This is the message I delivered to a joint worship service of North Park United Methodist Congregation, Ecclesia of Christ Church, and United Hebrew Congregation, Sunday, January 16, 2022.
Good morning to all of you. It
is awesome to be with you and to see so many faces.
As we gather let me first
say to you that I have fretted over my words today. I said to Pastor Freeman,
“who am I to speak at such a gathering, to offer words of hope and celebration.
And he said, why not you?” Know that I am humbled and honored to share a
message for today.
Yesterday, we celebrated
what would have been Dr. King’s 93rd birthday and the Jewish community
celebrated and observed Shabbat, a day when we gather in our synagogues for
prayer. Our Torah reading was from the book of Exodus, in particular, Parashat
Beshalach which contains the jubilant crossing of the red sea, followed by the
strike of Amalek against the Israelites walking in the desert. Yesterday,
in the midst of our celebration of Shabbat, a modern-day Amalek arose in the
form of a man who decided to walk into a synagogue and take hostage the rabbi
and the few that were there praying and running their Livestream. Once word got
out, much of the Jewish community spent Shabbat in fear, watching the news,
praying, hoping, and waiting to hear what would be of the hostages in the
synagogue. After 10 long hours, the crisis came to an end and the hostages
walked out of their synagogue. For us, in the Jewish community, when we
heard they were ok, it was like you could feel and hear the collective sigh of
relief.
I share this with you
because yesterday what I heard from the Jewish community, from members of my
congregation was, “not again. When will this stop? When will we be able to feel
safe in our synagogue buildings?” We were afraid, we felt alone and of
course, we were sick with worry, hoping and praying for a peaceful ending to
that event. And yet I know that we aren’t alone because others know this same
fear, we need only remember the victims of Mother Emanuel, the Wisconsin Sikh
Temple, and the Christchurch Mosque.
Dr. King taught "We are
caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of
destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
Powerful words that I
believe sit at the heart of Dr. King’s work toward making his dream a reality -
We are linked to each other and tied together in a single garment of destiny
because we, we are all human beings created in God’s image.
Yes, I don’t know what it
means to be Christian, to be an African American woman or man but I do know
what it means, what it feels like to be othered, to be held to a different
standard, to feel scared, to feel alone, and to feel that someone doesn’t see
my humanity. And no one, no one should have to feel any of those things.
And even when I don’t exactly know your experience and you don’t know mine,
because we are human beings created in God’s image, we should be able to hold
each other up, walk side by side and work together to ensure that our humanity
is seen, to ensure that each of us never has to feel othered, held to different
standards, feel scared, or feel alone.
Dr. King's dream and work
toward justice and equality wasn't about politics, bills that need to be
passed, and people thinking the same way, yes, laws and bills are needed to
ensure and uphold people’s rights, but the only way to get to justice and
equality is for people to see each other as human beings. For people to
look at another in the eyes and see each other’s humanity, to see each other’s
holiness, and to recognize that ultimately, we are the same because we are all
created in God’s image.
Last night when the sunset
and Shabbat came to an end. We didn’t yet know the outcome of the hostages in
the synagogue in Texas, and still, we sat, filled with hope and of course with
prayer. And as I thought about this upcoming week, along with all the
things I was feeling, words from this new week’s Torah portion came to mind. Words
that I think Dr. King would have spoken. Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, said to
Moses, “The task is too heavy, you can’t do it alone. Let them share the burden
with you.”
Justice, peace, equality,
throwing off the bonds of racism, of antisemitism, of the many ills and hatreds
that affect our county and our world, the work to do that, can't be done by one
person alone. It has to be a collective. We have to work for each other and with each
other.
If you heard the Friday
evening conversation between myself, Pastor Freeman, and Pastor Bouie-Sledge
then you heard Pastor Freeman share the metaphor of my little car. Each person
in the car has a different perspective and that perspective can change,
certainly, as you talk while riding in the car together, and even more so when
you change your seat. Each person shares a truth that they see, and
someone else in the car at the same time, might miss seeing or experiencing
that same thing, but it still happened, it still exists. To take that metaphor
further, living in the world together is like being in a really, really large
car. Your experience is yours, it is your truth, as is my experience and my
truth. Neither of us is wrong. What we have to figure out, what we have to work
together to do, is to sit with one another, to listen to one another, and to
figure out how we raise each other up. How we, together, work to create a
world, where each of us knows justice, equality, and true freedom.
As Dr. King further taught,
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I
ought to be until you are what you ought to be.”
We have to help each other
be what we ought to be, equal, free, just, holy human beings - and this task is
heavy, you can’t do it alone, and I can’t do it alone. We have to share
the burden and we must continue to make Dr. King’s dream a reality, such that
one day soon children will not be judged by the color of their skin or by their
religion but by the content of their character, a dream when children of all
races and religions will be able to join hands with one another as sisters and
brothers, and a dream when one day - NO ONE will fear entering their sacred
house of worship to study or to pray.
Keyn Yehi Ratzon - May it be
so!
