"Dimming our Fireworks: Racism" - Sermon for Pentecost 6

Sermon:

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Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who in weakness makes us bright.

            Fourth of July Weekend! Jim Gaffigan the comedian said, where we celebrate America by blowing up a small part of it. It’s a great time, picnics, games, and of course fireworks!!!! I have fond memories of going to firework displays all over, at home with my parents sitting in the church parking lot with hot dogs, laying on the grass as fireworks explode right overhead, watching the fireworks in Washington DC through PBS’ A Capital Fourth television program, and then of course here in Elk Point watching our own try to out do themselves each year. We spend our evening sending up fireworks that light up the sky, showing forth the brightness of our country.

            America is 239 years old this year! And for the most part it’s been a great 239 years. But, recently something has again reared its head, something that we as a country have dealt with since our founding. Something that dims our fireworks, keeps them from being as bright as they could be. Racism.

            We can deny it exists all we may want, but it most certainly is still strong. It’s always around, but like these last two weeks has shown itself as not only present, but violently so. We witnessed the horrific murders of 9 Americans at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and in the last week 6 different African American churches have been burned through arson. These events are tragedies of our nation, but to us it hits close to home as well. Two of the pastor’s killed in the attack were graduates of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, an ELCA seminary, many ELCA pastors and members counted them as friends. Our presiding Bishop attended the funeral service of Pastor Clementa Pinckney this week. But, also the killer was a member of an ELCA congregation. From our church body came both those killed and the killer, we are directly connected to this, whether we want to be or not.

            In our reading from 2 Corinthians, Paul refers to something that is a thorn given to him in the flesh. What it actually is he never again mentions. Some think it’s a speech impediment, or poor vision, or some kind of infection or ailment affecting his walking.  But no matter what it is, it’s something that impedes what he is able to do. It’s something that’s always there, whether he wants to admit it or not. And it affects how he can live his everyday life, impacts all parts of who he is.

            Paul could very well just not do as much as he could, and allow this thorn to affect him and define who he is. He could allow this thorn to control him. But, he doesn’t, he addresses that it hampers him, but then also acknowledges that he cannot overcome it on his own. It is only through Christ that he can become strong. His weakness forces him to bear witness to the fact that all his strength comes from Christ. So, when he is weak and can see that this is not possible to overcome on his own then he can fully turn to God. It is only when he is weak that Christ can make him strong.

            Racism is the thorn in our side, the thorn in our flesh. It affects every part of who we are. And it's not just against African Americans, here in our state it’s our attitude towards Native American’s that digs furthest into our skin.

            And our thorn is even stronger than Paul’s. Paul can’t ignore his thorn. Our problem starts not with dealing with our thorn, but instead the fact that many do not believe that it exists. We often ignore it. We act like it does not affect us, like it does not even exist or we declare that it’s been solved. But it affects every part of our culture whether we want to acknowledge it or not. Because of our thorn we as a nation and culture are weak. We can claim that we are strong, but imagine how much greater could we be.

            Because of this weakness the fireworks that we send up as a country are not a bright as they could be. They don’t have the sparkle they should. They do not light the sky like they could.

            These last few weeks we have seen violence erupt yet again between people of different color, and we could simply state, well, it’s again something that will always go with us. Or we could follow the actions of the family members of those killed at Emanuel AME. We could instead work to again brighten our fireworks through the power of God’s forgiveness and love.

            “I forgive you,” Nadine Collier, the daughter of 70-year-old Ethel Lance, said at the hearing of the killer, her voice breaking with emotion. “You took something very precious from me. I will never talk to her again. I will never, ever hold her again. But I forgive you. And have mercy on your soul.”

            Those are words that can only be said through the grace of God. Those words are bright fireworks.

            And it is only through the grace of God that we can move forward.

            We could again ignore what has happened and again claim that nothing can be done, while at the same time declaring that racism is over. Or we could work to make this an even better country. We can acknowledge our weakness, our thorn, and then allow Christ to work in us. We can ignore this tragedy, or we can allow God to work a different plan. A plan to take this tragedy, to take our thorn, which makes us weak, and to allow God to make us strong. To take this tragedy and work to change our way so again the fireworks we send up light up the sky, showing the freedom and equality that our great nation was founded on.

            It’s Independence Day weekend, let’s allow God to begin the work of freeing us from all of our thorns, especially this day the sin of racism and all that it has done to us.

            Let us pray,

God of Unity, we ask you to give strength to all in our country, see our sin and forgive us, and even more so, work in us change, help us to see all as your children, send us out to our neighbors, whoever they may be. Free us from our thorns and make us strong in the midst of our weakness. Amen.