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Lord of Love Lutheran Church
(ELCA)
June 20, 1999 |
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Lord of Love Lutheran Church
(ELCA)
June 20, 1999 |
Readings: Jeremiah 20.7-13, Psalm 69.8-20, Romans 6.1b-11, Matthew 10.24-39
Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote the following while
serving time in jail in Birmingham, Alabama in April of 1963: We know through
painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given up by the oppressor;
it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage
in a direct-action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those
who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For
years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every
Negro with a piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always
meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished
jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” (From
Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr., April 16, 1963.)
There have been many revolutions and many revolutionaries.
There always seems to come a time when the oppressed simply refuse to put
up with their injustice any longer. Such a point was reached by Rosa
Parks on a day she was simply tired. She had been asked to move to
the back of the bus on other occasions and on other occasions she had begrudgingly
complied. But on this day she was just tired and not in a mood to
tolerate such injustice. Rosa Parks stayed put and an ensuing bus
boycott lasted almost a full year.
Rosa Parks upset the status quo and the status quo
fought back with vicious police dogs, tear gas, fire hoses, bombings and
shootings. People died. People lost their homes. People
lost their jobs. To many people it felt like the established ways
of civil society were coming undone. There was a desire on the part
of many people to try to slow things down and work things out. There
was a feeling that this wasn’t the right time for change. Not too
many of the people who felt that way were black.
Last week, more than 30 years after the Montgomery
bus boycott, Rosa Parks was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
Bestowing this honor on Ms. Parks was an acknowledgement that not only
was she right, but that the decades of struggle and civil unrest that followed
her simple protest, were, in hindsight, worth while. Even the privileged
white majority had come to appreciate the benefits of the civil rights
movement.
What about your revolution? What is the nature
of your oppression? What have you been long-suffering? What
form does your oppression take? Taking a stand always invites a violent
backlash, -- you should be prepared for that -- but if you change you will
set other changes in motion. Once you decide on a change nothing
else around you can stay the same. It will be disruptive. It
may not be appreciated. There may be a strong reaction directed at
returning things to normal, it may even come from your own gut, but you’ve
got to be prepared for that.
I went to see my mother in California last week.
She is being treated with chemotherapy for breast cancer. I knew
it would be an emotionally intense time together, but maybe I was thinking
I could skate over thin ice without actually falling in. It’s weird.
I wanted to go, but I’m not sure I really wanted to get into it, you know?
I wanted to be there, but then again, I didn’t.
The God I know doesn’t let me off easy. If
God sees me skating on thin ice, the God I know breaks things up beneath
my feet. “Just want to let you know how much I really appreciate
that God.” Why can’t God ever let me off easy? Why can’t things,
like my life in particular, be less complicated and more easy going?
I find God to be a Rosa Parks on my bus and some days I really wish God
wouldn’t be so stubborn headed.
So it seems that you have a choice. You can
be Jeremiah and speak the word that is given you to speak in order that
justice might be done, or you can have some other Jeremiah speak the word
to you. You can take up your cross and be Jesus to your neighbor
or you can have some neighbor be Jesus to you. Either you die to
your sins and rise with Christ, or you live to yourself and die in your
sins. For those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose
their life for Christ’s sake will find it.
The greatest revolution has already been fought.
Jesus sat down on the Devil’s bus. The Devil retaliated for all he
was worth and hung every sin that could ever be committed on Jesus' dying
body. Dead and buried, the Devil thought he’d won, but it just goes
to show you how wrong the Devil can be. Sin and death can’t overpower
the steadfast love of God. We know that Christ, being raised from
the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives,
he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. motivated
people to get involved in the struggle for civil rights. People committed
themselves to that cause and gave of themselves, sweat, blood and tears,
contributing time, money and their bodies to that cause of freedom.
God is involved a cause, too. And God’s cause is your salvation.
God will sit down on your bus. God will walk beside you. God
will bear you up against every enemy that seeks to dominate you.
You are God’s cause and God will overcome.
Amen
Copyright © 1999 Lord of Love Lutheran Church
All Rights Reserved
No part of this publication may be copied without the
express written permission of Lord of Love Lutheran Church, 10405 Fort
Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68134.
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