Who Is My Neighbor

Who Is My Neighbor

February 18, 2018 Hosea 4:1-6 Luke 10:26-37

Today’s message is going to be a different kind of a message. I am going to speak like one of the prophets of old. In our Old Testament reading from Hosea, the people of God at this time were pretty much doing what they wanted to do. They thought they were in the midst of some good times. But God saw them as a people who had set aside the word of God and determined for themselves what was right and what was wrong.

God had become old fashion and out of step with the morality of the time. The priest and the prophets who should have been speaking out, were simply going along with the people. God proclaimed, my people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge.

We find ourselves with more knowledge around us than ever before. You can type anything in google and find out more than you want to know about it. You can speak to Siri and she will look it up for you. You have so many news channels you think you have it all. Yet we are all being constantly manipulated by what is the latest thing that is thrown at us. We move from crisis to crisis. This week we suffered through the horrendous tragedy of the high school shooting in Florida. Next week, the media will move us on to something else as though that’s a problem that has been solved.

This is Black History month when we remember a lot of the positive attributes and contributions of Black people. We like to remember Dr. King’s speech, “I Have A Dream” and we always should. Some of us erroneously thought that the election of President Obama had meant the fulfillment of that dream. We forget that in his last speech, Dr. King made reference, “of what would happen to me from the hands of some of our sick white brothers.” He wasn’t talking about a specific person, as much as he was identifying a sickness in the American mentality that does not want to see equality and justice for us all.

The only thing is , God does want to see justice prevail in all societies because all societies are made up of people for whom Jesus Christ died and of people who will one day stand before God to give an account for their lives.

When God called Abraham, it was not to just bless the Jews, God says Genesis 12:3 (NIV2011) 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” The prophet Amos told the people God was sick of their religious festivals, what God wanted was Amos 5:24 (NIV) 24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Our media manipulates what we should think is of the greatest importance by deciding what to continue to throw in our faces. How many of you remember when they talked about Aids and the crisis it was causing in the Black Community? Today it is as though the problem has been solved because it is no longer politically correct to talk about it.

Yet in 2015, 3,379 African Americans died of AIDS. That was 52% of the total AIDS population. In 2016 there were 8000 new diagnosis for African American men from homosexual contact. HIV diagnosis among African American gay and bisexual men age 25 to 34 increased by 30%.

Yet we are told homosexual behavior is a civil right. What other civil right do you know that is leading people to a deadly disease.

I know I will be called a homophobic bigot just for telling you the truth. Meanwhile our young men are being led down a path of destruction under celebrating diversity. The CDC estimated there are 471,500 African Americans living with HIV. That’s 43% of the total of people living with HIV in the US. How can we make up 14% of the population and 43% of the cases.

If you saw what the headlines in the newspapers and on the local news, by its silence, you would think we have solved the problem of crack and cocaine in our community.

In 1986 Congress passed the Anti Drug Abuse act and established mandatory sentences for those convicted of having specific amounts of cocaine with tougher sentences for crack cocaine. It didn’t get rid of cocaine, it simply filled our prisons with black and brown faces. Even though we were not the ones selling the most drugs, we got more than our fair share of the prison sentences.

We were glad to see them get rid of the crack heads and junkies. Today we have a new problem with opioids. This time it’s the white community that is suffering the most from these drugs. While our sons and daughters are locked up in prison for their drug offences, the strategy is now changed.