Loading...Sermon March 12, 2017
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
[Jesus said to Nicodemus] “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:16-17
Please be seated.
Have you ever met someone and been in their presence for awhile and found out later that this person was more awesome and amazing than you knew? Unfortunately that’s happened to me on a number of occasions. Later I discover more about the person and feel so embarrassed about our encounter. It’s like I didn’t show sufficient respect to the person, nor fully take advantage of the opportunity to really sit with them and know them.
I was reminded of this earlier in the week when I saw an announcement through the national Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) organization for a conference call about the work and example of Anne Braden.
I remember hearing about Anne Braden as I worked on the issue of racism. I knew she was a woman who was White and from the south. I knew she was connected to the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond out of New Orleans. The People’s Institute works with organizations through an “Undoing Racism” 2 ½ day training, which I participated in. So, I heard Anne Braden’s name and knew she was someone to be respected.
One year in February, I attended the People’s Institute nationwide gathering just outside of New Orleans. This was a gathering for anyone who had attended at least one “Undoing Racism” workshop. People came from all over the United States and represented many different racial groups. And Anne Braden attended. This was in the early 1990s and she was nearly 70 years old. The thing that really struck me was that even though she’d done so much work on undoing racism, she participated in our discussions as a learner. She was still learning…exploring…inquiring…growing. I think she stayed just one day and I didn’t have a lot of time to learn more. I also did not know much about her work. How I wish I could go back and sit at her feet and hear so much more.
This past Thursday as I was listening to a discussion about her work and her influence, I researched some more. Right there in the Wikipedia entry, it said, “she was a devout Episcopalian.” Devout Episcopalian…Wow. I knew her deep faith had guided her work for racial justice. Not only was she a cradle Episcopalian, but she helped her husband, who had been raised Roman Catholic and became agnostic, join the church.
In 1954 the Bradens were living in Louisville, KY. They were newspaper reporters. They were strong advocates of working for civil rights and racial justice. There was a new suburban “White” development being built in Louisville and friends of the Bradens, the Wade family, who were African-American, asked the Bradens to please buy one of the homes for them; it would have difficult and maybe even impossible for the Wades to buy the home on their own. The Bradens bought the home and turned it over to the Wades. This started a series of terroristic events for both families, including the bombing of the Wades’ home. Instead of prosecuting the men who bombed the home, Anne Braden and her husband, Carl, were arrested for sedition, accused of trying to overthrow the government of Kentucky and of the United States. Carl Braden was eventually convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Eventually a court exonerated those involved and Carl was released after serving 1 year of time.
After these events, the Bradens could not find any jobs with newspapers. For many years, they also found no support in The Episcopal Church for their efforts. They were pariahs. They eventually found jobs with community organizations devoted to interracial justice.
Anne Braden followed Jesus and found The Episcopal Church faith a bedrock for working for God’s Kingdom. In the process of this deep love for humanity, she faced significant difficulties and challenges in following Jesus and living out the Gospel of love.
In today’s Gospel, we hear about Nicodemus coming to Jesus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and in this exchange, we hear his skepticism of Jesus as the Messiah and thus the teachings of Jesus. In the exchange, Jesus responds to Nicodemus in the most familiar words of John 3:16: ] “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” and those in verse 17: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
For God so loved the world. That’s the heart of it…loved the world. It’s an unconditional love….freely and lavishly given…a love not forced or coerced. Unleashing that kind of love for the world also means that the response from those loved cannot be controlled. God’s tremendous and free love that sent God’s son into the world…into our very human existence…occurs, even though the human response to that love would be to violently destroy it.
That’s the price of loving humanity. So as we observe Women’s History Month, in light of the deep love of God for us and for the whole world, I think of the example of Anne Braden. She followed Jesus’ example of loving the world. She followed God’s call of loving the world. And she kept following that call even when it meant hardship, isolation, economic uncertainty and rejection by the very people she loved. In an interview Anne Braden said:
I don’t think guilt is a productive emotion. I never knew anybody who really got active because of guilt. Everyone White who I know who got involved in the struggle got into it because they glimpsed a different world to live in. The meaning of life is in that struggle that human beings have always been able to envision something better. I don’t know where they get it, but that’s what makes human beings divine, I think. All through history there’ve been people who envisioned something better in the most dire situations. That’s what you want to be a part of. You might not see the fruit of it, but that’s what you want to be a part of. (3 minutes in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvmasu_CLr0)
God envisioned something better for us and sent Jesus to teach us and show us a new vision. Throughout history, many others, including Anne Braden have heard God’s voice and followed God’s leading in envisioning something better for us. God so loved the world… and may we, like Anne Braden, do likewise.
Amen
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UL2A2vOB_s
Trailer for Anne Braden: Southern Patriot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvmasu_CLr0
Letter to Southern White Women: //annebradenfilm.org/assets/files/BradenLetter.pdf
//annebradenfilm.org/resources/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Braden
Episcopalians and Race: Civil War to Civil Rights by Gardiner H. Shattuck, Jr., University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p.73-74
