WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:05.000 Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father Lord and Savior Jesus 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.800 Christ. And from the Holy Spirit 3 00:00:07.800 --> 00:00:11.400 who has called us to faith by the proclamation of the gospel. And will 4 00:00:11.400 --> 00:00:15.900 keep us in the one true faith until that glorious reappearing of our great 5 00:00:15.900 --> 00:00:18.800 God and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Church. 6 00:00:20.100 --> 00:00:22.200 It is a marvelous day to be here. 7 00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:28.300 I like to thank the faculty and the staff and the student body for 8 00:00:28.300 --> 00:00:33.100 inviting us to talk about this pandemic called race and racism. 9 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:36.200 We come 10 00:00:38.500 --> 00:00:44.000 in a time where there seems to be just unrest throughout America. 11 00:00:44.900 --> 00:00:49.700 Unrest of 200.000 people who died from the pandemic. 12 00:00:51.800 --> 00:00:56.600 African Americans still dying on the streets of America, from policing, 13 00:00:59.400 --> 00:01:01.400 cultural pandemic in which we live 14 00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:04.200 economic pandemic. 15 00:01:06.200 --> 00:01:08.800 I kind of feel like Brother John, 16 00:01:10.500 --> 00:01:14.500 Sister Fannie Lou Hamer who said I'm sick and tired of being sick and 17 00:01:14.500 --> 00:01:14.700 tired. 18 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:18.400 Brother John Lewis said, 19 00:01:21.100 --> 00:01:22.500 we need to get in good trouble. 20 00:01:25.700 --> 00:01:28.200 And a good congressman who said we have better than this. 21 00:01:30.600 --> 00:01:33.200 But it just didn't happen overnight did it? 22 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:38.400 It's been 41 years of this pandemic in America. 23 00:01:40.600 --> 00:01:43.200 We're Black and Whites have been trying to live together. 24 00:01:45.100 --> 00:01:49.100 Under this great experience of democracy and this Republic in which we 25 00:01:50.800 --> 00:01:51.600 so. 26 00:01:52.600 --> 00:01:55.500 I don't say we discovered it was the country was here when we got 27 00:01:55.500 --> 00:01:59.100 here, but we kind of founded this this American democracy 28 00:02:00.300 --> 00:02:03.500 and our independence. Dr. King you support these words so 29 00:02:03.500 --> 00:02:04.100 beautifully. 30 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:07.400 We hold these truths to be self-evident. 31 00:02:10.300 --> 00:02:12.300 That all men are created equal. 32 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:15.900 And they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights 33 00:02:15.900 --> 00:02:18.900 that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 34 00:02:21.100 --> 00:02:21.900 As Dr. 35 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:28.300 King said at that time the country was not ready to give slaves and 36 00:02:28.300 --> 00:02:29.600 blacks their rights in order, 37 00:02:29.600 --> 00:02:32.300 they would give them to women also. 38 00:02:33.800 --> 00:02:37.300 So we've been fighting this thing ever since the founding of the 39 00:02:37.300 --> 00:02:39.500 country about how do we get along with each other. 40 00:02:40.600 --> 00:02:43.300 How do we figure out this thing called race and racism? 41 00:02:44.900 --> 00:02:49.600 We must admit slavery has done a lot of damage to our psyche. 42 00:02:51.500 --> 00:02:57.100 We created an inferior people who did most of the work that we did not 43 00:02:57.100 --> 00:02:57.900 want to do ourselves. 44 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:03.100 And I'm wrestling with these 3D words. 45 00:03:04.500 --> 00:03:11.000 We dehumanize them because they were only 3/5 people in order to have 46 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:13.100 voting not rights, 47 00:03:13.100 --> 00:03:16.400 they had no, right but only to be counted in the South. 48 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:19.200 So we dehumanize them. 49 00:03:20.700 --> 00:03:24.200 And in our dehumanization then we demonize them. 50 00:03:25.700 --> 00:03:27.900 Because we said if they're not human 51 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:30.200 and if they rebel 52 00:03:32.200 --> 00:03:34.700 then we got to figure out what to say about that. 53 00:03:37.700 --> 00:03:42.200 And then the third day is that we demagogue over this thing most 54 00:03:42.200 --> 00:03:44.200 religious and political demagoguery. 55 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:50.000 Oh, we talk about the issues, but we are not really ready to address the 56 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:50.400 issues. 57 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:57.300 We're not ready to repent and ask God for forgiveness of our past sins. 58 00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:03.400 Warren Lattimore wrote in the statement that he wrote and I'm sure 59 00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:04.400 most of you read it. 60 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:09.300 Talked about the original sin of America was slavery. 61 00:04:12.900 --> 00:04:16.600 And you talked about what do we do about that as a church body and as 62 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:18.899 a nation and as a people of God? 63 00:04:21.100 --> 00:04:22.900 But it's not the first time it has happened. 