Philippians 2:1-8
The Hard Work of Unity
James Sledge July
12, 2020
Recently
I was discussing our sermon series on the Confession of Belhar with Diane. I
was wondering whether we should have a fourth installment or stop at three. Two
of the primary themes from Belhar, reconciliation and justice, would get
covered fairly thoroughly in the first three sermons. That left only the theme
of unity.
I
suspect I grimaced a little at the thought of preaching about unity. I think I
said something to Diane along the lines of, “I don’t know. I hate to do
something trite.” The phrase, “Can’t we all just get along?” popped into my
head. Unity often gets spoken of as something that should be simple if only we
all just worked together, if we all just realized that we’re basically the
same, if we all just loved one another. Unity isn’t all that hard, such words
seem to say. We just have to do this.
We just have to do that.
Diane
first suggested of a sermon series on Belhar in the wake of George Floyd’s
murder. Because Belhar addressed apartheid in South Africa, it seemed
particularly well suited to the most profound and persistent source of division
in our country, that of race.
Despite
the intransience of racism in America, we still want to believe we could be rid
of it if only we just did this or just did that. Despite decade after
decade where corporate boardrooms remain largely white, where “better”
neighborhoods and “better” schools are largely white, where everything from
wealth to education to job opportunities to pay to home ownership to medical
care and more are skewed in favor of whites, we want to believe that there is
just one more little thing we need to do, and it will go away.
Perhaps
if we just didn’t talk about racism.
In a 2005, 60 Minutes interview, actor Morgan Freeman famously said to Mike
Wallace, “Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man. And
I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.” A popular version of this
labels those who point out examples of racism as the ones making matters worse.
Another
proposal for ending racial divisions sounds quite noble, even borrowing from
Dr. King’s famous speech, “I have a dream that my four children will one day
live in a nation where they will not be judged
by the color of their skin, but
by the content of their character.”
So we just need to become color blind.
Don’t see race and racism goes away.
Liberal
whites sometimes employ a version of this in attempts not to be racist. But in
her book, White Fragility, Robin
DiAngelo writes, “I believe that white progressives cause the most daily damage
to people of color. I define a white progressive as any white person who thinks
he or she is not racist, or is less racist, or in the “choir,” or already “gets
it.” White progressives can be the most difficult for people of color because,
to the degree that we think we have arrived, we will put our energy into making
sure that others see us as having arrived. None of our energy will go into what
we need to be doing for the rest of our lives: engaging in ongoing
self-awareness, continuing education, relationship building, and actual
antiracist practice. White progressives do indeed uphold and perpetrate racism,
but our defensiveness and certitude make it virtually impossible to explain to
us how we do so.”[1]
It turns out that there is no “If we just did this,” that will heal the
divisions around race and bring us to some sort of unity. Healing racial
divisions will happen only with hard work and at great cost. Perhaps, in that
sense, George Floyd is a martyr in the cause of unity.
_______________________________________________________________
The
Apostle Paul spoke a great deal about unity. He said that in our baptisms, all
of us are made one in Christ. In a letter to the Galatian church Paul writes, “There
is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer
male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Now obviously
Paul does not mean he can no longer tell males and females apart, that he no
longer sees differences between peoples. Rather something has overcome those
differences, and there is no easy, “If we just
did this” involved. The unity Paul says that we all have in baptism comes
at great cost.
Paul
lays out some of that cost in our reading this morning describing Jesus as one “who,
though
he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be
exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human
likeness. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient
to the point of death – even death on a cross.”
Because
we are joined to Christ, made one with him, Paul says that we are to be
like-minded, having the same love as him. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or
conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of
you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.
Right
here, I think Paul gives us our marching orders when it comes to a unity that
bridges the racial divide in our land. It will require humility that listens
and does not become defensive when our white privilege, our conscious and
unconscious participation in and investment in systems of white supremacy get
named. It will require that we quit clinging to the advantages we have,
disregarding our own interests and looking to the interests of those who
continue to suffer because of systemic racism.
In other words, it will require ditching
the competitive, grab-all-you-can for yourself ways of our culture for the way
of Jesus who proclaims good news to the poor, the weak, and outcast, who gives
food to the hungry, who declares God’s favor on peacemakers, the merciful, and
all who are broken and mourn; the way of Jesus that calls us to love and pray
for others, even for enemies, just as Jesus loved and prayed for all, including
his enemies, even to the point of death.
_______________________________________________________________
Luke’s
gospel tells us that on the night of Jesus’ arrest, right after the Last
Supper, the disciples got into an argument about who would be remembered as the
greatest. But Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over
them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors.” Not so
different from our world. “But not so with you; rather the greatest
among you must become like the youngest,
and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the
table or the one who serves? Is it not
the one at the table? But I am among you
as one who serves.”
Those of us who are white and who claim to
follow Jesus may well be facing a moment when, to paraphrase the musical, Hamilton, history has its eyes on us. We
have an opportunity to get up from the table that we have so often monopolized,
to become like the youngest and listen to the wisdom of Black brothers and
sisters without insisting they see things as we do. We have an opportunity to
become those who serve, who live into the way of Jesus, showing the gospel hope
that all truly can become one in Christ Jesus.
And
so, let us take to heart the words Paul speaks to the Philippian church in verses
just after our reading this morning, Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and
to work for (God's) good pleasure. Amen to that. Let us all join
together in the hard, difficult, and costly work of unity, something that is surely
pleasing to God.
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