Was Jesus Racist?
In this morning’s gospel reading we hear a
conversation which has to leave us asking “was Jesus racist?” He had taken a
side trip into modern day Lebanon, perhaps to get a break from the constant
demands of his ministry. But even on vacation he couldn’t get completely away;
a local woman came to see him asking for help for her daughter. Yet Jesus
doesn’t say yes right away. He actually tries to dismiss her. Why? Not because
it’s his week off, not because he’s tired or it’s the Sabbath, but because
she’s not a Jew.
Is that racist or is that racist?
If the story stopped there we’d be in deep trouble.
But it doesn’t. The Syro-Phoenician woman – we don’t know her name, only her
nationality - argues back. "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's
crumbs." And Jesus
gets it. Jesus is changed. He was a man of his culture who had been brought up
to believe that the Jewish people were God’s people, and that’s how he saw his
ministry. This is quite an extraordinary story, especially when we read it with
John’s gospel in the back of our minds. John portrays Jesus as knowing
everything from the beginning of his ministry. But Mark has a different view.
This is a moment of transformation for Jesus. Suddenly he gets it. It’s not
just about the Jews anymore. And he is changed.
Today we are pausing,
together with churches around the country to reflect on our own racism. Most of
us in this church are white, most of us in Los Osos are white. We are brought
up as people of privilege, the dominant culture in this area. Yet we live
increasingly in a multi-colored world where people have a huge variety of
different heritages. And we don’t privilege all of them in the same way. Historically
in this country people of African descent have been used as slaves and have
held lower positions in society. Today, most of our fieldworkers and many of
our cleaning and maintenance staff are Latino or Filipino. We rely on their
labor for our food and our comfort. Yet we pay them very little so that we can
have cheap food and cheap convenience, and we rarely think about what they and
their families need to flourish.
But the second reading
we heard, the one from James, challenges us to think again about our cultural tendency
to treat people of different social status differently. If we treat people who
have smart clothes, big cars and good educations with more care and deference
than we do people who are homeless or those who are living on the edge financially
then we are judging with, James says, “evil thoughts”. I like to think that we have a broad range of
people in this congregation; people of differing economic status, differing
backgrounds and differing experience. It gives us an opportunity to practice
what James is saying. It gives those of us who have been blessed with education
and wealth the opportunity to leave our privilege behind and welcome others as
equal children of God.
Yet we really don’t
have much of a racial mix. I reckon we have 3% Latino, and 3% Asian. Many of that
6% are not among our regular Sunday attenders. Why not? Why don’t we reflect
the ethnic makeup of our neighborhood which is 14% Latino and 5% Asian?
Probably because they wouldn’t feel comfortable here or because they don’t
think the church is relevant to them – the same reason we don’t have more young
adults. If we are to be truly inclusive then we will need to change some of the
ways we do things. Radical hospitality means more than just saying, “y’all
come”. It means being willing to give voice and power to those who are often marginalized
and being willing to do things differently in order to fully embrace them.
I am sure that, like
me, you have been saddened by the recent events in Ferguson, in Charleston, and
other places where black people have been killed, and by retaliation killings
in places like New York and Houston. It has become very apparent that our
society continues to view those who have a different skin color as people who
can be treated with less respect, and this leads to violence and tragic loss of
life. I am saddened by the remarks of the Prime Minister of Hungary who said “we
do not want a large number of Muslim people in our country,” and even more ashamed
of Donald Trump’s statements that people from Mexico are bringing drugs and
crime and “some of them are rapists,” and “likewise tremendous infectious
disease is pouring across the border.”[1]
People believe this stuff.
Racism is alive and
well in America. Racism is alive and well across the planet, and Los Osos is no
exception. Today we are asked to repent for our part in maintaining the myth
that some of us are better than others and that skin color or religion or
sexual orientation or disability or whatever difference there might be, is an
excuse for us to marginalize and scapegoat certain people. Today we are asked
to see things differently. Like Jesus, we are asked to realize that God’s love
is freely available to ALL regardless of where they were born or what they have
done or what they believe or the way they dress.
Our baptismal vows call
us to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself,”
and to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity
of every human being.” In order to live into our vows we cannot stand by and
watch while our society systematically stigmatizes those who are black or those
whose English is not so good.
It is our duty as
citizens of this country to make our voices heard; to stand for fair voting
laws which empower every citizen to participate in our civic life; to call for
prison reform; to call for resources to be made available to help those who are
stuck in poverty and in the cycle of deprivation to find new ways of living.
Pope Francis has said, “We cannot presume to heal our relationship with nature
and the environment without healing all fundamental human relationships.”[2]
We cannot stand idly by while racism is supported, and our politicians can make
points by denigrating those whom God sees as lovely.
It is our calling to
change our own hearts and the hearts of those around us by treating everyone we
meet as the beloved children of God that they really are, and by going out of
our way to make connections with those whom we are not naturally drawn to, or those
whose skin color, ideas, or way of life are very different from our own. If we
are really honest with ourselves, each one of us carries within us some degree
of prejudice. It may not be obvious, but we are culturally conditioned to be
drawn to those who are like us and prejudiced against those who are not.
The gospel message is
that there is no-one who is not like us. There is no-one who is not beloved of
God. In his meeting with the Syro-Phoenician woman, Jesus got it. Jesus was
changed. May we also be changed to fully live out the truth of God’s
unconditional love.
Amen.
posted by Caroline Hall at
10:01 AM
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