Let Love Be Genuine
The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams, , September 3rd, 2023, Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Last Saturday, thousands of people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. They came together to pay tribute to the landmark civil rights event in 1963 where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. They also came to stand against all of the current threats to the racial progress that we have made in this country over the last 60 years. Just as last Saturday’s March on Washington was ending, a young white man walked into a Dollar General store in a predominately Black neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida and killed 3 African Americans, 19 year old "AJ" Laguerre Jr., 29 year old Jerrald Gallion, and 52 year old Angela Carr. How utterly heartbreaking. The chasm between God’s dream for us and how things really are is so very great.
Our reading from Romans today could not be more timely.
“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection….Do not repay evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. “ Romans 12:9-21
These are the words we so need to hear right now as we condemn all of the racially motivated violence in our country, while at the same time not allowing hatred to take root and infect our hearts. It is so hard to do, but it is vitally important, both as citizens of the Kingdom of God and citizens of this country. As followers of Jesus, we are called to speak up for justice AND to love our neighbors as ourselves, to speak up for justice for our Black neighbors, and to love our racist neighbors. That is what taking up our cross and following Jesus looks like. When we follow Jesus, we live between two worlds, God’s perfect kingdom that we strive for, that Beloved Community where everyone is honored as a child of God, and the imperfect kingdom of this world, where racism and hatred in all of its forms are very real. We live in the land of “already” and the “not yet”, the already of Jesus entering the world as a human being to show us what is possible and the “not yet” of knowing that he calls us to continue what he started, with God’s help, growing weary, yes, but going forward, putting one foot in front of the other and trusting God to lead us and sustain us. And these are our marching orders:
“…hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection….Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. “
When Paul wrote these words over two millennia ago, he was telling the Christians in Rome what life should look like both inside the church and out. First century Rome was filled with people from all over the Roman Empire, people from diverse cultures, varying skin tones and all levels of economic prosperity. When people walked into church, none of that was supposed to matter. One of the reasons that Paul wrote the Letter to the Romans was the anti-Semitism that was starting to manifest in the Christian house churches in Rome. The emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome in 49 C.E. and a few years later, his successor, the emperor Nero, reversed that order and allowed the Jews to return. Prior to the exile of the Jews, there were both Jews and Gentiles in the Christian house churches, but non-Jews had obviously become predominant during the exile and now that their Jewish siblings were returning, tensions were rising within the Christian community between the two groups. Being baptized into Christ meant that they were called to be a Beloved Community, honoring one another in Jesus’ name, and then going into the world to honor the image of God in everyone they met. When Paul wrote the Letter to the Romans, he was in part responding to the mass killing of Jews in Alexandria a few years earlier and the more recent riots in Puteoli, a town near Naples. He wanted to discourage the same thing happening in Rome. So Paul was trying to preempt civic unrest on the one hand and corrosive behavior in the house churches on the other. Creating and nurturing the Beloved Community requires intention and focus so that people who may seem “other” become friends.
The concept of “othering” has been with us since the beginning of time, but the specific term was coined by philosophers in the 1800s. It refers to the fact that human beings identify differences between themselves and others and rather than celebrating that diversity, decide that other people are “less than” themselves based on those differences, whether those differences are ones of race, religion, culture, gender, sexual identity or orientation or anything else. “Othering” creates a system where there are dominators and those who are dominated or to put it differently, those who are mainstream and those who are marginalized. Whether it is Jews in first century Rome or Black Americans in 2023, the basic dynamic is the same. And we are called as Christians to celebrate our diversity and see that it is mark of being created in God’s image. We worship a God who is one in three and three in one, meaning God is a diverse community of equal and distinct “persons”, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and yet God is one unified, Divine Community. We are called to mirror God’s life. That is what the Beloved Community is all about. That is what we are to strive for as Christians, both inside the Church and without. When we see a chasm between ourselves and others, we are called to build bridges. When we encounter hatred, we are called to love in return. When we observe a lack of justice, we are called to stand up for what is right. When we see the news and are tempted to despair, we hold onto hope. When we encounter evil, we do not return evil with evil, but overcome evil with good. And we ask God to help us to recognize our own propensity for evil and work to resist it.
In four weeks, a new Sacred Ground group will begin here at Saint George’s. This will be the third time that our race and reconciliation ministry has offered it and those who have been through it have found it to be a transformative experience. Sacred Ground creates an intentional space for study and respectful conversation about race and racism. Using readings and film, group members walk back through history in order to peel away the layers that brought us to today, reflecting on family histories and stories, as well as our shared American story. Sacred Ground holds out the dream of the beloved community and helps us to make it a reality. I invite you to consider it as you discern what spiritual formation opportunity you will commit to this fall. The change we want to see in the world begins with an enlightened mind and transformed heart.
“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection.” Romans 12:9-21
Sacred Ground is a film- and readings-based dialogue series on race, grounded in faith. Small groups are invited to walk through chapters of America’s history of race and racism, while weaving in threads of family story, economic class, and political and regional identity.
The 11-part series is built around a powerful online curriculum of documentary films and readings that focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories.
Sacred Ground is part of Becoming Beloved Community, The Episcopal Church’s long-term commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives, our ministries, and our society. This series is open to all, and especially designed to help white people talk with other white people. Participants are invited to peel away the layers that have contributed to the challenges and divides of the present day – all while grounded in our call to faith, hope and love.
Sacred Ground is a film- and readings-based dialogue series on race, grounded in faith. Small groups are invited to walk through chapters of America’s history of race and racism, while weaving in threads of family story, economic class, and political and regional identity.
The 11-part series is built around a powerful online curriculum of documentary films and readings that focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories.
Sacred Ground is part of Becoming Beloved Community, The Episcopal Church’s long-term commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives, our ministries, and our society. This series is open to all, and especially designed to help white people talk with other white people. Participants are invited to peel away the layers that have contributed to the challenges and divides of the present day – all while grounded in our call to faith, hope and love.