Continuing The Difficult Conversation
2/21/2021 Jeremiah 26:1-11 Luke 9:18-26
If someone were to ask you how much is 2 plus 2 what would be your answer be. What if they told you 2 plus 2 is 5 and then asked you how much it would be, what would be your answer? What if they told you 2 plus 2 is 5 and put a gun to your leg and said how much is 2 plus 2 now, what would your answer be?
What if they shot you in the leg, and said tell me the truth, how much is 2 plus 2? How many of you will answer 5? How many of you will answer 4? How many of you will be afraid to answer?
Pastor Kellie started a conversation with us on talking about difficult conversations. She talked about the difficult conversation on race relationships as blacks and whites look at the past with the goal of moving to the future.
But there is a difficult conversation that we as Blacks need to have with each other with the goal of moving ahead to the future. We have to be honest about the truth of where we have come from, what we have done, and what we are doing.
We are living at a time in which truth is no longer truth. 2 plus 2 can be 5 or whatever an individual believes it to be. You have your 4 and that’s truth for you, but I have my 6 and that’s truth for me.
Cancel culture will not allow me to try and prove to you that no, it’s really 4. If I do, that proves I am hateful, demeaning, and intentionally hurting you. I need to be silenced to protect you to hold the view that it is 6.
The prophet Jeremiah lived at a time when His people had rejected God’s law. Poor people were being oppressed and sold into slavery. When their 7 year period was up, the people would not set them free even after they had paid off their debts.
Adultery and sexual immorality was happening all over the place. The people would talk about God, but they lived as though God did not exist, and even encouraged each other to try out new gods.
Who was to say that the idol, Baal, or the goddess, Ashtoreth, were not just as much a true as the God of Israel. The people were even sacrificing their children to a god called Molech by throwing them into fires. Who was to say there was anything wrong with killing their own children?
God told, Jeremiah to go and tell the people,” if you do not repent and turn from your evil ways, I am going to destroy this temple, this city, and send you into exile. The people were under the false belief, that as long as the temple was in Jerusalem, God was okay with whatever else they did.
Jeremiah spoke the truth concerning the past, the present and the future, but cancel culture existed back then and it’s interesting how they seized on one part of the message, but not the other. They didn’t want to hear that part about they needed to change and repent, so they seized on a part that they could get the people excited and riled up about.
Cancel Culture which was made up of the religious and political leaders of that day got the people angry when they proclaimed, “how dare Jeremiah claim that God will destroy this temple. His voice must be silenced.
Some insisted that Jeremiah should be killed.” What was Jeremiah really guilty of on that day. He was guilty of telling people the truth about what God had told him to tell to the people. We live at a time when simply telling the truth can get you into trouble.
The word Negro originally came from the Spanish word meaning black. Slaves from Africa became known as Negroes because they were black. That became Nigriss to talk negatively about slaves and to pick up the white southern accent. That became Niggers to put down black people.
That has become nigga’s to get around using niggers in our music, but it means the same thing. Let me ask you something, how many of you have ever heard anybody in your family call someone a nigger? How many of you laughed at it. How many of you have ever called or referred to some black people as niggas?
When we talk about niggers, isn’t what we mean, people who are of a lesser intelligence. People who are not on the same social level as we are. People who don’t have the same culture or behavior patterns as we have. People that can’t be trusted to say or do the right thing, the right way.
Who was it that decided that from now on we must use the N_____word instead of the full word? Why did they decide that nigga was alright in music and even give grammy’s for songs that use the word, but want to destroy people’s careers over using the same word without a music beat behind it.
I’m just as offended by the word with the music as I am without the music.
Would somebody tell the language police, that we have another word that we use to describe black people whom we consider beneath us and that’s ghetto. You behave so ghetto is the 21st century equivalent of your behave like a bunch of N-words.
We are even sophisticated in how we hide the word. If we go to the local mechanic, who can’t afford all the computer diagnostic equipment that our cars need today, and the mechanic can’t fix it completely what do we do.
Now we went there trying to save some money and to cut corners. We will go out and tell others, “I hate to say this, but it was one of our people that ripped me off and didn’t fix the car right.”
