Jun 18, 2023 |
Sunday Sermon
| The Rev. Nancy Hildebrand
Sunday Sermon
Good morning! Today, we have the honor of recognizing two wonderful occasions: Father’s Day and Juneteenth, which are two unlikely occasions that in their own way represent the possibilities in human relationships. Is it possible to link these two powerful tributes today? In a reflection honoring my father, I realized that the way he raised his daughters by opening the door to the fullness of the world and encouraging us to step across the threshold into what appeared to be empty space was a matter of faith and love and a sign that we would be entering into an accepting society. My prayer for Juneteenth tomorrow is that all African American children will have Fathers confident of opening that door for their children. This hope for the future of children is creational.
I refer you to Genesis1:26, which is the first Creation story. God says: “Then let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness….and in the summing verse, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God, he created them, male and female he created them. Notice, God says, “let us” and “our likeness” when referring to God’s self. Notice that God “created them, “male and female.” Women are made in God’s image. Adam and Eve are equal in the “our-ness of God.” Fathers and mothers, like Adam and Eve, are each made in God’s image. There is no mention of the color of the male and female, nor the type of hair, eye color…just the word humankind, which reflects God’s wonderful plan of diversity among all living things. There’s no mention of defined roles by sex, color, sexuality…just the powerful description of “our” …we are all in this together. Parenting has changed along with many other things. I give thanks for the equality of sex and parenting roles today, even as I know more progress is required.
Old fashioned Dads gave a lot to us kids. I celebrate my dad in a hundred ways, but, most importantly, I love the way, my dad navigated the burgeoning feminist movement, applied those lessons to his relationship with his wife and daughters. He challenged my mom to go to college when I was in high school, and he employed feminism to his daughters in every phase of their development. My dad had a way of opening a door to our futures while pointing to the figuratively big empty space on the other side while saying, “Go on, you can do it, cross over.” He didn’t tell us what to do or how to do it, but just “go forth into the world in joy and in seeing that of God in every person.” I wish every child had a dad do that for them. I wish that the world was more accepting of every child going through that door as I experienced as a young white woman, despite the archaic challenges we face.
My Mom made me a fighter without pugnaciousness. I wasn’t sure what that meant or how that might be used. My dad saw me as accomplished and spiritual. I always thought he and she over-rated me by a long shot. However, it wasn’t long after I crossed the threshold that I understood where my parents’ appraisal and reality began. The blessing of being over-rated is that you have a benchmark for life that becomes not a specific goal, but a way of life. I pray for all children to have Dads who over-rate them and who will have the faith that when they open the door to adulthood, a society will exist who will welcome them all. I pray that all children have a future of their deepest desire and a passion to unite that quest to the “One” to the “our” who created us and abides with us. Lord, let all children have wonderful Dads and a just society where their lives can be fulfilled.
The Genesis creation story is equally applied to the American family. We Americans are a household which is a place of dreams fulfilled and broken. The tragic favoritism of whites over African Americans is still playing the story over again in masked and unmasked forms. Our American family is still very much a dysfunctional family with many tragedies which demand all our efforts to sort out, correct, and heal. I look forward to the day when all Americans are singing America the Beautiful with the gratitude and soulfulness that the largely gay audience sang when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. Juneteenth is a day for the moment to celebrate the great political achievements of the Emancipation Proclamation, The passing of the 13th Amendment, the achievements of the Civil Rights movement and the progress of integration since then. However, we are reminded daily and painfully that the job is not done. The genius of the Civil Rights Movement was to invite white as allies in the cause. It replicated in human terms the fullness of God, God’s name, “our.” It is time now for whites to ask our black sisters and brothers with humility, with courage, and with eagerness, what is needed of us now, teach us what to do. Help us, Lord, to listen without defensiveness, argumentativeness, and, most importantly, with love.
The number of police killings since 2014 of African Americans added up, aroused fear and anger to new levels, and actually frightened many whites as well. We liberal whites who can face the truth are aghast, but we cannot seem to move. We are frozen like deer in the headlights. We cannot forget the names of those killed by the police and vigilantes because it smacks of the Jim Crow era. We cannot go backward. Let us pray for the fathers of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice here in Cleveland, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Stephon Clark, Botham Jean, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Daunte Wright, and Patrick Lyoya. We are nowhere near the fulfillment of our dreams for a just society for all people. The creation of the world and all the wonders of life, especially with “humankind” and all the animals of the earth, tells us that God’s desire is for a wondrous world filled with a wide variety of beings. Even in the story of the Great Flood and Noah’s Ark, God commanded that representatives of all living things be brought into the Ark so that diversity would be preserved. God’s plan seems to be unity within diversity, with even God self- referring as “Our.” So, we whites need to stop resting in the achievements of the past decades and turn lovingly to our black sisters and brothers and earnestly apologize for our complacency and complicity. We can hope for forgiving for the sins of the generations of the past to the present, but we cannot hope or ask for forgetting. This can only be asked if we do the work to turn towards our black sisters and brothers and ask them what is required of us.
How can we turn this around?
This is the time to say that the Church must take a leading role in helping us to move forward. I highly recommend our Church’s report on repairing the racial breach in church and in the larger society. It is “Realizing Beloved Community, a Report from the House of Bishops Theology Committee.” The report emphatically states that understanding the roots and tentacles of white supremacy is essential for racial progress to occur. Elements of that process includes remorse and confession for the active and substantial role played by Christianity, the Anglican Communion, and The Episcopal Church in constructing, maintaining, defending, and profiting from this monstrous sin and scandal of racism. The report lays out a formal process to address this most pressing of issues. Our church is committing and so should we all. Fathers and Mothers unite in the “our-ness of our God” and lead our children to a new future so all may step through an open door into a society which has open arms. Amen.
