Racism

Mark 7:24-37

September 6, 2015

Before we even get to know a person, we make a lot of

assumptions about them based on lots of outward cues.

How they look, what they’re wearing,

how they talk, who they talk with.

And we often will make decisions

about people based on these superficial cues.

We call this prejudice or bias

especially when it’s based on racial differences.

In his letter, James is telling his congregation

not to act on their prejudices 

about class in church.

Apparently, people in Christian churches were treating

those people that looked rich better than

those that looked poor.

They would give a good 

seat to a rich person

and tell a poor person 

that they could stand in the back,

or sit on the floor.

They were using their bias about people to

dictate who they welcomed and who they didn’t.
Most churches today could learn from this letter.

Even Jesus in the gospel today acted on his bias.

A woman comes to Jesus and asks

him to heal her daughter who is sick.

Jesus looks at the visual cues and

maybe hears her voice and her way of dress

and identifies her as a Syrophonecian woman,

that means she was a gentile, a non-Jewish person.

Even though she needed help,

Jesus tells her that he was only sent to Jewish people not to gentiles.

He is telling her that he won’t help her.

Jesus makes a decision based on his bias.

At least that’s what he does at first.

  

We make decisions all the time based on

our prejudices whether or not we know it or admit it.

Everyone does it. Most of us do it quite often.

Now some people act on their prejudices,

some people justify them,

some people are even proud of their prejudices,

but most of us work to overcome

our prejudices and not act on them.

But still sometimes we do it without thinking,

or realizing that we’re doing it.

We put people in categories based on

our perceptions about them

and where we see them fitting in our

preconceived notions.

A lot of our preconceived notions in this country.

are based on race, the color of people’s skin, and people’s culture.

Some prejudices are based on sexuality,

some on class, some just on superficial appearances,

like clothing or beards or tattoos or what car a person drives.

Some of these decisions that we make

based on these judgments are individual.

Like which checker we go to in a grocery store,

or who we talk to at a party,

who we become friends with,

Whether we lock our car doors at an intersection,

whether we cross to the other side of the street.

Sometimes these prejudices actually turn into

groups organized around their prejudices

like the KKK, or the Westboro Baptist church

or anti-immigration groups

which the Southern Poverty law center say

have popped up at alarming rates in the last 20 years.

  

But sometimes decisions which are based on prejudices and bias

are not solely individual choices.

Sometimes these pre-conceived notions

about whole groups of people become

part of the decisions that are made by

companies, organizations, cities, neighborhoods,

governments, even churches.

This is systemic bias, or racism, and it effects

really important things in people’s lives:

things like who can get a bank loan,

who will be able to purchase a house in a certain neighborhood

who can vote and how easily

who is most likely be pulled over for traffic violations

and who will be arrested and incarcerated for a crime.

These are not just individual decisions

made by one person and their prejudice

these are systems that have developed over time

because of many people’s prejudice.

Even people who don’t hold a particular prejudice

can end up carrying out these decisions.

Some of us benefit unknowingly by these systems

and some of us are penalized by them.

Most often, people who are part of the

group that are in power benefit,

and the people who are part of the other groups

are penalized.

And whether we act on our personal

prejudices or not, We are still part of these systems of judgment.

In this country, we are all part of systems of racism.

Racism is a combination power, privilege and prejudice

All forms of systematized prejudice and racism effect us

in one way or another.

But the people who belong to the group in power

have the option not to notice it when it happens.

That is part of the privilege of white people in this country:

we don’t have to notice.

But there is a lot not to notice.

In this country, racism has caused the destruction

of most native American cultures,

It has allowed the enslavement of Africans for hundreds of years

and the segregation of African Americans,

It caused the holocaust of millions of Jewish people in Europe.

It allows for an disproportional number of people of color

to be incarcerated in this country.

And recently this summer, and very specifically,

the racism that is still prevalent and acceptable in this country,

caused a mentally disturbed young man

to go into regular bible study at a black church in South Carolina

and open-fire killing eight people.

If we are going to continue to turn away from racism,

our head is just going to twist off.

We may not have made any of these choices,

but we are part of their system, all of us: black, white, brown. All of us.

Racism is sometimes about individual choice,

but it’s also a kind of machinery, it forces people to choose

what they say they wouldn’t choose, it pushes us to act in ways that we

may not consciously choose to under other circumstances.

And in my eyes, that is the definition of evil.

