Interrupted! [Sermon]

In 2014, the Black Lives Matter movement was sparked by the police killings of 18 year old Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri and 43 year old Eric Garner in Staten Island New York.

In April 2015, 25 year olf Freddie Gray died of a severed spine after being transported in a police van, likely bounced around as he was not strapped in.

On June 26 2015, in Obergefell v. Hodges, the United States Supreme Court guaranteed the fundamental right to same-sex marriage nationwide under the Fourteenth Amendment.

On Sunday, June 28 2015, I was preaching in a church where the pastor, a friend of mine, was on vacation. And the Gospel reading for that Sunday was Luke 8:40-56, the parallel to today’s Gospel.

That sermon was about the tension between centuries that Black people had been awaiting equal rights, and the few decades in which gay and Lesbian people had won the right to marry.

Let’s go to God in prayer.

God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.

Amen.

Progress is not steady.

We can forget that fact, but life reminds us.

On January 22, 1973, in Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court held that women in the United States had a fundamental right to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction and striking down Texas’s abortion ban as unconstitutional.

On June 29 1992, in Casey v. Planned Parenthood, the United States Supreme Court restricted the right to have an abortion.

And on June 24, 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the United States Supreme Court held that abortion was not a protected right under the Constitution, reversing its previous decisions.

On February 3, 1870, the Iowa legislature became the 28th state to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment to United States Constitution, with the ratification certified on March 30.

The Fifteenth Amendment reads

Section 1

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude–

Section 2

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Even with this amendment, many states put undue burdens on people of color to reduce their participation in elections.

On August 6 1965, the 89th Congress of the United States passed the Voting Rights Act, providing the enforcement of section 2 of the fifteenth amendment.

In a series of decisions, the United States Supreme Court restricted or struck down many sections of the Voting Rights Act, decreasing the representation of people of color.

The current administration is fighting against DEI – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – policies in government, private business, educational institutions, and not-for-profit institutions.

Rainbow flags, and other rainbows, are restricted in several states.

It feels like we’re sliding backward.

We might feel like the people who were grieving the death of the girl in verse 23:

Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion

Matthew 9:23, NRSVue

But we should not lose heart. As we read in the next two verses:

24 he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him.

25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.

Matthew 9:24-25, NRSVue

But the girl was the daughter of a Jewish leader. What about those of us who don’t have that kind of status?

We may think of the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. She would be ritually unclean. Anyone who touched her, or anyone she touched, would become ritually unclean. And she touched the fringe of Jesus’ cloak.

There are churches that ban people because they are considered sinners, unclean.

But Jesus tells this woman:

“Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.”

Matthew 9:22b, NRSVue

Progress may be slow.

Progress may be interrupted.

Progress may even recede.

But progress continues.

In an 1853 sermon, Unitarian Minister and abolitionist Theodore Parker said

“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice”.

This idea was popularized by Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. on March 31 1968 in a sermon entitled “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” where he said

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

But why does it bend toward justice?

It is because people who believe in justice exert pressure on it to bend.

If you have ever bent a piece of metal, you may have noticed that in most cases the metal springs back a little when you let go.

Likewise, complacency allows the moral arc of the universe to spring back.

People of good heart must push and pull on the arc to bend it toward justice. It won’t bend on its own.

So my challenge for us this week is to think about ways we can exert pressure on the moral arc and move it toward justice for all people.

We can do it by speaking to others.

We can do it by speaking to leaders.

We can do it by voting.

We can do it in other ways as well.

Progress may be interrupted. But we can move it along.

Amen.

Let’s sing NCH 461 Let Us Hope when Hope Seems Hopeless

* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue

* Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.

#justice #Progress #setbacks