Writing on the Wall

 

Earlier this month, I drove down to Montgomery for a wedding. I had been planning the trip for months, having reserved the whole day on my calendar for the festivities. A few days before the trip, however, I learned that a colleague had died and that his funeral would be at a church outside of Birmingham earlier that same day. A quick calculation confirmed that I could easily attend both, and I considered it a gift from God that I was able to.

 

I pulled off of the interstate at the exit where the first church was located, and I realized that I still had some time to kill, so I drove up to a gas station to use the restroom and buy a soda to go with the lunch that I had packed for myself. As I walked toward the men's restroom, I passed by a young black man, who had finished a few seconds before I arrived. I closed the door and locked it behind me, grateful for the privacy of modern conveniences. Then, I saw it. Scratched into the wall by the commode were the words "I Hate Niggers." (In writing this article, I choose not to abbreviate the racial slur because I do not want to sanitize something that I believe is a stain on our culture that we must confront in its totality.) Elsewhere on the wall were other smaller though no less significant proclamations of racism ----repeated use of that word as well as swastikas and references to the KKK. Some were written with permanent black marker. Others were carved into the plastic or Formica surfaces. Some had been scratched out. A few counter-arguments about rednecks and trailer trash were offered. It was a stunning canvass of hate.

 

I was amazed. "This is the twenty-first century," I said to myself. "What is going on here? Aren't we past all of this?" Then I remembered the teenager who was exiting the restroom when I arrived. What did he think? What does it mean to see these symbols of hate carved freshly into the bathroom walls? What thoughts and emotions rise up in a young black man's heart when he sees the vestiges of persecution, fear, torture, and death inscribed onto a modern day facility? For a man that young, Jim Crow would have been primarily a history passed down to him by his grandparents, but the hatred of that segregationist past is a life he still encounters today. Because of my race, I have the luxury and privilege of pretending that those words and symbols are legacies of a bygone era, but those bathroom walls remind me that, for many, those legacies are still real and active.

 

History shows us that these struggles are nothing new. In the first century, the apostle Paul urged the Christian community to move beyond racial prejudice and the division that it was creating in the church: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). Paul likely borrowed those words from an early confessional statement associated with Christian baptism, using them to undergird his theological argument that, in Jesus, distinctions of ethnicity, class, and gender all fall away. His opponents believed that the way of Jesus was exclusively Jewish and that Gentile Christians must first convert to Judaism before becoming Jesus' disciples, but Paul would have none of it. As he understood it, the way of Jesus Christ was threatened by those who saw meaning in those differences, and he wrote furiously against those who attempted to maintain any sort of ethnic segregation.

 

In the centuries since Paul wrote those words, we have lost sight of the necessity of racial equality in the kingdom of God. By the time the four gospel accounts were written, anti-Semitic sentiments, which had grown within the Christian community in the latter part of the first century, were enshrined as holy writ. Since then, theologians and churchmen like Martin Luther and George Whitefield ----both heroes of the church ----used the bible to justify segregation and slavery. "Sure," we might say to ourselves, "those people and their ideologies are locked in the past ----products of a time when religion reflected the society at large," but what are we the church doing to ensure that the world looks more like the kingdom of God?

 

The persistence of racism in our society is a direct challenge to the authority of God and God's reign on the earth. Whether we are carving the words into the bathroom stalls or shrugging our shoulders when we see them, we are perpetuating a culture where differences in race and class and gender are concrete. Those 'isms cannot be present in the kingdom of God. They are the very powers of this world that stand in opposition to the way of Jesus. Thus, we are condemned by our silence. Even by doing nothing, we are standing in the way of God's kingdom.

 

In Jesus Christ there is no longer black or white. In Jesus Christ there is no longer rich or poor. In Jesus Christ there is no longer male or female. Paul did not write those words to describe a kingdom that exists in the distant future ----an eschatological place and time where there will be no such distinctions. Instead, he wrote of the present-day reign of Christ that has existed on earth since Jesus set us free from the bondage of sin. Whenever we are silent in the face of such racism, we refasten those chains onto ourselves as well as those who are the targets of our culture's racism.