That is the devil at work in our society, eating it away.

Dividing God’s creation and people.

And the devil depends on good people turning their heads away.

Bishop Eaton, the presiding bishop of the ELCA

has asked that the churches of the ELCA

join other churches around America

this weekend to confess and repent

and pray and to commit ourselves to end racism.

The ELCA sees racism as a sin.

Both the individual prejudice that we can control in ourselves

and the systemic racism that we seem to have less control over.

The systemic problems seem so huge

that the task to end it seems impossible.

Those are the kind of things that we need pray for the power of God.

But, as Christians, Jesus has also given us tools

and guidance to deal with the issue of prejudice, bias, and racism.

First, Jesus himself confronted

the systems of this world that benefited

the privileged and hurt the oppressed

and vulnerable. He confronted the Pharisees,

the Romans, all systems that rewarded the privileged

and punished the oppressed.

Jesus on the cross in itself is a comment

on the ongoing punishment of the oppressed.

Second, as baptized children of God,

we are all sisters and brothers together.
All of one family, no matter what color or class we are.

We don’t always act like it, but it is an ideal

that the love of Jesus Christ leads us to.

Being one in Christ means that we are specifically called

to talk with, and hear from, listen, come in contact with,

work together with, and love people that we

don’t feel comfortable with.

If our relationship with Jesus is not bringing

us in contact people that we struggle with,

then we’re doing it wrong.

Even when we don’t understand someone’s actions.

We can work to understand their pain.

Seeing Christ in the other with an open heart

helps us to understand, and even to change.

And Jesus, in our Gospel today, is our example for that.

Jesus talked to this Syrophonecian woman

and he initially rejected her plea for help.

Whether he sincerely acting on his own bias,

or he was just voicing the bias of his disciples,

he told her no at first.

But he still listened to her.

He heard her response, her insistence, her cries, her pleading.

He felt compassion for her pain and saw

that it was the same pain he had seen in others.

He really heard her.

And from that he changed the course

of his whole ministry, of our ministry the entire system.

It was opened up to gentiles, non Jewish people,

The whole world.

Listening to people can really make a difference.

And third, one other thing that we see in

today’s gospel story that is not insignificant:

Christ is our healer.

Even when we bring the impossible to Christ,

we can trust that there will be hope, healing, and new life.

Christ can heal this woman’s daughter,

this man’s hearing and speech,

and if we’re honest with ourselves and lay this at Christ’s feet

we can trust that Christ will heal this world’s prejudice and racism.

Jesus is about forgiveness and new life.

God doesn’t keep account of who we were,

it’s all about what we have become.

And there is always time for us to

listen, to open our ears and hearts,

to  understand, and to grow.

Now, let us confess to God.

     Gracious God, we thank you for making one 

human family of all the people of the earth and for creating all the

wonderful diversity of cultures.

But we confess that we have not loved all that you have made.

Our prejudices have separated us, our biases have hurt others

intentionally and unintentionally.

Forgive our sins, known and unknown.
Forgive us when we have been apathetic

in the face of racial intolerance and bigotry,

both overt and subtle, public and private.

Forgive us when we have been

blind to the destruction caused by racial injustice.

Forgive us for the arrogance and hatred that infect our hearts.

From the bondage of racism that denies

the humanity of every human being

and the prejudices within us

that deny the dignity of those who are oppressed,

Lord set us free.

From the bondage of racism

that damages communities,

threatens families, and takes lives.

Christ set us free.

From bondage of racism that causes us to remain silent 

and indifferent in the face of other people’s pain.

That makes us call for a false peace over righteous justice.

Lord set us free.

Heal your people and heal this country from the racism

that has formed it, maligned it, and harmed it,

and has taken us on paths of death and intolerance

Let us pray:

Gracious and forgiving God,

Break down the walls that separate us.

Help us, your people, find unity in our differences.

Help us to become your beloved community.

Empower us to speak for justice and truth

help us to deal with one another without hatred or bitterness,

Help us to work through our struggles and confusion to accomplish your purposes.

As we worship you, knit us into a people -
a seamless garment of many colors.
And may we celebrate our unity, made whole in our diversity.

God, who is rich in mercy,

loves us even when we were dead in sin,

and made us alive together with Christ. 

By grace you have been saved.

In the name of +Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven.

May almighty God strengthen you with power

through the Holy Spirit,

that Christ may live in your hearts through faith.
Amen.