"Friends, what we have here is a very big log in our eyes. Our problem is not the racism of any one individual, because racism is not only personal. It is also interpersonal, institutional, and social. This fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King’s speech and the march that occasioned it demands that we take an inventory of ourselves yes personally, but also interpersonally, institutionally, and socially. What does it mean to belong to an 86% white denomination when, by 2040, there will be no one majority race or ethnic group in America? What does it mean to call ourselves the “National” Cathedral when we confine our ministry to the whitest and most privileged quadrant of the District of Columbia? How can we live into the dream articulated by Dr. King when the evils we face in 2013 are so much more insidious than they were in 1963? The enemy back then looked and acted like Lester Maddox and Bull Connor. The enemy today looks and acts very much like you and me. We here can do little to nothing about the Supreme Court, the Florida legislature, our own Congress. We can, however, together look to ourselves. On behalf of Washington National Cathedral, I pledge today to initiate a process of cathedral self-examination, renewal, and reform, seeking to explore the racism inherent in our worship, ministry, staffing, and governance. We will always suffer from the legacy of racism that infects our culture and our relationships. But we can commit ourselves to act in new ways—ways that reflect the inclusive, gathering, indiscriminate love of God in Christ. “See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” “Ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” The word for us today—Jesus’ word, Jeremiah’s word—is simultaneously a word of judgment and of mercy. The word for us today is a word of liberation and a word of healing. God calls us to judge and heal our nation of the ongoing sin of racism, but we can only do that as we judge and heal ourselves. God calls us into a new and risen life and ministry in which our actions and practices will actually reflect our commitments. I ask that you help and join me in this work. There is nothing more important we have to offer our nation, our city, and our church that to put our own house in order. It is the best and most fitting way to take up the mantle of Jeremiah, to respond to the call of Jesus, and to honor Dr. Martin Luther King. Amen." -Gary Hall nationalcathedral.org/worship/sermonTexts/grh20130825.shtml
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 19:22:43 +0000
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