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Sermon February 24, 2019
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers,
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Epiphany/CEpi7_RCL.html
‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. Luke 6:27-28
Please be seated.
Tonight is the Oscar Awards. One of the movies up for three awards is If Beale Street Could Talk. The movie is a hauntingly beautiful adaptation of the book by the same name, written by James Baldwin.
I made sure to see the movie, because I love James Baldwin. One of the pieces of his writing that has stayed with me ever since I read it, probably twenty years ago, is a letter Baldwin wrote to his nephew in 1963. Entitled, My Dungeon Shook, the letter appears in the book The Fire Next Time.
Baldwin’s nephew, James, is turning 15. James was named after Baldwin and Baldwin was there at his birth.
Baldwin writes:
Now, my dear namesake, these innocent and well-meaning people, your countrymen, have caused you to be born under conditions not very far removed from those described for us by Charles Dickens in the London of more than a hundred years ago. …This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, if intended that you should perish. (p. 6-7)
Imagine writing to a 15-year old young man that the world he is living in is designed and was built to kill him, rather than to help him thrive. Baldwin explains that he is writing these things to his nephew, because he wants his nephew to also learn how to handle this situation. How does one live and thrive in a nation that by design wants you to die?
And what is Baldwin’s advice to his nephew?
…you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. (p. 8)
Are you kidding me??? You must accept those who are trying to kill you. You must love them.
In our Gospel today, Jesus exhorts us to stand strong in ways that feel counter intuitive and even shocking. To do what most of us would do in an instant – seek revenge from our enemies, evaluate whether to give to someone who is begging, to try to recover what someone has stolen – is not the way to follow Jesus Christ. It is not the way that God wants us to live.
We must be different from how our seemingly intractable human desires lead us. No matter what, we must love. Jesus knows this is hard and yet he asks how are we any different or how do we show we are connected to God if we act like everyone else?
I thought about Nelson Mandela. This year will be 15 years since Mr. Mandela was elected President of South Africa. I’m sure many of you remember that Mr. Mandela, who died in December of 2013, was imprisoned for 27 years under harsh and brutal conditions as part of the time of Apartheid government in South Africa.
He went to prison at the age of 44 and was released when he was 71 years of age. He missed so much time with his children, wife, grandchildren, family and friends. He could have been released any number of times if he had agreed to be relocated out of South Africa to an unrecognized state for Black people.
With the community created amongst the other prisoners, mostly men who were also fighting for a free, democratic South Africa, Mr. Mandela and others outside of prison, maintained and held onto their vision of a new South Africa.
Now, what I find so amazing is that Mr. Mandela did not get out of jail and seek revenge. His vision was one of liberation for all people, because he did understand that everyone was affected by the and ruthless power through the Apartheid system. No one was free.
When he became President in 1994, he visited previous Presidents who had enforced apartheid and imprisoned him. He asked the wives and widows of those presidents to meet with him. When he ran for President, he visited all around the country. He kept his vision of a unified, diverse, democratic, equal nation always in front of him. (p. 189, Comic Book)
When asked, “How did you manage to forgive your oppressors?” He responded, “They took the best years of my life…. They could take everything…except my mind and heart.”
I think that’s what Jesus is saying. When our mind and hearts are strong in God…strong in Jesus…connected…no one can do anything to harm us. Of course there is suffering and physical pain. There are challenges, no doubt. At times we aren’t sure we will survive. Yet, our connection with God and with Jesus allow us to hold onto our souls…our minds and hearts can never be taken away.
This is not to say that we must withstand abuse or do nothing to stop it. Rather, it is to say that if we cannot remove ourselves, we can at the very least, hold on to love…hold on to our minds…hold on to our hearts….hold on to God.
James Baldwin ends the letter to his nephew by telling us why loving our enemies is so important. He says,
“…we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.”
That’s the power of love and why we strive to love our enemies. It is through love that truth is revealed.
Amen
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin, Vintage International Edition, February 1993
Nelson Mandela: The Authorized Comic Book, Nelson Mandela Foundation with Umlando Wezithombe, WW Norton and Company, 20095
