Sermon

INTRODUCTION: Through the years, I’ve had many people mention to me the conflict or concern they had with members of their family over theology. Like you, it’s something that many of us know about from personal experience.

Several years ago, I wrote a book about “speaking in tongues.”[2] Since it included some of my experiences of being reared in the home of Pentecostal Holiness ministers, I had some trepidation about how my parents would respond once they read it.

The book had been out a few weeks when Dad and Mother came up from Waco, Texas to my home in Oklahoma City, for a week’s visit. While I looked forward to seeing them, I did not look forward to discussing something that I knew would be very painful for them and me, especially for my father.

But the entire week passed by, and the book was never mentioned – until the morning they were prepared to leave. Dad asked if we could go into the library to visit, which we did.

For many of us, it’s not until we are adult parents ourselves that we begin to recognize the tremendous sacrifices our parents made for us. That was certainly true in my case. I marvel as I look back at all they gave, when they had so little.

After Dad and I had closed the doors and sat down, he started to talk but was overcome emotionally. Finally, he looked me in the eye, and said, “Son, do you know anyone who loves you more than your father?” I was 38 at the time, and I looked into his 80-year-old eyes, and knew there had never been a time in which I wasn’t fully confident of my father’s undying love for me, one of three sons and three daughters. I answered, “Dad, I’ve never ever doubted your love for me.”

Then, still having difficulty, but finally getting it out, he said, “Wayne, have you ever known of me to lie to you?” I said, “No, Dad. Never!”

Then still looking straight at me, and with no hesitation whatsoever, he asked, “Then why would you write something that rejects every truth your mother and I tried to teach you and to live before you? Why would you believe professors in a seminary more than you believe your own father, who loves you and has tried always to tell you the truth?”

That’s not easy to answer, especially to someone with twice as much life experience, plus he had spent his entire adulthood in religious study. And he’s my father. He loves me and I love him.

I looked him in the eye, and saw the love, and also the pain. I so did not want to hurt him. So I said, “Dad, do you remember my first sermon when I was only 18, on a Sunday night, at Agnew Pentecostal Holiness Church in Oklahoma City? You and mother were there.” He shook his head in assent. I said, “My text was from John 08:32: “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

I said, “Dad, you always taught me to tell the truth. There may be different ways to tell it, but I still am trying, just like you taught me.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. He wanted more, but that was the best I could do. He had another concern as well, which we addressed. He then asked me to pray and then he prayed. It was a moment I still cherish. We walked out to the car where Mother was now waiting. I stood in the driveway and watched until their car was out of sight. I went back into the house and found a place of solitude…to be alone…to be quiet…to search for the truth…the truth that sets us free.

The appeal to that short verse of scripture was not unique to me, by any means. In fact, it’s carved in stone at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in D.C.: “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

We should also note that the verse comes from the Gospel of John which of all the four gospels has the least historical validity to it. It’s doubtful if Jesus ever said these words, nor if they were ever meant to mean anything other than being a particular way of claiming the decisive significance of Jesus. Most certainly, they were not meant to be taken out of context and seen as an appeal for discovering truth for truth’s sake. Nonetheless, whatever their source, our culture has prized them as words worthy of being carved into stone.

And so we meet here today in a community which highly prizes “truth-telling.” So let’s be clear on the truth about Jesus:

His death on the cross was not a cosmic event by which we could be saved from Hell and thereby qualify for Heaven. No, he died because he said too much, too often, that was viewed as dangerous by those in power. The authorities silenced him for that.

For certain, his blood was not spilled as a cosmic sacrifice for the sins of the world. As the first step of the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous makes clear, we are responsible for our own mistakes. We can’t pass them off to someone else, no matter how good or important they may have been at the time.

We are not sinners, nor saints, but human beings who have the responsibility to live our lives in ways that will enable us all to live life to the fullest.

Speaking of, I don’t know how many of you have been following the presidential campaign activities this past week. Some enterprising media types have gone back and found sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Because that is the church to which Senator Barack Obama belongs, then in classic guilt-by-association, Senator Obama has been charged with holding those views as well. (Of course, these are some of the same people who are charging him with being Muslim, also.) But what was it the Rev. Wright said?

The first thing we need to know is that the first half of the motto of the church at which the Rev. Wright pastors, is that they are “unashamedly black.” In contrast, America has almost 400 years of black shame in its history – aimed simply at people whose skin color was different. For certain, nothing in our culture supports black pride, or encourages Blacks to feel proud of their heritage.

It’s not strange then that the same White culture is offended when someone who not only takes pride in being black, also makes it a point of self-understanding.

Some years back, Jackie Hubbard, who is the former City Attorney for Ft. Myers, told me what had happened to her friend who is from Puerto Rico, and married to a wealthy Jewish physician in Ft. Myers. They have two children, whom they decided to enroll at one of the local Christian private schools.

As her friend was filling out the application form, it asked questions of race: White, Hispanic, Black, or Asian? She said she hesitated, couldn’t decide, turned around and walked out in frustration.

