Loading...Sermon July 9, 2017
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost, Track 1 Year A
//lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp9_RCL.html
Audio
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. Romans 7:21
Please be seated.
This past week, I saw the movie Loving. You may have heard of it. It is a movie about Richard and Mildred Loving of Caroline County, Virginia. The Lovings were from near Central Point, Virginia, a little town northeast of Richmond. It was very rural.
In 1958, the Lovings were married in Washington, DC. You see, Mildred was African-American and American Indian, while Richard was White. Their marriage was illegal in Virginia, as it had been in many parts of the United States over the years. In 1958 16 states, most of them in the south, deemed interracial marriage illegal.
After they were married, the Lovings lived with Mildred’s family. One night, police raided their bedroom. The couple were arrested. In court, they were found guilty of violating the laws of Virginia. They were given a 1-year sentence in jail. However, the judge said in the alternative, they could leave Virginia and not return for 25 years!
They decide to leave their families and go live in Washington DC nearly 100 miles away. They get into trouble once again when they violate their agreement, returning to Virginia so Richard’s mother, a midwife, could deliver their first child. They didn’t like Washington DC. They weren’t city people. They had a piece of property back in Central Point where they were planning to build their dream home.
Eventually, Mildred writes then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy about their plight. They are put in touch with a lawyer from the ACLU who takes on their case. Finally, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear their case. Richard Loving refused to attend the hearing before the Court. He only said their lawyer should “tell the Court I love my wife and it is just unfair that I can’t live with her in Virginia.”
On June 12, 1967, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion and declared anti-miscegenation laws illegal across the country. Richard and Mildred Loving could finally build their dream home and live together in Virginia.
The Bible was used to justify the ban on interracial marriage. In the 1964 Caroline County, Virginia Court case filed to challenge the ban, the court replied:
"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."
(https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Opinion_of_Judge_Leon_M_Bazile_January_22_1965)
And in fact, Bob Jones University only removed their ban on interracial dating in 2000, interpreting the Bible as saying God was against interracial relationships.
And even though Pennsylvania’s got rid of their miscegenation laws in 1780, interracial relationships were not widely accepted as a result. The New York Times just did a story on current interracial relationships since it’s been 50 years since the Loving decision and some couples continue to face rejection by their families.
I’m sure most of us believe we are good people and if we met many of the people involved with enforcing these laws, I’m sure we would find them earnest in their beliefs and earnest that their beliefs were based on following Jesus Christ.
That’s what is scary…how often good Christians misinterpret the Bible or what it means to follow Jesus Christ and while believing they are living true to God’s laws, they end up doing great harm.
That’s the exact situation Paul was in, as we read in this portion of his letter to the Christians in Rome. Paul was a Pharisee and a good one. He followed the Law, both written and traditional. He was so zealous in his observation of the Law, that when Jews began following Jesus Christ, Paul thought the followers of Christ should be persecuted. Paul even approved of the stoning of Stephen.
So the laws, which were for the good of the people and for helping them strengthen their relationship with God, were ultimately used for evil. Jesus challenges the religious authorities and their interpretation of the Law a number of times. In Luke, for instance, he heals a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath, believed to be a violation of the law.
Thus Paul says, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.” It is only through the grace of God through Jesus Christ that Paul is saved.
So what are we to do about this “danger” that faces us when we believe we are following Jesus Christ and yet in looking back, evil has been done?
The theologian Verna Dozier in her book The Dream of God:A Call to Return says,
“Kingdom-of-God thinking calls us to risk. We always see through a glass darkly, and that is what faith is about. I will live by the best I can discern today. Tomorrow I may find out I was wrong. Since I do not live by being right, I am not destroyed by being wrong. The God revealed in Jesus whom I call the Christ is a God whose forgiveness goes ahead of me, and whose love sustains me and the whole created world. That God bursts all the definitions of our small minds, all the limitations of our timid efforts, all the boundaries of our institutions.” P. 109-110
We do our best…discern what is best in how to follow Jesus Christ. And we are prepared that we may be entirely wrong. This is really hard if we believe being right is the only way to live, because in essence, we know we will find out even in our best efforts, we will be wrong on occasion. We must be flexible and open to that possibility. Flexible and open to needing to change how we believe and how we follow Jesus Christ.
And we can keep on ministering, keep on doing our Kingdom work, because the God revealed to us through Jesus Christ, is a forgiving God. We are confident of that. The God revealed to us through Jesus Christ is a loving God and God’s love sustains us. We are confident of that.
Amen
