Such a Time as This

Last Saturday, we were horrified at the events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia. This sermon is a response to the hate-inspired violence there.

There are often times in our lives when we just have to do what needs to be done. During those times, we have to drop everything and take care of business! Fortunately, most of those times don’t involve anything that’s really important. This summer, for example, Fred planted 52 tomato plants in our side yard. We put them in late, so they aren’t bearing yet. But lots of little tomatoes are setting on; and when they ripen – and they will ripen all at the same time; tomatoes have a habit of doing that – then we will both need to drop everything else and deal with all those tomatoes. We’ll have to eat them, freeze them, can them, or give them away. If we don’t, they will rot on the vine and be wasted. Now, if we don’t use them, no harm done (except that next winter, I will wish that I had canned some of them). But there are other situations that are much more serious than lots of ripening tomatoes. Esther was in one of those situations (Esther 4:1-17). Not only her own life, but the existence of the entire Jewish community was threatened by the king’s edict. She faced a terrible choice: approach the king without being summoned, and risk being put to death; or die with the rest of the Jewish community. In the end, her courage saved her own life and the lives of all her fellow Jews.

Now, we’re not in a situation like that of Esther. But other people are. On Saturday, hundreds of white nationalists and neo-Nazis gathered at a park in Charlottesville, Virginia to proclaim their hate for anyone who is not a white, Christian male. They shouted threats of violence against people who they claim are “replacing them” – Jews, Muslims, people of color, and even women. They carried clubs, pepper spray, and guns. It was an organized demonstration in the name of hate. If there was ever a time for Christians to do what must be done, it is right now. This is such a time. You may ask what exactly we can do. How can we combat the hate and the anger that seems to be boiling all around us? The answer isn’t new. In fact, it’s as old as the gospel itself. What do we do? We love. That’s easy, isn’t it? Oh, no, my friends. Loving is the hardest thing that we can do if we do it the way that Jesus intended. These days, “love” can be a very wimpy emotion. We have made it into a Hallmark card, complete with hearts, flowers, and four-line poems. But that’s not love, that’s sentimentality! The love that Jesus preached had very little to do with hearts and flowers. Jesus’ kind of love involved hanging around with people that no respectable person would associate with, accusing the religious types of being a bunch of hypocrites, and dying on a cross. That kind of love isn’t wimpy; it’s the strongest power in the universe! That kind of love is what led Esther to risk death by going unsummoned to the king. And that kind of love stands with all the people who are threatened by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan. That kind of love gives people the courage to confront a mob of alt-right protesters who are out for blood. That kind of love stands firm when those protesters start to yell, “You won’t replace us! Jews won’t replace us!” and it doesn’t run away even when clubs and pepper spray and guns appear.

You have all heard about Saturday’s violence in Charlottesville; but I wonder how many of you have heard about what happened there on Friday night? A torch-bearing mob – some of the same folks who showed up on Saturday – surrounded a church where a group of clergy were gathered in prayer. For a terrifying period of time, the clergy inside were afraid that the mob was going to break in and attack them. How do I know? I followed the tweets of some of the clergy who were in that church. But those clergy – the ones who were threatened and terrified on Friday – came back on Saturday to face the mob again on behalf of the folks who were threatened. That, friends, is the kind of love that Jesus preached. That’s the kind of love that we need to keep preaching, too. And the hardest thing about that love is that we have to love the protesters, too. We can’t only love the people that they hate. Our love has to embrace everybody. Somehow, we have to find a way to love the white supremacists who threaten our very way of life in this country, a way of life that is founded on accepting people who are different than we are. And I’m honestly not sure how we do that. I can’t do it by feeling any affection for them; their actions offend and repulse me. Their actions are the very opposite of what Jesus tells me to do. In my eyes, they are what evil looks like in human form. Maybe, in the end, the only way that I can love them is to pray for them.

Queen Esther went to the King of Persia to rescue her people from impending slaughter. We can’t go to any earthly ruler to fix this situation. There simply isn’t anyone with both the power and the wisdom to solve the complicated problem of race relations and the aftermath of a civil war so divisive that it still sends shock waves through our country. We must go to a heavenly King, instead. We must pray… and pray… and pray some more. We must pray that the hate that fills so many hearts will be replaced with tolerance, if not with love. We must pray that the violence against our Jewish brothers and sisters, our Muslim brothers and sisters, and our black brothers and sisters will end, and end quickly! But we should also pray that God will help us to be part of the courageous love that is so necessary right now. We may not be world leaders, but we can influence the people who are around us; and in the end, that’s all God expects us to do. We can speak out against this evil wherever we find it, and speak out loudly! The Broadway musical Ragtime is a powerful statement about diversity and tolerance set in the early years of the 20^th century. Near its end, the black man Coalhouse sings a deeply moving song that responds to the prejudice that killed his wife and ruined his life. The lyrics say, in part, “Proclaim it from your pulpit, in your classroom, with your pen. Teach every child to raise his voice; and then, my brothers, then will justice be demanded by ten million righteous men! Make them hear you!” We need to make them hear us in such a time as this.

One of my favorite quotes isn’t from the Bible; it’s from anthropologist Margaret Mead. She once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” We Christians are a small group of people these days. But we are both thoughtful and committed; and although we may be small, we are mighty. We love and we pray; and those are the most powerful tools in the universe! God is calling us to use them right now. Who knows, maybe God put us in this place for just such a time as this. Change the world? Maybe not. But then again… miracles still happen.