 

I am thankful that I rarely hear someone say the word "nigger" anymore. I would like to think that that points to an improvement in race relations since my childhood, but I suspect that is because such racist words and thoughts are now reserved for the privacy of a bathroom stall or a putting green or a dinner table ----places and times where a member of the clergy is not present. But you don't have to be a priest to stand up for God's kingdom. Start with something as simple as telling your friends that you do not care for jokes like that. Consider asking those in your social circle whether by "those people" they mean "African Americans" or "Latinos" and then ask them what race has to do with whatever issue they are talking about. Stop pretending that everything is just fine simply because our country elected a black President or because our church elected a black Presiding Bishop. Pay attention to the writing on the bathroom walls. Acknowledge that this world is still a long way from the kingdom of God. Look for things you can do or say to bring all of us closer to God's reign, and then do them and say them.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Evan D. Garner

 

 

Our Spring Wednesday-Night Dinners (May 4-18) are a time of relaxed and informal fellowship. Please join us for these gatherings.   May 4: Shared Eucharist & Potluck (5:30pm) in the Large Pavilion at Rhodes Ferry Park We will share Eucharist with area Episcopal churches followed by a potluck supper. Bring a dish to share. Dishware and beverages (tea/lemonade/water) will be provided.

The Inquirers' Class will meet Sunday, May 1,    with lunch immediately following the 10:30am service.     If you are interested in Confirmation, please contact Evan   at evan@stjohnsdecatur.org or 256-353-9615.

Ascension Day Service of Holy Eucharist in the Chapel Thursday, May 5 5:15pm Followed by Theology on Tap at The Brick

Pick-up Your Blue Box and add your pocket change daily in thanksgiving for your many blessings. We will collect these on May 8 during each service. United Thank Offering (UTO) is a ministry of the Episcopal Church for the mission of the whole church. UTO monies support mission and ministry throughout the Episcopal Church.

St. John's will provide and serve lunch for the CCC Soup Kitchen on Thursday, May 19   If y ou can volunteer on May 19 for any amount of time between 8:30am and 1:00pm, please contact Kathy Slaton 256-476-1657 or 256-974-1974 ( kdwslaton@gmail.com ) You may also volunteer by donating: Vegetables for Salad - broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, celery, peppers, green onions, tomatoes, yellow squash, etc. A large bottle of Ranch dressing (need 4) Dessert - anything sweet (home made or store bought)

The loose offerings on the first Sunday of each month and all checks so designated will be shared between the Clergy Discretionary Accounts. Please note on your check "Discretionary Accounts."

 

 

God Willing and the People Consenting The Right Reverend John McKee Sloan Bishop of the Diocese of Alabama   Will Ordain   Pamela Kathryn Payne   To the Sacred Order of Deacons On Saturday, May 21, 2016   At Eleven O'clock in the Morning   St. John 's Episcopal Church 202 Gordon Drive South East Decatur, Alabama 35601   Your Prayers and Presence are Requested Reception to Follow

 
St. John's Faithfulness
For the 16th Week Ending April 21, 2016

2016 Total Pledge & Plate Budget	Received This Week	Received to Date
$761,907	$7,081	$332,150

 

 

Happy   Birthday!     Rita Baker 04/28  Ezra Lokken 04/28  Virginia McLeod 04/29 Keith Rogers 04/29 Shawn Borden 05/01 Emily Marsh 05/01  Cortner Crumlish 05/04 Squee Bailey 05/07 John Cromeans 05/07 Lulu Frederick 05/07 Pat Mathis 05/08 Erin Lokken 05/09  Carolyn Price 05/10 Mila Riehl 05/10 Foster Bailey 05/11 Linda Dunlap 05/11 Richard Rickart 05/11 Debra Bryant 05/12  Blaine Irwin 05/12 Sean Anderson 05/14 Peter Jenke 05/14 Brian Stewart 05/14 Andy Kelly 05/15 Ella Signa 05/15 Will Parish 05/16 Sydney Sneed 05/16  Eileen Sunstrom 05/16

George Faison 05/17 Claire Leavitt 05/18 Jackie Briscoe 05/20 Gaylon Dodson 05/20 Eliza Fite 05/20 Amy Griffith 05/22  Ashton DeMent 05/23 Earl Pettey 05/23 Janet Varner 05/23 Lucy McCain 05/25 Evan Garner 05/26 William Greenleaf 05/26 Spenser Smith05/26 Emily Thornton 05/26 Cathy Tubb 05/26 Brooke Higdon 05/27 Al Hornsby 05/28 Elizabeth McInnis 05/30 Andy Mathis 05/31

Happy   Anniversary!     Melissa & Sonny Craig 04/26 Carolyn & Frank Price 05/07 Charlynn & Al Hornsby 05/08 Pat & Steve Price 05/14 Martha & Larry Freeman 05/15 Gayle & David Metcalf 05/20  Sandy & Russell Barr 05/22 Karen & Ralph Smith 05/24 Laura & Gus Phillips 05/30 Mary Grace & Justin Marshall 05/31 If your celebration is not listed, please forgive us. Call or email the church office with any updates.