Peace in the Midst of the Storm

Readings: Matthew 14:22-33, 1 Kings 19:9-18

Arlington Presbyterian Church
August 13, 2017

I spent much of the evening yesterday on Facebook reading stories about what had happened in Charlottesville in the last 24 hours.

In fact, I had forgotten that there was a Unite the Right rally yesterday and a counter protest that I had been reading about the last few weeks.

I woke up feeling a little under the weather and was focused on getting better for this morning.

In fact, after two weeks of intentional self-care, I had imagined the sermon would focus a little on the time Jesus took before this story to refresh alone

and the weariness of the disciples who were sent off on the boat while Jesus rested.

Nedrin and I ordered cable television service last week and we were having a bear of a time getting our box hooked up.

First, we had the wrong box, so I had to return it to get a new box. Then when we couldn’t get the new box to work,

so we had a technician coming and were basically without television all morning, opting to spend the time cleaning.

So when I opened my computer to a Facebook post from Margaret Aymer asking what folks would be preaching this morning, I began to get a little nervous.

Especially when all the responses were about how folks were changing their sermons.

What in the world was happening? I scrolled down to learn that something was happening in Charlottesville and I remembered the protests today.

Once the cable was working, I was able to change the channel to find some news.

It was Fox News, which is apparently the only 24 hour news channel that we have in our plan. So I watched it for a bit.

I have to admit that I was pretty shocked how strongly Fox News was denouncing the White Supremacists and White Nationals and the Ku Klux Klan.

I want to say squarely and clearly that the actions of the White Supremacists, White Nationalists, and the Klan yesterday and the night before last are pure evil.

The intimidation march around Charlottesville and the UVA campus with tiki torches;

arriving on Saturday at the march in militia uniforms with shields and helmets and weapons…including guns;

and coming after counter-protesters to the point of driving a car into a crowd of people, wounding 19 and killing one woman.

White supremacy and white nationalism is sinful and it is the antithesis of everything that God intends for the world.

In the Matthew texts of the lectionary during Pentecost, we read the Great Commandment of Jesus to go into the world making disciples of all nations.

This is a change from the text the following week that comes just after the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus encourages the disciples to go only to the Jewish people to share the good news.

But in the end, Jesus opens his arms to all people in the world. And he is pretty consistent with God’s repeated disruption of the power structures that we humans tend to establish in our cultures.

On Facebook yesterday, Fr. James Martin put it this way to address any claim of Christianity by the White Supremacists and White Nationals, saying:

“[S]upremacy” is the precise opposite of Jesus’s message.

“In the Gospels, Jesus asks us to love one another, to place others’ needs before our own, even to die for one another. The idea of ‘supremacy’ is absurd to Jesus.

“Indeed, Jesus tells us explicitly that we are never to ‘lord’ power over others, and that we are to be one another’s ‘servants’ (Mk. 10: 42-43).

“The idea that anyone is ‘less than’ because of his or her race is likewise antithetical to Jesus’s message. For example, in his day the Samaritans were avoided, despised and even shunned by the majority of the Jewish people.

“Yet Jesus not only speaks to a Samaritan woman, and reveals his divinity to her; but he makes the hero of one of his most well-known parables the ‘Good Samaritan.’ (Jn 4; Lk 10)

“He even encounters a Roman centurion, someone completely outside of his religion, speaks with him, heals his servant, and praises his faith (Mt 8:5-13).

“So for Jesus, there is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’ No one should be made by the community into an ‘other,’ as white supremacists do to non-whites. There is only us.

“More basically, racism goes against everything that Jesus taught. It promotes hatred, not love; anger not compassion; vengeance not mercy. It is a sin.

“So ‘Christian white supremacist’ is an oxymoron. Every time you shout ‘White Power!’ you might as well be shouting ‘Crucify him!’

“And any time you lift your hand in a Nazi salute, you might as well be lifting your hand to nail Jesus to the Cross.

“And lest you miss the point, your Savior is Jewish.”

The streets of Charlottesville were quiet last night. Thank goodness. I wonder what God was saying in that quiet after the fires and storms and earthquakes of human hate displayed that day.

I imagine God was and is exasperated and disappointed and sad, but proud of all the people who stood up against evil.

