Homily
for Sunday, August 27, 2017
Lessons:
Psalm 124
Romans 12:
1-8
Matthew
16: 13-20
“If the Lord had not been on our
side…, if the Lord had not been on our side when enemies rose up against us,
then would they have swallowed us up alive in their fierce anger toward
us? Blessed be the Lord; he has not
given us over as prey for their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the
snare of a fowler; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the
Name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” These beautiful words from
Psalm 124 once more have special significance, it seems. Our world, our
country, our communities face unexpected threats.
Charlottesville. Charlottesville,
Virginia, the place I have called home for the last 36 years, has now by its
name alone entered a unique worldwide lexicon, part of a group of once-ordinary
place names that stand for seminal events in history. One needs but say such a
name, and most hearers will know its significance: Gettysburg. Auschwitz.
Selma. Tiananmen Square. Shanksville. Ferguson. Charlottesville. Oh, how I wish
Charlottesville were still known only as a small, beautiful city, home of
Thomas Jefferson and the outstanding public university he founded! Enemies rose
up against Charlottesville, and it remains to be seen whether the city will
completely escape the snare of this particularly vicious fowler.
During such a time of division and
turmoil, believe me, the last thing a preacher wants to discuss is the division
itself. Unfortunately, there are times—and what happened in Charlottesville is
clearly one such time—when a demarcation between good and evil begs to be
underscored. Sometimes an outline of what Christianity should represent in the
world simply must be stated once again.
Avoiding the topic of politics
altogether is certainly not what our Savior was able to do. Although he came to
bring the keys to a kingdom for all people, he faced fierce opposition from
those in power. In fact, it was because
he stood up to the ruling members of the Temple elite—overturning the tables of
the money changers, condemning the outright hypocrisy of the Pharisees—that
Jesus was crucified. Those Pharisees exercised their political influence over
the Roman governor, and Pilate had Jesus executed. In terms of our Christian
faith, the political machinations of the Pharisees have placed them on the wrong
side of history.
The National Socialist German
Workers’ Party, more commonly known as the Nazi Party, was, as we know, a
political party headed by Adolf Hitler that held power over a period of 25
years. The Nazi party is also now, we thought, firmly on the wrong side of
history as it was responsible for horrendous crimes against humanity. Thanks to
the courage and sacrifice of the Allied forces, and largely American service
men and women, Naziism was staunchly defeated in 1945. How on earth is it possible
that Americans carrying Nazi flags came to Charlottesville on August 12, 2017?
How is it possible that other white supremacist organizations, including the
KKK, could join the Nazis and spread terror, confident that some Americans
would applaud their efforts?
They came from all over America,
carrying torches and weapons, some wearing the garb of the KKK. Some of them
also wore white polo shirts and khakis, including James Fields, making them
look like college students. They spoke of their hatred of Jews, immigrants, and
people of color in terms that can only be described as “white
nationalism.” What they espoused not
only flies in the face of our nation’s most cherished values, it also is a
complete affront to the teachings of Jesus and the most basic tenets of
Christianity. Since I am sure all of you agree with me about these things, you
may wonder why I even bother to say that white nationalism in its many forms is
simply evil. This is why.
As I tuned in from time to time
(from the safety of my home, I admit), I saw a woman among the white
nationalists being interviewed. She specifically identified herself as
Christian, and then she said she and the others had come as Christians to
defend their God-given rights. I am sorry, deeply sorry to hear someone who
calls herself a Christian standing on the side of oppression, racism,
anti-semitism, and violence. Where have we gone wrong, and what can we do to
show the world that many Americans do believe and espouse what Christianity is
really all about?
What happened that weekend in
Charlottesville is still being sorted out, and it may take quite a while for
that to happen, both collectively and individually. Now I offer a context and
timeline for the way I’ve experienced the events and tried to make sense of them.
I know I can only speak for myself, but please bear with me.
On that Friday evening, I began
getting wind of how badly things might unfold when a church friend of mine
posted on Facebook. She and her husband had been to the meeting that evening at
St. Paul’s Memorial Church, the Episcopal church across from the Rotunda. While
they were there listening to some religious leaders speak and pray for peace,
they witnessed the group of torch-bearing white supremacists who marched across
the Lawn and through the Rotunda. My friend said it was a terrifying scene.
As
most of you know, I have worked for the last nine years at the University of
Virginia, mostly as an undergraduate academic advisor. I hold two graduate
degrees from UVA, and last year, in both fall and spring semesters, I taught an
undergrad humanities class in the School of Engineering. Needless to say, I
care deeply about UVA and its students. At first the image of that very large
number of torch-bearers surrounding the statue of Thomas Jefferson in front of
the Rotunda was frightening enough. What I didn’t realize or see at the time
was the group of about twenty students being encircled by the people with
torches. When I learned students were there, I was horrified. The students were
armed only with posters and courage, and they were attacked by jabbing torches
and sprayed with chemicals. How could such a thing happen on any American
college campus?
As the psalmist says, If the Lord had not been on our side when
enemies rose up against us, they would have swallowed us up alive in their
fierce anger.
