Erl Purnell Sermon

c20Pentecost 17 ~ September 23, 2007 ~ A sermon preached by The Rev’d Erl G. Purnell at Old St. Andrew’s Church, Bloomfield, CT

Amos 8.4-12; Psalm 138; 1 Timothy 2.1-8; Luke 16.1-13

Ten years ago today, I preached my very first sermon at OSA. Some of you were here that day in 1997. Since then, I’ve preached at Sunday services, weddings, and funerals at least 600 times. As I mentioned last week, I’ve occasionally spoken from the center, but mostly I speak from the lectern.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I preach several different styles of sermons. For example, sometimes I stick strictly to the lessons, often explicating what the Gospel means to me. I try to challenge you to look at things with fresh eyes, like suggesting that Jesus was a lousy shepherd and that God learned about compassion from Moses. I often want you to go home with questions that cause you to think and feel and wonder.

Other times, I put the Biblical stories into some historical perspective, or explain my exegesis of the day’s readings. I have spoken about current national and international issues—the war in Bosnia, 9/11, and Darfur to name three. I have taught about the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, and our liturgy and why we do what we do. Occasionally, I speak about issues that are before the parish, like the enhancements, stewardship and pledging, our history, or even the way we are treating each other.

I’ve told stories about Maine and made jokes. I’ve exhorted you to see the parish as the Body of Christ, to stand on the principles of goodness and fairness, and to act always in the name of Christ. I have spoken about the need for us to be grateful, generous, open minded, considerate, and passionate. I’ve invited you to get involved and to be helpful. I have focused on peace—world peace, personal peace, and that peace of God that passes all understanding.

In all of this preaching, I repeat four themes: compassion, forgiveness, justice, and love. These are at the center of my understanding of the Jesus story—who Jesus was and is, and how he pointed us toward the God he knew and loved. These encapsulate who we are called to BE—to BE compassion; to BE forgiveness; to BE justice; to BE love.

In these ten years, you’ve loved me and we’ve had fun. But, you’ve also gotten mad at me and we’ve had to work through some difficult challenges. I just want you to know, however, that in all of this, I love you dearly and I love Old St. Andrew’s Church. We still have much to do together as the Body of Christ in these parts. Thank you again and some more for the opportunity and privilege to serve as Rector here.

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What’s on my mind today doesn’t particularly fit with the lessons. Yet, it needs to be talked about. It’s Racism, racism as reflected in the incident initially involving six black boys and a white student in Jena, Louisiana. And, as important as that example is, the issue of latent and blatant racism in these United States is a legacy from our past that must never be ignored … until it is expunged from this land.

What happened in Jena has been widely reported. Last December, six black high school teenagers beat up a white student. What they did was wrong. Beating up other kids is unacceptable and the boys should be held accountable for their actions. The local DA at first indicted the six for attempted murder, a charge later reduced to second-degree aggravated battery and conspiracy. The rhetorical question is, if six white boys had done the same thing, would they have been charged the same way?

The incident may have been inspired because earlier in the school year, three white students hung three hangman’s nooses from a tree on school grounds. Those kids, however, were only suspended from school. They faced no criminal charges, not even charges of perpetrating a hate crime.

You can find all the details of what’s happened in Jena on the internet. Suffice it to say, the black community rallied thousands who went to Jena on Thursday to protest the harsh treatment of the six Jena high school students. The local DA admonishes everybody concerned, not to forget the victim. His point is well taken, yet, justice must serve both victim and the accused.

The outcome of the Jena 6 case won’t be known for a while. Only one boy, football star Mychal Bell, whose family could not pay the $90,000 bail, was tried and convicted of the battery and conspiracy charges, but those charges were recently vacated by the courts. Bell, however, remains in jail.

The Jena 6 characterize how easily judicial double-standards can be enacted. On the other hand, the Jena 6 situation also reflects the on-going necessity to stand up against injustice where ever its venomous head sticks out. Another high-profile case occurred at Duke University last year. Three young lacrosse team members—they happened to be white—were falsely accused of raping a woman at a fraternity party. As we know, the allegations were false and the DA in Durham, North Carolina resigned in disgrace. The race card cuts both ways, doesn’t it?

Racism and racial profiling—be it toward African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Middle Easterners, or now Muslims—is a sickness long in need of eradication. It’s an anathema to the civil liberties we cherish.

Going one step further, the parasite of racism lives just barely beneath the surface in many Americans. It squirts out in unguarded moments with a comment here or a slur there at a cocktail party or church, a curse in traffic, or an immediate fear in the Wal-Mart parking lot when a young black man walks by.

One of the few places where “the other Americans” (to use Michael Harrington’s 1960s book title) are welcome is in the military. In that institution those good people have a chance to climb the ladder of success in rank and pay. The only catch is, they have to dodge bullets and bombs along the way. A disproportionate number of so-called “minority citizens” fight our wars, wars which never see the faces of our most prominent politicians or their children. Sadly, our all volunteer Army not-so-subtly perpetuates racism in America.

And then there is the return home for people of color who have served so bravely. For those who are whole, getting benefits and support from the local community, let alone the military, has too often proven difficult and arbitrary. Now, consider those who return with body parts missing and eyes that have seen unspeakable horrors or brains that have been shaken so violently that the person they control is debilitated.

Most profoundly, racism is alive and well in the fiber of the most important aspects of American life—jobs, health care, housing, and education. The absence of adequate job training and opportunity, universal health care, affordable housing, and education is unconscionable in 2007.

As the temperature around our up-coming Presidential election rises, I pray that you will consider all of this—that is, racism in America—when you listen to the candidates. There will be no single person of any political flavor whose magic wand will correct all of these ills. Yet, along with questions about the morality and wisdom of the war in Iraq, these justice issues define our country as great or less than great. The candidate who speaks most clearly and honestly about them deserves to lead us. Dare we aspire, then, as Martin and Robert and so many others did forty years ago, to name this evil and rid it for ever from its hiding places and its public places.

Amen.