I imagine God was surrounding the protesters and the counter protesters with love and grace.

Trying to break the hearts of those so filled with hate. Reminding all of us of her love for all people.

Not just the pandering love of #alllivesmatter. But a love for all when it’s true that #blacklivematter and #queerlivesmatter and #translivesmatter.

The news was definitely not quiet. I was able to get access to CNN and I watched for hours.

I saw replay after replay of the car driving into the crowd.

I saw replays of the attacks of the protesters against the counter-protesters.

My colleague, Marco, who preached here a couple weeks ago, was there.

He is safe. He left for DC before the car struck the crowd.

He reports to me that “there was horrible anger and mean hurtful language.” There were “too many guns (not police) and they were everywhere.”

He also said that “if it hadn’t been for the clergy physically blocking the entrance to the park, the clashes would have been head on and with more people.”

On CNN and on Facebook, I saw statement after statement against the white nationalists and white supremacists and Klan members.

To be perfectly honest, it’s not that hard to make a statement against these groups of people.

We heard strong statements from Senator McCain, from Senator Rubio, from republican congress members. We even heard from Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

And yet, from our president, a man famous for making his disdain known, we hear a statement of unity,

but one that did not denounce the white supremacist agenda

even as David Duke explicitly stated that they were there to further President Trump’s agenda.

I have to wonder why?

Why wouldn’t the president make a statement that is more powerfully denouncing evil?

Why wouldn’t the president distance himself from White Supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan and the White Nationalists and the Alt-Right?   

Even though people in his party are denouncing them left and right.

I think the answer is that these people have more power than we give them credit.

They are a real and driving force in our political system! And we cannot pretend otherwise.

The answer is also that these are values that have been poisoning our country for decades.

And while most people in our country and probably everyone in this room can denounce white supremacy,

We get tripped up when we are faced with the truth that our laws and the enforcement of our laws and our institutions are colored by these values of white supremacy.

The point of the counter-protests was to speak loudly and clearly that hate and violence are not values that represent our democracy nor our Christianity.

The point was to demonstrate that love is a more powerful force than hate and to diminish the power of hate.

The point was to stand up with courage in the face of intimidation.

Our faith demands that we step onto the water in the midst of the storm,

to keep our eyes on Jesus and trust that even in the midst of the raging storm of white supremacy, hate will not prevail.

But that is not all of the work that we need to do.

We must be vigilant in our daily lives. We must be listening in the silence for the still small voice pointing us to examine the ways that our laws are crafted,

the ways that they are enforced, how the norms within our institutions are shaped.

We must examine bias that is normalized in our churches, in our schools, in our communities, in our consumption of the news.

And we must stand up and speak out in the face of structural racism and sexism and classism and heterosexism.

It may feel like we are creating storms, that we are rocking the boat.

But the truth is that we as white people are just stepping into the storms that already exist

for our sisters and brother of color,

for our queer friends and family members,

for people who are pushed to the margins.

There is one other thing that we must do, and that is the thing that is the hardest for me.

And that is to love.

To stand in the face of a group of people in our country who feel alienated and replaced,

who are so filled with hate for my very being as a queer woman

                   and to love.

Margaret Aymer, whom Derrick has mentioned on more than one occasion, teaches New Testament at Austin Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian Seminary in Texas. But I like to claim her as a colleague as she was finishing her dissertation at Union Seminary when I was there.

After her survey of preachers on Facebook yesterday, she offered these “Thoughts on Matthew 14” which seem like an appropriate way to close this sermon:

“Jesus doesn't calm the wind when he's walking out to his students in the boat.

“Jesus doesn't calm the wind when he commands Peter to come to him.

“Jesus doesn't calm the wind when he saves Peter from drowning.

“Jesus stands in the middle of danger, on the water, with the wind blowing and commands his students: Take courage. I am. Fear not.

“Preachers. Christians. In the face of the winds of white supremacy and racism, with the seas of church decline roiling beneath your feet, we are still commanded to walk on water, crying out for rescue when we need it.

“In the face of ‘make nice’ culture and fear of offending, we are still required to face into the winds with the truth that racism is sin. We are still commanded: Take courage. Jesus Christ is Lord. Fear not.”

“Preach the Gospel.”

Amen.