The Person In Front, the Person Behind
The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
July 10, 2016
The Person In Front, the Person Behind
Ephesians
4:1-6
I
therefore, the prisoner in the Lord,
beg
you to lead a life worthy of the calling
to
which you have been called,
with
all humility and gentleness,
with
patience,
bearing
with one another in love,
making
every effort to maintain
the
unity of the Spirit
in
the bond of peace.
There
is one body and one Spirit,
just
as you were called to
the
one hope of your calling,
one
Lord,
one
faith,
one
baptism,
one
God and Father of all,
who
is above all and through all and in all.
*********************************************
The man spoke
somberly, solemnly,
passionately:
“This is a time of shame and sorrow. …
this mindless menace of violence in America
which again stains our land
and every one of our lives.
“It is not the concern of any one race.
The victims of the violence are black and white,
rich and poor,
young and old,
famous and unknown.
“The victims are, most important of all,
human beings
whom other human beings loved and needed.
“No one –
no matter where he lives or what he does –
can be certain who will suffer
from some senseless act of bloodshed.
And yet it goes on and on.
Why…Why.”
These words, so moving,
are so expressive of our feelings
as we witness violence yet again,
more senseless violence,
gunfire,
blood,
death.
These words, so sad,
so mournful, so grief-laden,
were spoken two generations ago,
spoken by Robert F. Kennedy
following the assassination of the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
They are words spoken 48 years ago,
and yet they sound as if they’d been spoken
just yesterday,
reflecting a cycle of violence unabated,
unchanged;
a cycle of hatred,
fear,
ignorance,
…death.
The apostle Paul’s words to the Ephesians
and to us
seem almost absurd in the situation:
how can we be expected to live a life of
patience, humility, and peace
when we seem to live in a world of
anger, fear, and hostility,
a world where we all want
to retreat to our silos,
protecting ourselves and our families
behind walls, bunkers, and barriers?
“[Bear]
with one another in love,
making
every effort
to
maintain the unity of the Spirit
in
the bond of peace.”??
Is Paul serious?
How can he expect us to live in unity
when the very act of mourning,
of grieving separates us:
those who mourn the black men
killed by the white men;
those who mourn the white men
killed by the black man.
But Paul tells us, that’s just the point:
we should be united in our grief,
all of us together
mourning the death of the black men
killed by the white men,
and the white men killed by the black man,
each of them a victim of violence,
ignorance, hatred,
and especially fear.
Kennedy said in his speech,
what we have in common,
what unifies us
is fear;
what we have in common,
what unifies us
is a desire to retreat from each other;
what we have in common,
what unifies us
is an impulse to meet disagreement with force,
the force of words,
physical threats,
guns.
This is not the unity Paul calls us to live
in the name of Jesus Christ.
Paul’s words to us are not naïve,
not some dreamy, gauzy sentiment.
Paul himself lived in a world
filled with violence, fear,
racism, bigotry, and hatred.
Paul faced angry people, angry mobs
numerous times.
He was beaten numerous times
for speaking up, speaking out.
Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ
led to his being beaten savagely,
viciously;
on at least one occasion we read
that he was beaten so severely
that he was left for dead.
(Acts 14:19)
Beaten by mobs hopped up on a heady brew
of fear and ignorance,
yet, as the author of Acts so tellingly reveals,
“Most of the people did not
even know
why they were there.”
(Acts 19:32)
Ignorance and fear are the tools
of the demagogue;
They always have been, and always will be.
Take a somber walk through the Holocaust Museum
and you cannot help but be struck by how easily
we humans accept lies for truth,
lies that separate us, divide us,
turn us from one another in fear,
turn us from the person in front,
the person behind.
Bear
with one another in love,
making
every effort to maintain
the
unity of the Spirit
in
the bond of peace—
Paul is resolute,
unapologetic.
We are to work for unity,
work for reconciliation,
work for peace,
within the church
and in the world around us.
The newest addition to our Book of Confessions,
the Confession of Belhar,
is a confession calling us to unity,
calling us to be united in spirit and love.
Belhar is a confessional statement
that came out of apartheid in South Africa,
whites and blacks living in conflict,
hatred, for centuries,
until both whites and black finally realized that
there was a different road to walk,
a road they could walk together in peace.
The Confession says so simply:
“We believe that unity is…both
a gift and
an obligation for the church of Jesus Christ;
that through the working of God’s Spirit
it is a binding force,
yet simultaneously a reality
which must be earnestly pursued and sought;
one which the people of God
must continually be built up to attain.”
The Confession goes on:
“We believe that this unity
must become visible
so that the world may believe
that separation,
enmity, and hatred
between people and groups is sin …
and that this unity of the people of God
must be manifested and be active
in a variety of ways: …
that we experience,
practice and pursue community with one another.”
And there is the answer to the question
burning in all of us:
what are we to do,
in the face of an endless cycle of violence,
what is God calling us to do?
We are to make unity visible,
manifest, active
leaving no doubt what we believe
as followers of Jesus Christ:
that enmity and hatred
between ALL people and groups
is sin.
Here is how Robert Kennedy put it:
“perhaps [we can] remember –
even if only for a time –
that those who live with us
are our brothers [and sisters],
that they share with us the same
short movement of life,
that they seek - as we do –
nothing but the chance to live out their lives
in purpose and happiness, …
Surely this bond of common faith,
this bond of common goal,
can begin to teach us something.”
As the community of Presbyterians
gathered in Portland last week
for the General Assembly
completed their work,
they adopted a resolution
that included these words:
“We affirm the God-given dignity and worth
of every human being,
and renew our commitment
to ‘welcome one another,
as Christ has welcomed [us],
for the glory of God.
[We] celebrate the diversity of those
called by God into the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.)
…[and we pray] that all Presbyterians,
empowered by God’s grace,
work to cultivate a renewed spirit of
partnership,
to live as one community,
moving forward in mission and ministry
together in faith, hope,
love,
joy, and peace.”
We listen once more to the apostle,
who teaches us:
“we
must grow up in every way into him
who
is the head, into Christ,
from
whom the whole body,
joined
and knit together by every ligament
with
which it is equipped,
as
each part is working properly,
promotes
the body’s growth
in
building itself up in love.
(Ephesians 4:15-16)
We hear Paul’s words
and we know that they are
the Word of the Lord.
AMEN
Robert Kennedy's April 5, 1968 speech
can be found at:
posted by Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson @ 11:00 AM
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