I refer you to Genesis1:26, which is the first Creation story. God says: “Then let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness….and in the summing verse, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God, he created them, male and female he created them. Notice, God says, “let us” and “our likeness” when referring to God’s self. Notice that God “created them, “male and female.” Women are made in God’s image. Adam and Eve are equal in the “our-ness of God.” Fathers and mothers, like Adam and Eve, are each made in God’s image. There is no mention of the color of the male and female, nor the type of hair, eye color…just the word humankind, which reflects God’s wonderful plan of diversity among all living things. There’s no mention of defined roles by sex, color, sexuality…just the powerful description of “our” …we are all in this together. Parenting has changed along with many other things. I give thanks for the equality of sex and parenting roles today, even as I know more progress is required.
Old fashioned Dads gave a lot to us kids. I celebrate my dad in a hundred ways, but, most importantly, I love the way, my dad navigated the burgeoning feminist movement, applied those lessons to his relationship with his wife and daughters. He challenged my mom to go to college when I was in high school, and he employed feminism to his daughters in every phase of their development. My dad had a way of opening a door to our futures while pointing to the figuratively big empty space on the other side while saying, “Go on, you can do it, cross over.” He didn’t tell us what to do or how to do it, but just “go forth into the world in joy and in seeing that of God in every person.” I wish every child had a dad do that for them. I wish that the world was more accepting of every child going through that door as I experienced as a young white woman, despite the archaic challenges we face.
My Mom made me a fighter without pugnaciousness. I wasn’t sure what that meant or how that might be used. My dad saw me as accomplished and spiritual. I always thought he and she over-rated me by a long shot. However, it wasn’t long after I crossed the threshold that I understood where my parents’ appraisal and reality began. The blessing of being over-rated is that you have a benchmark for life that becomes not a specific goal, but a way of life. I pray for all children to have Dads who over-rate them and who will have the faith that when they open the door to adulthood, a society will exist who will welcome them all. I pray that all children have a future of their deepest desire and a passion to unite that quest to the “One” to the “our” who created us and abides with us. Lord, let all children have wonderful Dads and a just society where their lives can be fulfilled.
The Genesis creation story is equally applied to the American family. We Americans are a household which is a place of dreams fulfilled and broken. The tragic favoritism of whites over African Americans is still playing the story over again in masked and unmasked forms. Our American family is still very much a dysfunctional family with many tragedies which demand all our efforts to sort out, correct, and heal. I look forward to the day when all Americans are singing America the Beautiful with the gratitude and soulfulness that the largely gay audience sang when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. Juneteenth is a day for the moment to celebrate the great political achievements of the Emancipation Proclamation, The passing of the 13th Amendment, the achievements of the Civil Rights movement and the progress of integration since then. However, we are reminded daily and painfully that the job is not done. The genius of the Civil Rights Movement was to invite white as allies in the cause. It replicated in human terms the fullness of God, God’s name, “our.” It is time now for whites to ask our black sisters and brothers with humility, with courage, and with eagerness, what is needed of us now, teach us what to do. Help us, Lord, to listen without defensiveness, argumentativeness, and, most importantly, with love.
The number of police killings since 2014 of African Americans added up, aroused fear and anger to new levels, and actually frightened many whites as well. We liberal whites who can face the truth are aghast, but we cannot seem to move. We are frozen like deer in the headlights. We cannot forget the names of those killed by the police and vigilantes because it smacks of the Jim Crow era. We cannot go backward. Let us pray for the fathers of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice here in Cleveland, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Stephon Clark, Botham Jean, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Daunte Wright, and Patrick Lyoya. We are nowhere near the fulfillment of our dreams for a just society for all people. The creation of the world and all the wonders of life, especially with “humankind” and all the animals of the earth, tells us that God’s desire is for a wondrous world filled with a wide variety of beings. Even in the story of the Great Flood and Noah’s Ark, God commanded that representatives of all living things be brought into the Ark so that diversity would be preserved. God’s plan seems to be unity within diversity, with even God self- referring as “Our.” So, we whites need to stop resting in the achievements of the past decades and turn lovingly to our black sisters and brothers and earnestly apologize for our complacency and complicity. We can hope for forgiving for the sins of the generations of the past to the present, but we cannot hope or ask for forgetting. This can only be asked if we do the work to turn towards our black sisters and brothers and ask them what is required of us.
How can we turn this around?
This is the time to say that the Church must take a leading role in helping us to move forward. I highly recommend our Church’s report on repairing the racial breach in church and in the larger society. It is “Realizing Beloved Community, a Report from the House of Bishops Theology Committee.” The report emphatically states that understanding the roots and tentacles of white supremacy is essential for racial progress to occur. Elements of that process includes remorse and confession for the active and substantial role played by Christianity, the Anglican Communion, and The Episcopal Church in constructing, maintaining, defending, and profiting from this monstrous sin and scandal of racism. The report lays out a formal process to address this most pressing of issues. Our church is committing and so should we all. Fathers and Mothers unite in the “our-ness of our God” and lead our children to a new future so all may step through an open door into a society which has open arms. Amen.
