Rev. Dr. Bary R. Fleet - Pastor
May 18, 2008 – Trinity Sunday
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
2nd Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20

A Sacred Conversation

It was spring of 1965. As a young college student, I was attending a state-wide conference on integration. At that time it was illegal for there to be an interracial gathering on any white college campus … and most college campuses were white! There was no such law regarding black college campuses … as no legislator ever thought any whites would even think about congregating on a black campus.

So, there I was – with about 20 or so other whites from across the state of Georgia … at Paine College – a historically black, church-related campus.

For housing, several of the local students had offered to share their rooms with those of us who were visiting for the weekend. As it happened, I was assigned to room with a student from my home town. We both grew up in Athens … but went to different high schools … because those were the days of “separate, but equal” schools.

We all knew the separate was true … and we also knew the “equal” was a lie … an unspoken lie! While we had a lot in common, we both felt awkward … we knew there was something not right … and we both knew – though neither of us would admit – that we would not make contact when we got back home. The social mores were too strong.

That night, after a talk by one of the “freedom riders” from Selma, Alabama, I wandered over to the “Canteen” … a glorified snack bar – with vending machines and a juke box. As I was opening my bottle of Coke, and was listening to the music, I was suddenly struck by my surroundings. I was the only white person in a room of about 200 or so African-Americans. The realization was so powerful that I literally couldn’t stay in the room. I felt myself suffocating. I was filled with anxiety.

As I almost ran outside to get a breath of fresh air, I looked up, saw the stars, breathed in the spring air … and was nauseated. For the first time in my life I came close to experiencing what is “normal” for my black peers … I thought to myself, what if all these black college students see me the way most of my white college peers see – and feel about – African-Americans!

We in this country have never really known what it is like to be a minority. We have never really known what it is like to be the minority who lacks equal access to power and opportunity.

There was a lot of reaction to “Affirmative Action” when those laws were passed … because those of us with the power and the position felt threatened …

Certainly there have been lots of changes in our nation in the past forty years in terms of opportunity and the sharing of power … but racism still exists.

Today, many clergy in the United Church of Christ have committed ourselves to starting a sacred conversation on race.

We have a black man who is probably going to be one of the two candidates for President of the United States. We’ve come a long way … but along the way, racism has surfaced again … racism that has been there all along … but simmering just under the surface.

There were lots of headlines about a fellow U.C.C. pastor, Jeremiah Wright … and some of the sound bites from some of his previous sermons. The sound-bites were carefully chosen to stir the racial pot, in my opinion … to create division.

The reality is that almost none of us in the room have any idea what it is like to live as a minority … and we really don’t know how we would think and be if we had spent our lives as second-class citizens …

Today the racial divide has expanded. It is no longer whites vs. African Americans … now the issue has to do with “undocumented workers” … also known as “illegal aliens.” We tend to think of these people as Hispanic … Do you know the one of the largest groups of “undocumented workers” in Boston isn’t Hispanic … but Irish?! Does that bother us equally?

Do we realize that the groups of people who are starving to death by the thousands every day aren’t white … but African, and Indian and Asian? Where is the fairness in that?

There are several points I want to make this morning.
Racism exists … and it exists in us in ways that we aren’t even conscious of … and I challenge us to begin to be honest with ourselves about that.

This is Trinity Sunday, when we recognize God as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer … God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit … three, yet one.

There are several races on this earth, yet we are all one. I was talking with a geneticist this week who said that it is time that we start thinking – not about differences, but – about differences that matter. Skin color shouldn’t be one in terms of equal access to the world’s bounty.
The last point is to remember the Genesis story … with every stage of creation, God called something into being … then stepped back and pronounced it good.

It is time for us to look at all the world’s people … and share God’s perspective … and know that, when it comes to race, there is only one race … the human race … and we ALL belong!

SERMON IN A SACK: A globe. Talk about how God made the earth and everything in it … and God saw that it was all good!