The next day, bishops from the
Episcopal Diocese of Virginia joined a large group of clergy from
Charlottesville and around the country as they formed a peaceful march and
endeavored to stave off the violence. As some of those clergy stood with arms
locked together and voices raised in prayer and song, acting as a dividing line
between the white supremacists and the counter-protestors, the Charlottesville
police stood off to one side. One of my clergy friends who was there told me
this next bit of information. When the Nazis and their compatriots began to
shove and strike the clergy, and the police continued to stand by, some of the
counter-protestors came to the defense of the clergy. As it turns out, many of
the scenes of violent fighting that showed up in the news of the day were just
that: counter-protestors fighting to protect the clergy.
As the psalmist says, Blessed be the Lord! He has not given us
over to be a prey for their teeth.
When the police finally intervened,
declaring the activity an unlawful assembly and telling the protestors to
disperse, the white supremacists spread out all over town to wreak havoc on a
wider scale. They surrounded the nearby synagogue, shouting Nazi epithets and
threatening to burn it down. No police were there to protect it, although
Sabbath worshippers were inside the building. (I should say, to be fair to the
police, they were far outnumbered by the white supremacists and things got out
of control very quickly.) A group of the supremacists surrounded a young black
man on the first level of the Market Street parking garage, beating him over
the head with metal bats and severely wounding him. A photographer who happened
by recorded the scene and finally started striking the attackers with his
camera equipment to get them to stop. Then the police arrived.
But, as most people now know, the
tragedy of the day played out at the intersection of 4th and Water
Streets, at the bottom of a hill and blocks away from the park where the
protest was supposed to take place. A large group of counter-protestors
gathered there, walking along and talking. Then, James Alex Fields, Jr., of
Ohio, age twenty, drove his Dodge Charger down 4th Street, crossing
the pedestrian mall at a high rate of speed and plowing into the crowd of
people gathered near Water Street. We now know that 30 people were injured—the
11 taken to Martha Jefferson Hospital that day were not included in the
original number—and one person was killed.
Heather Heyer, by all accounts, was
a very caring person, someone who always helped others in need and was
especially attuned to victims of injustice. She worked as a paralegal and was
much loved by her friends and family and those she served. It is no surprise
that she felt called to be part of the resistance that day. And she was one of
our own, a local hero as the folks in Charlottesville like to say.
Now the names Heather Heyer and
James Alex Fields will always be inextricably linked. They have become part of
our country’s history. In my eyes, they are both tragic figures. Heather was a
martyr to the cause of justice and peace. St. Paul might very well have been
speaking of Heather Heyer when he wrote the words we hear today in his letter
to the Romans: “I appeal to you
therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies
as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good
and acceptable and perfect.” Surely Heather Heyer did not know she would be
giving up her body as a living sacrifice to the cause of justice and love when
she came to Charlottesville on August 12th. But that is exactly what she did.
To me, she did what was good and acceptable and perfect in the sight of the
Lord.
And James Alex Fields? He was a twenty-year old with
mental health issues, a troubled childhood, and a fascination with white
supremacy. He was a lost child seduced by the purveyors of hatred and a need to
belong to something, anything. How many other James Fields are out there? As Christians we are called to serve and to
save lost souls like his. He deserves our pity as much as he deserves justice.
On a final note, I learned several days later that a good
friend of my son had suffered a stroke as a result of the weekend events. You
see Tyler, who is a UVA alum and now an employee of the UVA library, was on
Grounds on Friday night. He saw the huge group of torch-bearing white
supremacists surrounding the twenty or so students, and he decided to join the
students. He is a parent of young children and a protective kind of guy. As it
turned out, he was struck on the neck by one of the torch bearers, but Tyler
did not realize his carotid artery had been cut. Luckily, a clot stopped the
bleeding. The following Monday, when Tyler started feeling unwell, he went to
the hospital, and actually (luckily) had a stroke while he was there. He was in
the hospital for several days, and when my son Rob went to see him, he
discovered that Tyler’s hospital room had round-the-clock security guards.
Tyler had received death threats, as did the parents of Heather Heyer.
The good news is that Tyler was released from the
hospital after several days and seems to be fine. The difficult news? That
young man who was so badly beaten in the parking garage incident on August 12th
was an elementary school teacher. In fact, he was Tyler’s daughter’s favorite
after-school teacher.
Someone, please tell me how Tyler explains to his young
children what happened to him and what happened to a favorite teacher?
The city of Charlottesville and the University are
undergoing the hard work of healing, but it will take time. I hope you saw on the news the beautiful
image of the UVA Lawn covered in a sea of candlelight on
the following Wednesday
evening as the entire community gathered to reclaim in peace and unity so much
that had seemed to be lost.
We are called by God, as today’s collect implores, to be
unified as Christians, to live our lives as Christ would have us live them, in
loving brotherhood and sisterhood. Paul says, “We who are many are one body in
Christ, and individually, we are members of one another.” So, we are called to
use our gifts for the betterment of the whole world, for peace and justice.
Doing so will require us to engage thoughtfully with each other, even with
those who seem to be our enemies. Our faith requires us to do the hard work of
love, even when love seems impossible. Maybe we can keep that image of the
praying clergy in mind as we strive, as they did, to overcome hatred with
Christian love. After all, Jesus has assured us that the kingdom of heaven—his
kingdom of love—is within us, and he has asked us to invite others to join him
there.
May the name of Charlottesville become a rallying cry for all that
stands in opposition to hatred and bigotry. We owe that to both Heather Heyer
and James Fields. We owe that to Tyler’s children and to our own children and
grandchildren. So far, by God’s grace, we have escaped the snare of the fowler.
What happens next is largely up to us, with Christ’s help. AMEN.
.