Not realizing what I was getting myself into, I said, “Well, she’s Puerto Rican. And her husband is White, so why not put, ‘White?’”

Jackie, who had been a federal prosecutor in the Caribbean for several years, raised her voice slightly and said, “Wayne, you do know that there has been so much intermarriage on the islands that virtually everyone born there has some African heritage. In fact, her grandfather back in Puerto Rico is as black as any one from Africa.”

I should have realized I was out of my depth – especially since Jackie’s Black and I’m White – but I felt there was an obvious point she was missing. So I said, “Well, Jackie, you and I know that this is a racist society, and that White privilege is built into the very fabric of our culture. Why wouldn’t she want her children to have the benefits of those privileges?”

I probably shouldn’t have said that! Her response was stronger and longer than I’m going to relate to you, but in brief it went something like this: “So you would recommend to her that she raise her children to think that just because they can pass for White, that somehow they are better and that they should grow up thinking that they deserve the racist privileges that come with being White? You would tell her to raise her children to be identified with a race that has raped, lynched, and enslaved millions of Africans who were brought to this land in chains?” I recall trying unsuccessfully to close the conversation as quickly as possible!

But again: Rev. White pastors a church where they say they are “unashamedly black.” One of the many gifts of the modern Civil Rights Movement was that it taught us all to recognize that Black is beautiful. Enslaved, raped, lynched, demeaned, and devalued, Black Americans kept dreaming of a day when all of God’s people – White, Black, Brown, Red and Yellow – would join hands in working to realize the American dream that we all women and men – regardless of race – are created equal.

But there’s more. Rev. Wright spoke strongly of what it’s like to be a black man in America trying simply to hail a cab.

Others have confirmed that experience. Dr. Cornel West, one of America’s most distinguished Black writers and scholars, authored a book entitled, Race Matters. In it, he tells of arriving in New York, anxious to get a cab to go to his publisher and sign his very first book contract.

Not having been to Manhattan that much, he began to try and signal a taxi. As you know, if their light on top is on, that means they are available. But as he waved at taxis that supposedly were available, they passed by, stopping for the person past him, or speeding on without stopping. He finally realized their refusal to stop was because of his race, even when it was only a matter of hailing a cab.

Then Rev. Wright moved beyond race to say that America’s atomic bombing of the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were no different than the terrorists’ bombings of 9-11. He added that America invited 9-11 by its unqualified support of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Senator Obama has made a public disclaimer condemning these remarks. (Commenting on that, Dr. Mark Silk, the director of the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, said, “Everyone knows clergy who say wacky things.” I’m not sure the point he’s trying to make!)

But these are not just opinions and ideas: they are addressing the fabric of violence in our society. As most of you know, every president has a Secret Service detail, whose duty is to protect the president from whackos. And when anyone becomes the official nominee of the Democrat or Republican parties, they are “near-presidents,” and qualify for Secret Service protection. But in the Democrat party, no one is yet the nominee. But guess what?

Last May 2007 – almost a year ago – the Secret Service began to protect Senator Obama. Why? Not because they had extra money or personnel, but because there were credible threats against the senator’s life that they had to take seriously. This took place in the 50 states of America, the U.S. of A….which Pastor Wright also called, the “U.S. of KKK-A.”

The point I’m making is this: Truth-telling is no more popular today than it was 2,000 years ago. And Geraldine Ferraro to the contrary, don’t think for a moment that it’s not dangerous to be running for president and be Black. Pastor Wright told the truth, unpopular as it may be.

Jesus was also a “spiritual teacher.” Throughout the gospels, we’re told that he continually withdrew from the crowds and found a place of silence and solace.

When it comes to spiritual practice, there is nothing harder for most of us than doing nothing. Yet, the regular practice of solitude, of doing nothing, is crucial for spiritual growth.

In solitude we choose to be alone. When we are in isolation, we gain perspective on what’s important and what’s not. To be in solitude means that we unhook physically and mentally from all that is around us. We close ourselves off from communicating with others. Remember our basic goal is to do nothing. It’s quiet time and rest for the soul, the psyche.

I don’t in any way mean to minimize the tragedy that has engulfed Governor Eliot Spitzer and family of New York. But think for just a moment: What if Governor Spitzer had engaged in a regular habit of the spiritual practice of silence and solitude: Isn’t there a possibility that he might have thought more about the importance of his wife, his daughters, and his friends…about the public trust he was betraying.

But what I observed from afar about Governor Spitzer is that solitude, whether quiet time, meditation or reflection, were nowhere on his agenda.

But maybe it’s not just Governor Spitzer. Maybe it’s you and I who need to think about some time for solitude…for reflection…for perspective.

[1] A sermon presented on March 16, 2008, as the third in a series of four, followed by the Conversation Café of All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, meeting at the Crestwell School, 1904 Park Meadows, Ft. Myers, FL, between the Rev. Dr. Wayne Robinson, minister.

[2] I Once Spoke in Tongues, by Wayne A. Robinson: Tyndale House, Forum House, Pillar Books, and Spanish Evangelical Fellowship (1975).