“One of our people”, and “one of us” are our new code signals for the N-word. We like to talk about racism with white people, but what about the classism we have toward each other.
Suppose you had to choose between 20 new families with their kids coming to us from Beachwood or 20 new families with their kids coming to us from the projects down near Central and E. 55th Street here in Cleveland which would you prefer to have?
Now for some of us it would not matter. But some of us are thinking of the pros and the cons of each. Do we really want to have those Bae Bae Kids running all over the church. (that’s another code for those little you know what I mean.)
Then it brings us to Jesus. What would Jesus do in this situation? What would be his choice for us. I think Jesus would say, “who do you say I am.” Because what we believe about Jesus is going to determine how we see other people and what is it that we see first.
The whole purpose in Jesus coming was that we might know God. To know God is to beginning to see things from God’s perspective and to see people as God sees them.
I can’t tell you what God saw, when God looked at the slavery that went on in this country. I am sure God’s heart was broken at the injustices that were done. For some reason, God allowed his own chosen people to be slaves in Egypt for 430 years before he brought them out of it. God was building a great nation out of the furnace of slavery in the Bible.
When we talk about the suffering of the slaves, some people want to talk about the reparations that are owed supposedly by white people. Reparations is the idea that people should be paid for the suffering they caused.
When a country loses a war, the winning country can make the losing country pay for the damages that were done. Especially if the losing country started the war.
Some people want to introduce bills to have reparations paid to the Black Community today for the sufferings of the slaves of yesterday. But I want to talk about the reparations that we as black people owe to our ancestors who were slaves.
Don’t we owe them something for what they endured in order for us to be where we are today as a group. Shouldn’t we make sure their passing life on to us count for something.
What do owe to the slaves who were beaten and killed for trying to learn how to read or write or to dare teach another slave how to do it. Slaves who had a dream of an education that could lead to greater freedom
What’s wrong with us that our dropout rates are anything less than 95% in any high school. Can you imagine a slave being offered the chance to get a high school diploma or college degree and the slave responding, “I need to just take some time for myself.”
Isn’t part of our reparations to make that dream a reality by passing the baton of education and graduation. Why is it that so many of us are more willing to show up at our child’s basketball game, than we are their parents/ teacher’s conference. Why are we more likely to fill their heads with dreams of being in the NBA or NFL that we are in just good solid paying jobs or their own business.
What do we think of the slave who would gladly go from one slave woman one to another in order to produce as many newborn slaves in as many women as possible for the master? We would despise such a slave.
Yet why do we accept this behavior as normal today with our sons having kids by six or seven different women or our daughters having five kids by five different fathers. Poverty is a form of slavery in and of itself and that is where many of these kids are headed.
To even suggest the idea of putting sexual restraints on anyone is considered judgmental in our society. If you don’t want kids, have vasectomies or get your tubes tied.
What do we owe the slaves who were married and wanted to be faithful in their vows. Yet they knew at anytime, the woman or the man could be forced into sexual relationships with others for the master’s pleasure.
Don’t we owe them their dream of having descendants who are faithful to each other in their marriage because they have the freedom to do so.
What do we owe the slaves who had children together and desperately wanted to be together as a family, but were not allowed to marry and had to watch their children be sold off never to be seen again.
Don’t we owe them their dream of building a family with a husband and a wife who are committed to being there for each other and for their children for their lives.
What do we owe the single slave woman who was used as just a pleasure tool at the lust of both slave owners and maybe even other male slaves. She had a dream of being a woman who respected herself and was respected by others.
Shouldn’t we have the same dream as single women, and since we have the freedom shouldn’t we make it so. Can’t we realize we don’t have to be someone’s lover to be someone in God and in life. Hold your head high and demand respect for yourself.
What do we owe the slaves both the one who was beaten for some reason we consider trifling and for the slave who was ordered to use the whip to beat the other slave almost to the point of death, knowing that if he didn’t the job well enough, he too might be subject to a beating.
