don’t share that perspective and are hurting and I would go so far as to say there are more people of color who are hurting than there are who don’t think racism is a problem in America. A way for us to love those who are hurting is to step out of our echo chambers expose ourselves to literature and other media that resonate with their concerns and may help us to understand their side of the story.
Again, I’m not asking you to come to my way of thinking, but I am asking you to listen and make a real effort to understand why so many who are in a minority people group are hurting.
The Hesitant
I would imagine there are also a fair amount of people listening to this message who agree that racism is a problem but have been hesitant to do something about it because they are afraid of what certain family members and friends might say or because they don’t know where to begin.
In terms of the fear of what others might think or say, it’s true that you may well receive hostility from others for advocating for racial reconciliation. However, I would encourage you to take the final Beatitude to heart. You are blessed because you are not undergoing hardship for a political cause but on account of biblical justice grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ. In terms of where to begin, I would recommend making deep, real friendships with people of other races. That is probably the best place to start, but no matter where you begin, just begin.
The Acceptant
Yes this is a real word and not one I made up just to sound like the other words. Those of you who have been actively trying to understand the issues surrounding race (I think of all those who attended our Fall study on this topic led by pastor Bob. I think of those of you who have faced blowback for advocating for racial reconciliation. To you, I way keep up the good fight and do not grow weary in doing good as Paul says in Gal. 6.9, for in time you will reap a harvest.
The Conversant
I’m aware that a sermon can be a difficult mode of communication because it is one-way. I know that one of the risks I am taking in preaching a message such as this is that you might feel silenced because you had no opportunity to share your perspective. I want you to know that my door is open to you. If you think it would be helpful and you would like to talk about race with me, I welcome you to reach out to me so we can visit and dialogue. I want you to feel heard and listened to.
Reflection Questions
Reflection Questions
What’s stirring in your heart this morning as you reflect on this message? Hope? Anger? Conflicting thoughts?
Of the four categories I mentioned at the end of the sermon: the resistant, the hesitant, the acceptant, and the conversant, which category fits you best, and what do you think you should do next?