Acts 8: 26-40

Confronting Racism as a Church

January 31. 2010

Rev. Susan Cartmell

The Congregational Church of Needham

                This month our worship theme has been "A Conversation on Race". We have talked about racism in the Bible and racism in our country. We have discussed what individuals can do to combat racism and today we will talk about how the church confronts racism. During this month we have been blessed to have someone from our church community act as a scholar in residence. Dr. Ravi Perry, a political science professor at Clark University and expert on African American studies has preached and also led a popular class on the Illusion of Race, using the PBS film by that title. For many of us, this class has transformed our views about race in America. Last week at the end of the class Ravi challenged us to talk about what we might do to combat racism personally. That was a hard question to answer. 

                It is hard to confront racism. Many of us have been surprised at how easy it is to make racist assumptions.  In my sermon last week I mentioned that I was so affected by a television show called The Wire, a hard-hitting series set in Baltimore slums. The Wire introduced me to drug dealers and made me care about them. I got interested in their lives, and committed to their success. As you might imagine, I grew particularly fond of the children in the series. In one season, the Wire takes you into the urban schools and features the struggles of an eighth grade teacher. There you meet children whose parents are in jail, or homeless, or on drugs. You see kids in middle school who are already caring for younger siblings.  After that season I decided to be a school volunteer in the Boston City Schools. I signed up with Partner for Education, took their Saturday training last October and was ready to begin. Sadly, I had to admit I could not make the commitment they needed with my schedule.  So I had to put that idea on hold.

Last week after our racism class concluded one of you came to me and asked earnestly, "What can one person do to confront racism?" Individually, we are limited. Even with the best of intentions I have to admit I don't have time to tutor kids in the Boston schools. Left to our own individual resources, racism is overwhelming.  But today's Bible story was not about individuals figuring things out alone. It was about the church. It was a story about God's vision for our churches. In those first churches 2000 years ago Paul tells us everyone was welcome - slave and free, Greeks and Romans, men and women. All the people took meals together.  People of every race and background mingled in new ways. Africans got baptized. I don't imagine that was easy. Paul had to write all those letters because people were quarreling and gossiping, and jockeying for power and even excluding one another at times.  But churches are the places where we find the strength to face challenges that are hard to face alone.

                Let us take a look at today's story and see what it might be telling us about how our churche can confront racism today. In the first place, we need to take risks. When Philip went down the road from Jerusalem to Gaza he was taking a risk. It was new territory. He was going down the wilderness road, and he did not have a map. He did not know the African prince he was supposed to meet, and he exposed himself to danger extending himself to a stranger.  

                If we want to confront racism, we will have to take risks. As a community we may have to reach outside of our comfort zone. The good news is that many of you have already taken some risks to fight racism. We offered an anti-racism class and 40 people took it. Many of you have told me that the class which met for retreats and study changed your view of yourself and your view of the world we live in. You see things differently.

 Still more of you have taken big risks to go to Guatemala. Brenda Metzler, a leader of the February delegation has written " I think that the Guatemala Project is one way we fight racism as a church." She points out that we fight racial bias in ourselves. We confront our own expectations about an indigenous people. We also strive to combat internalized racism in the villagers. All the work we do to  support education at the high school and college level,  teaches the people of Santa Maria Tzeja that their potential is not limited by skin color. It has been the willingness of dozens of church members to take great personal risks in traveling to this remote village that has built this Guatemala Ministry Team and sustained it.

We are not the only church to have a partner community in Latin America. Many churches have shared similar eye-opening experiences  that have helped communities of faith confront racism as a church. Churches have the opportunity to create bridges in our racially divided world.  It will require that we take some risks.

                In the second place, in order to confront racism the church has to take action. We can talk about racism for a whole month or even every Sunday, but it won't mean much unless we do something about racism. The way that we find the strength to take action is knowing that we are not alone.  We are part of this community that shares the same convictions about fighting racism.