They both had a dream, that no longer would someone be able to cause them to inflict such pain on another human being in such a demeaning way
Don’t we owe them their dream to the point of stop killing one another in our community. How much pain should we be allowed to inflict on each other because we felt disrespected?
What do we owe the slave who died after spending day after day picking cotton, yet had the mind of a doctor, an engineer, a scientist or a mathematician and never was given the opportunity to do anything else.
With our freedom, don’t we owe them their dream, by developing our minds and getting the best education we can with as many degrees as we can get.
What would the slaves think if they could see us wasting our time and our lives with video games in one hand, and a joint or bottle of alcohol in the other talking about we waiting for the right job to come along. Or institutional racism is holding us back.
What do we owe the slaves, who were beaten because they dared to huddle together in order to worship the Jesus they knew as the liberator and the one who gave them purpose and dignity in life. They knew going to church on their own could result in a severe beating.
The dreamed of being able to gather for worship in which they could, sing, preach, teach, and live their lives completely for God. Don’t we owe them their dream of passing on the faith to the next generation of kids coming behind us, by making sure our churches are strong and healthy with our presence and our service.
Because of their suffering, they risked their lives to have church. Because of our comfort and financial success, we think we have outgrown the need for church.
Many a slave died with hope looking for a better tomorrow, because they had faith in a God who was in control of the future. We look back and we want to weep at their suffering.
I think if they looked at many of us, there would be tears of how we have wasted so many opportunities and inflicted so much pain and suffering on ourselves.
But I thank God for everyone of you who are paying your reparations because you know you didn’t get to where you are by yourself. You’re paying reparations because you’re making something of yourself and reaching back to help others.
You’re paying your reparations because you’re in church and you’re trying to share faith with a lost and disillusioned generation who are being told, they no longer need Jesus, when you can get high on drugs and feel good on sex. Jesus is a lot more than a good feeling.
I remember one of the most meaningful moments in my life occurred when Pastor Toby and I were invited to do a stewardship conference in Mississippi. The conference was held at first Presbyterian Church. That church still had a balcony where the slaves were allowed to sit. I went and sat in that balcony to see things from their viewpoint.
The next day Pastor Toby and I were to lead the service. In that moment, when Pastor Toby and I were in the pulpit leading worship, I looked to the balcony. In my spirit I could see the faces of the slaves in those pews.
I said on the inside, we made it, yall, from the balcony to leading the service. Our lives were the reparations that meant the most to those slaves who had worshipped in that church.
The slaves wanted more than just freedom. They wanted life. Jesus said, I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. But there is a price to pay to know the life that Jesus intended for us to have.
Because if there is no change in the selfishness in the human heart, as much as we may hate to admit it, there is little difference between our hearts today and the hearts of the slave masters years ago. We can still dehumanize each other and shoot each other down as though our lives mean nothing.
That is why Jesus gives the same challenge to every would be disciple. He said, 3 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
Taking up our cross means denying our selfish nature in order to truly love God and to love people. To love God is to obey God, and that’s where we have a problem. We are not so sure that we can have a good time if we choose to love God.
People don’t leave church because somebody proved beyond a doubt that Jesus did not rise from the dead and the gospel is a lie. People leave the church because they want to do something God said don’t do.
But Jesus had a warning for that group. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
Somehow, gaining the world has meant more than forfeiting our soul. We think we can outgrow the need for Jesus Christ in our lives, because we are beyond that.
Why do so many of our stars, our athletes, our entertainers, and our celebrities, keep coming back to tell us, that when it looked like they had it all, their lives actually were being wracked with alcohol, drug addiction and things we would rather not know about.
Our temporary comforts and conveniences are lying to us about the reality that we are still sinners in need of a Savior. One day Jesus is going to come back or one day we are going to die. It’s another one of those difficult conversations we must have.
We grow up, get educated, and become ashamed of Jesus. He just isn’t politically correct in our new circles. But he does give us this warning.
26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
On that great day, won’t it be amazing to see those who lived their lives as slaves, being welcomed by Jesus, because they were not ashamed, and we who seemed to have it all, find ourselves with nothing and being ashamed of the lies we chose to believe.
