Psalm 19:1-2, 7-10, 14
Paul is writing to the church he founded in Corinth. A community for which he has great affection. But there is some dissention in the ranks. They seem to be arguing over who belongs, who is in the in group and who is on the outs. Something I think we all still struggle with. Some claim to belong to Paul, others Apollos, others Cephas. This gets all caught up in who baptized them. Of course, as we continue reading Paul brings them right back to Jesus, because all other belonging is for naught.
Tom Hanks is going to soon portray Mr. Rogers, the cardigan wearing Presbyterian minister who devoted his life to showing children they are loved, and they belong. Fred Rogers said, “I think everybody longs to be loved, and longs to know that he or she is lovable,” in the 2003 documentary “America’s Favorite Neighbor.” When asked about his theology he referred to our text: “God’s foolishness is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor. 1:25). Mr. Rogers countered the conventional wisdom for violence on television with the folly of caring for one’s neighbor. He got that it “pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (v. 21). In his own way he was trying to create a new social order based on God’s inclusive love while demonstrating the folly of worldly wisdom and power.
Paul was doing a similar thing. Quoting Isaiah, Paul has God destroying the wisdom of the wise (29:14). For the people of Corinth their conventional wisdom was you belonged to the person who baptized you. But Paul quickly squelched that idea because our belonging is found in Christ, our power comes from believing in Christ crucified. He was also helping them see that because of Christ, and the cross of Christ, we do not just go along with conventional wisdom, we are called to a new standard, a new way. Believing in the cross was thought to be folly, while wisdom was still highly sought. But God by the power of the cross, the reversal of death, has turned old wisdom into empty words. Remember Paul was sent to the Gentiles and so he is speaking to both Jew and Greek. He notes the Jews want signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but the answer is always in Christ, Christ crucified. God destroys the wisdom of the wise by allowing Christ to die on the cross and loving us and Jesus to the point of resurrecting his Son.
While rewriting wisdom through his death and resurrection, Christ also fulfills the law. Our psalm declares, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul” (v. 7). God’s law does revive the soul and leads us to rejoice. But that did not mean you just kept following the Jewish laws, Christ came to love us into being more compassionate, more dedicated. Christ came to write a new law on our hearts. A good way to explore this is with the question the lawyer asked,
“Who is my neighbor?” How does the law to love your neighbor as yourself revive your soul? And how does Jesus rewrite that for us today?
Throughout Lent we are examining ourselves in relation to race and society.
Rev. Denise Anderson is one of the Co-Moderators of the General Assembly, the national body of the PCUSA. She inspired our congregation to read Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race written by Debby Irving.
In this book, we learned about the systematic discrimination against the million African American soldiers in WWII who bravely fought for their country but were barred from the GI benefits of education and mortgage assistance granted to white soldiers. Denial of the single greatest redistribution of wealth was a cruel form of discrimination for people of color.
We learned, watching a Primetime episode, that two young men, one white and one black with identical education and means, experienced moving to a new town very differently. Glenn, the man of color faced discrimination for jobs, potentially paying more money for a car, and was refused an opportunity for housing, simply because he was black.
We learned we rarely talk about race, while people of color talk about race every day.
We learned that we have more genetically in common with people of different racial or ethnic groups than we do within our own racial group. Making the idea of race no more than a social construct.
We learned about the Vivaldi effect, where a person of color when encountering white people who become visibly tense, starts to whistle a Vivaldi tune and can see the white people relax, their fear dissipated. I have so appreciated our discussion of racism, privilege, and especially hearing your stories and feelings about race.
Racism is part of the so-called wisdom of the wise, and our culture is perishing from the weight of it. But the only way for this to change is for us to wake up to how our subtle and not so subtle forms of privilege perpetuate the power dynamic in this country. Debby Irvin asks us to complete these sentences: “I never thought I could perpetuate racism because I am ______ and I believe ____”
“I never thought I could perpetuate racism because I am ______ and I believe ____” (p. 99).
One of the subtle ways we perpetuate racism is by othering. On Wednesday we watched a video of Rev. Anderson share about the idea of “Othering.” This was a new topic for me. Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman proposed that in order to frame our own identity we create a sense of other. Historically this served a real purpose, we assumed that people who looked like us were less likely to harm us. But over time the practice of othering has become a way for the dominant culture to remain dominant, a way to keep power. Othering creates a dichotomy within the social order. Through othering, woman is the other of man, stranger is the other of neighbor, them is the other of us, black is the other of white.
So, if we see ourselves as hardworking then the other is lazy.
If we are strong then the other is weak. When we as white people other people of color, we are contributing to racism.
Some might say doing the work of waking up to our whiteness, to our privilege, is folly.
But I say no! God sees each one of the 7 ½ billion people who God created as blessed children. There is no difference in God’s eyes. The same way Paul preached to Jew and Greek, the othering of the day, I also come to the same conclusion as Paul- our belonging is in Christ, Christ crucified. We do not belong according to our skin color, we belong because Christ died for us. The cross of Christ has power, power to change your life and mine through God’s redeeming love. This is the same power to change oppressive ideas about race.
Conventional wisdom has been discrimination. But the power of the cross, the power of Christ means we can rewrite the wisdom of the day to be inclusive and loving. Living in Christ we can wake up to ourselves and our neighbors with new eyes, so that any so-called wisdom of the wise can be changed, and any discrimination and privilege can be addressed.
Thank God we are letting go of some of the wisdom of the wise, the conventional wisdom about race in our culture. We are waking up to see all people the way God sees them, as children of God. Our belonging is found in Christ. Christ crucified, who died for you and for me and for every person of color. The same people of color who have to teach their children about race and how to survive in a white world. The question for us today is can we stop othering people of color. Can we partner with God to destroy the conventional wisdom of the wise that keeps white people in power by othering any person of color? God is wiser than men and God is destroying the wisdom of the wise. May we each do our part to help God as discrimination and privilege are emptied of their power. Amen!