Several years ago our church was considering a partnership with the Bethel AME Zion church in Dorchester.  Martha Lamb and Heike and I met with their ministers and we tried to imagine what such a partnership could look like. After they heard about this possibility one morning Mark and Carol Oberle took their family to worship at the Sunday services at the Bethel AME Zion Church in Dorchester.  Another weekend David and Lynn Rhoads went.  Though the partnership we sought never materialized, I loved the spirit in this church where people often seek ways to get off the dime. That spirit will serve us well as we try to make real change. It may mean that some ideas don't work, but every concrete step we take is important. Our willingness to take action may help us if we eventually pursue a partnership at some time in the future.  

Many of you have adopted children who are not white. I daresay that you think about racism in new ways everyday because of that decision. You have opened your hearts to the struggles against bigotry because you are no longer neutral. One of our families is supporting two young girls from the Sudan and helping them get further education. Racism is not an academic issue for many people in this church. As families, you have made a commitment to young people who need you and now they have changed your lives forever.  As a church we support you. We strive to ensure that this community is a place where every child is welcomed. Today, I lift you up today because in quiet steady ways you are changing the world one child at a time. We all appreciate what you are doing.    

You may remember that in the summer of 2005 I was in Chicago for my son's wedding. That weekend, I attended Sunday worship in Trinity UCC. At a packed service of about 2000 people, Peggy Sarah and I were the only white people we could see. When we came to the part in the service where they asked visitors to stand, I joked to Peggy, "Do you think anyone has spotted us?" But two hours later when the service was over people were shaking hands like they knew us. Before the trip when we mentioned we plan to attend Trinity, some people were nervous for us. But we felt confident because we were going to a church which was part of the United Church of Christ. We shared a faith. That faith empowers us to take action.

That brings me to the last point. The story says to take faith. Philip was not just hanging around looking for a new person to baptize. An angel told him to go. A messenger from God directed Philip to find this Ethiopian who had been worshipping in the temple. All the evidence in the Bible leads us to believe that God wants the human family to recognize it common bonds.

 From the time that Sarah banished her African slave to the wilderness, people have been persecuting people who were different. For generations people have made racist decisions.  But I believe that God sent Jesus to usher in a new day. God sent Jesus to bind up the brokenness in our world. Christ started to bridge the racial divide when God led the Wise Men to the manger. These strangers from India and Persia were sent by God. Then, when the church of Jesus Christ was founded, God made sure that one of its first founding members was from Ethiopia. That was part of God's plan.  When we reach out to other people, across the racial divide, like Philip did, I believe God blesses our endeavor. God strengthens us. God sends angels to guide us.

  Goodness knows we will need God's help. Our world is riddled with racism. As we learn more about Haiti we see a land laid waste by racism. Haiti was a slave colony run by the Spanish and the French. Their cruelty in Haiti was legion. All the native people were killed. African slaves were imported to work the sugar, cotton and tobacco plantations.  Slaves in Haiti were worked so hard none lived long enough to have children.   One third of the slave trade went to Haiti.

 But the slaves in Haiti rebelled and beat off three foreign armies to win independence , and create a new nation in  1804. They asked America for support but President Thomas Jefferson was afraid our slaves would revolt. He refused to recognize Haiti's independence. Coup followed coup for one hundred years. This history has set the stage for brutal dictatorships. The bleak economy of this island made sweat shops where people sew all day for pennies look like a good option. Racism is so often a convenient way to take economic advantage of people who are different.

                When you read the history of Haiti you see that people of faith will need to do more than send money. We will need to confront the racism that has mired Haiti's history. We will need to confront layers of injustice. I don't know what we need to do but I know the bible can guide us. When Philip approached the Ethiopian, he asked, "How Can I Help? Philip listened with an open heart. When the Ethiopian asked to be baptized, Philip offered him more than mercy. He offered him new life.  As our church confronts racism in our world we will be working with God to bring new life - to ourselves and to others.