Happy Birthday Church! I mean church with a big “C,” church around the world! I read there are 37 million congregations around the world! That seems like a lot, but at least there are millions of congregations! And today is Pentecost, the birthday of the church, when it all got started.
There are disturbing events that happened in Minneapolis, Minnesota this week, where a policeman knelt on Mr. George Floyd, an African American man’s neck for 8 minutes, and he lost consciousness and died. Then there were fires set at the police station in Minneapolis. And protests and riots around the country. What is going on? And why can’t everybody just get along?
It’s a reminder of divisions, of the different experiences that people live depending on the color of their skin.
Joseph Sojourner, a young African American emcee and writer, said growing up, he wasn’t afraid of police. But his parents gave him a detailed list of instructions about what to do if he was stopped by a policeman: Never talk back. Never resist arrest. If they ask for your ID, ask the policeman to get it out of your pocket, never reach for it yourself. If you reach for it yourself, they might think you are reaching for a gun.
That is a really different experience than I have had. It never occurred to me to teach my kids when you are stopped by a policeman, never reach for your wallet. I just say, “Be polite.”
Joseph had a discussion with some of his friends about differing experiences you have if you’re white or black. He decided to do an experiment, all the white friends got in one vehicle, all the black friends got in another. They thought, “Let’s just ride around the neighborhood. So, they did. The car with white kids drove in front, the car with the black kids followed. After about 15 minutes, the police pull the car with black kids over. The car with white kids doesn’t get stopped, they’re ok. But they pull over and come back and talk to the police about why they pulled the other car over. Joseph said what really struck him was how free the white kids felt to talk to and ask questions of the police. Joseph was always taught, you’re not allowed to speak to an officer, you’re not allowed to insist on what your rights are, you’re supposed to be quiet, and not make any sudden movements. Joseph wasn’t afraid of the police. But he knew he had to be more cautious when stopped by the police.
George Floyd, the man who died in Minneapolis, didn’t deserve the treatment he received, he didn’t deserve to die.
Of course, setting fire to a city and rioting doesn’t do any good.
And the vast majority of police officers are amazing people who serve and protect, they hate what that police officer did, and it makes their job, and earning people’s trust, harder.
What is going on in all this, is racism. It’s been around for thousands of years. When the church started, on Pentecost, it was a miracle, bringing different sorts of people together. Jews from so many different nations, and even Gentiles who converted to Judaism were in Jerusalem, and they all heard Jesus’ followers speaking in their language! That amazing miracle by the power of the Holy Spirit, helped everybody feel like these people speak my language; there is no insider vs. outsider. Peter preached that God’s spirit has fallen on young and old, servants, male and female, everybody is part of God’s mission and saving plan.
The birthday of the church was a wonderful display of unity. But the sin of division still managed to live in the church. For instance, there were arguments between Jews vs. Gentiles: Gentile widows weren’t getting distributed as much as Jewish widows, so they had to get more servers. There were arguments between rich versus poor. Communion used to be a love feast, where Christians ate a meal together. It was a potluck, and rich Christians would bring lots of food and drink, and not share with the poor Christians who had almost nothing to eat. Paul told them to stop it! There was the disagreement of masters vs. slaves: Paul wrote a letter: Philemon, which is a book in our Bible, to ask a slaveowner to free his slave. In these disagreements, these people were Christians, but sin crept in. They had to fight the sin of division. They had to learn a different way.
If you fast forward 15 years after the resurrection and Pentecost, Peter still doesn’t like Gentiles, and even Gentile Christians. He won’t go to their house: he has never been to a Gentile’s house! It would make him unclean, religiously. One day Peter has a dream, and the Spirit of God directs him to eat unclean foods. Now this is not dirty food. This is food that is forbidden to Jews to eat: in the dreams there is all kinds of animals in front of Peter, and God tells him to eat, while Jews can’t eat foods like pork, or animals not killed in the right manner.
Peter says, “No! I never eat impure and unclean food.” God says to Peter: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” God is teaching him to get rid of his prejudice against Gentiles. And Peter goes, for the first time in his life, to a Gentile’s house: the house of Cornelius the Roman centurion. And Peter’s heart grew three sizes that day. That part is actually from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. But the rest of the story is from Acts chapter 10.
So, Peter, after 15 years, finally realizes, “God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.” We are Christians today, celebrating the Christian church’s birthday, because God convinced Peter and James and the other church leaders, that everyone is accepted by God. No one is less a child of God. The church impacted the world in a big way, because a group of people put aside prejudices, and found unity around the good news and its potential to change the world.
Here is my homework for you this week: pray for someone who is different from you. We can pray. We don’t have to understand someone to pray for them. Pray for someone different from you.
Racism and division have been around for thousands of years. I really believe that Christianity is the hope of the world. Christians have learned to overcome division and unity for 2000 years. Christianity is the hope to overcome divisions. God so loves the world, the whole world, of every shape and kind and color that he sent Jesus. Everyone is a child of God. Let us pray for our neighbor, because we are part of God’s mission, to transform the world. Amen.
May 31, 2020
Maureen Duffy-Guy's blog 