+I had a seminary professor who, when reading certain passages of scripture would stop us midsentence and say, “That, that right there? Those words? They convict me.”
Well, several phrases in today’s readings convict me, us, the church and the world.
From Acts:
“These people have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. Surely no one can stop them from being baptized with water, can they?”
And from the Gospel of John:
“Love each other just as I have loved you.”
In Acts, Peter’s saying, “listen, even though these people look different, sound different, act different they belong in this fold: baptize them, call them sister and brother.”
In John Jesus says, “hey folks, do what I did, live how I lived. Love everyone.”
Three years ago the “baptism that wasn’t” gained a lot of notoriety for the church. And not in a good way. There was a young family who were members of the Episcopal Cathedral in Orlando Florida. They had attended for a while and wanted to get their infant son Jack, baptized. They did what any couple would do, they made an appointment with the priest, discussed the sacrament, and scheduled the baptism. As the baptism day approached the cake was ordered, Jack’s white suit was all set, the Godparents were praying up a storm when, 3 days before the scheduled service, the Dean called Jack’s parents to cancel because there were several parishioners who had “issues” with the baptism. Why? Because Jack had two dads, instead of a dad and a mom.
“These people have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. Surely no one can stop them from being baptized with water, can they?”
“Love each other just as I have loved you.”
Convicted, indeed.
To make matters worse, the Bishop of Central Florida, Greg Brewer, got involved, saying he’d meet with the parents to see if they were committed to raising Jack in a Christian household.
So, Jack’s dads were attending the Cathedral, allegedly a Christian house of worship and they, Jack’s parents, requested their child be baptized. Yet the Bishop needs to “vet” them?
“Love each other just as I have loved you.”
Convicted, indeed.
Then, last weekend I read a story on social media, perhaps you saw it, an African-American man posted a photo of a package that had been mistakenly delivered to his address. The title of his post was “Why this package won’t be delivered until UPS picks it up.” The man said that while it made more sense for he or his teenage son to drop the package off at the correct home, a few streets over, it wasn’t safe, so he would wait for UPS to redeliver it. Why? Because the African American man said it wasn’t safe for him or his son to go up to a stranger’s house with a package---he said, “it’s not safe in our predominately white neighborhood for an African American male, no matter that we also live in this neighborhood to approach the house of strangers. It’s how young black men get killed, all the time.
Think about not being able to send your son out to pick up a gallon of milk, or to wait at the corner for his buddies to pick him up. Think about not being able to have your teenage son or your middle aged husband, or your colleague from work, or your fellow parishioner, or your neighbor, or, or, or feel safe enough to do a basic errand simply because of the color of their skin. I know, we hear these stories all the time, but really consider it. Would any of us here tolerate it if we couldn’t do basic errands without the fear of being shot for standing, walking, driving or hanging out? No. We wouldn’t.
“Love each other just as I have loved you.”
Convicted, indeed.
Folks, we’ve been talking about it for a long time:
It’s not ok to hate, it’s not ok to be intolerant, it’s not ok to discriminate. We’re called, above everything else, to do one thing:
Love others as we have been loved.
“Love each other just as I have loved you.”
Convicted, indeed.
My friends, what happened in Orlando, what happens to people of color---especially young men of color----every single day is not ok.
It is not Love.
It is Fear.
Ignorant, unacceptable, unbelievable fear. Fear of the other, fear of the difficult, fear of the uncomfortable, fear of the unknown.
It’s far too easy to sit back and say, “all that intolerance isn’t here.”
“I don’t have a racist bone in my body”
“ I welcome everyone to this altar, no exceptions.”
Well guess what, that’s not true.
We’re human. We fear. Sometimes we even hate.
We are commanded to love everyone as we ourselves have been loved. Everyone.
I don’t, you don’t, we don’t.
How do I know that?
Because this very day people are starving to death.
This very day people are dying alone.
This very day children are being denied access to an education.
This very day people are being denied basic human dignity because of the color of their skin, the people they love, the God they worship.
This very day people are not being loved as Jesus loves us.
So that means we have more work to do. That means we have to stretch ourselves. That means we have to risk, that means we have to give more out of our abundance , that means we have to accept and love, as we have been loved. Everyone, everywhere, no exceptions.
And it means we cannot, we will not, we must not let any discrimination, any racism, any homophobia, any sexism, any classism, any xenophobia go unchallenged. We must stand for those who can’t, we must speak for the silenced and we must confront those who bully, abuse and deny.
We must.
Because if not us, who?
Amen.
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