64 00:04:24.100 --> 00:04:28.000 The Jews often times demonized other cultures you remember Jesus at 65 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:32.300 the woman with the well. You remember what she said to Jesus as he was 66 00:04:32.300 --> 00:04:34.800 sitting there on the well and I'm sure she saw him and he she 67 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:38.200 probably thought has he won at the well, nobody's at the well at this 68 00:04:38.200 --> 00:04:39.200 time when I'm going there. 69 00:04:40.200 --> 00:04:44.500 Jesus asked for a drinking and she said you being a Jew and I'm being 70 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:45.700 a Samaritan. 71 00:04:45.700 --> 00:04:47.500 We don't get along with each other. 72 00:04:47.500 --> 00:04:49.500 We don't drink from the same utensils. 73 00:04:49.500 --> 00:04:52.600 We don't worship like we don't do things with each other. 74 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:54.100 And by the way, the well is deep. 75 00:04:54.100 --> 00:04:55.400 What are you going to draw with? 76 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:00.600 Thank God Jesus didn't push her in the well. 77 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:03.100 Was Jesus sat at the well? 78 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:07.000 Until the Holy Spirit came with a breakthrough. 79 00:05:08.700 --> 00:05:10.800 She said you must be the Messiah. 80 00:05:12.400 --> 00:05:16.400 You must be the one that our ancestors been speaking about it. 81 00:05:16.400 --> 00:05:19.800 She went and told the men in the village and they came out to see this 82 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:23.200 man and they said now we know for ourselves he is the Messiah. 83 00:05:26.400 --> 00:05:30.000 Paul dealt with the racism of Jews and gentiles 84 00:05:31.100 --> 00:05:32.200 He dealt with it. 85 00:05:33.300 --> 00:05:35.400 Through the means of the Proclamation of the Gospel. 86 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.700 It come to the conclusion when he was writing to the church at Rome if 87 00:05:40.700 --> 00:05:45.000 they're going to deal with racism and cultural bigotry and they going 88 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.200 to deal with this these isms. 89 00:05:47.200 --> 00:05:49.500 He said it has to be through the gospel. 90 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:59.000 He writes that beautiful verses 16 and 17 and 1st Corinthians 1 91 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:02.900 and Romans 1 with the verse that change Luther's life. 92 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:07.400 He had come to the conclusion that it is only by the gospel that God 93 00:06:07.400 --> 00:06:10.000 changes hearts and minds and souls. 94 00:06:11.900 --> 00:06:13.600 He said I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. 95 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:19.500 It is the power of God unto salvation to anyone who believes it. 96 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:25.000 Yes to the Jew but also to the gentile. Why for in it that is in the 97 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:25.700 Gospel. 98 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.200 God has revealed himself to the world. 99 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:34.900 The righteousness of God has been revealed in the Gospel. 100 00:06:36.400 --> 00:06:38.700 It is how God deals with humanity 101 00:06:40.100 --> 00:06:43.400 and it is how the Church must deal with one another. 102 00:06:45.100 --> 00:06:46.800 But in this good news of the Gospel. 103 00:06:48.700 --> 00:06:53.000 In the incarnation the life the crucifixion in the resurrection Ascension 104 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:54.400 the second coming of Christ. 105 00:06:54.400 --> 00:06:59.900 We must see the world in which God has called us to serve. 106 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:05.400 Let me tell you my friends that has not always been that way even in 107 00:07:05.400 --> 00:07:05.800 the church. 108 00:07:08.200 --> 00:07:08.900 I know, Dr. 109 00:07:08.900 --> 00:07:12.000 Nunez can tell you some stories about the Lutheran Church-Missouri 110 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:12.400 Synod. 111 00:07:15.400 --> 00:07:17.300 I'm getting a little old now. 112 00:07:17.300 --> 00:07:18.500 I know too much. 113 00:07:18.500 --> 00:07:20.100 I know where the skeletons are buried. 114 00:07:21.300 --> 00:07:23.700 I know where the bodies are in the closet. 115 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:26.500 And I've seen a few things. 116 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:32.100 And I know we have not always dealt with one another with the Gospel 117 00:07:32.100 --> 00:07:33.500 imperative of love. 118 00:07:34.700 --> 00:07:38.400 I can recall getting ready to graduate from the Seminary there was five 119 00:07:38.400 --> 00:07:39.700 African Americans in my class. 120 00:07:39.700 --> 00:07:41.000 It was three African Americans, 121 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:41.700 it was eight. 122 00:07:41.700 --> 00:07:45.400 The largest class we've ever had in Seminary to graduate at one time, eight 123 00:07:45.400 --> 00:07:50.600 African Americans. And I can recall the placement person coming to us, 124 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:53.800 he's gone home to be to the Lord and glory now, said we're going to 125 00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:56.400 try and experience and experience here guys. 126 00:07:56.400 --> 00:07:58.900 We're going to get two of you guys to go into a predominately all 127 00:07:58.900 --> 00:07:59.800 white churches. 128 00:07:59.800 --> 00:08:02.300 We never done this before but we believe we can do it. 129 00:08:03.900 --> 00:08:06.300 We didn't know anything about placement at that time. 130 00:08:06.300 --> 00:08:08.100 We had been told that it was a work of the Holy Spirit. 131 00:08:08.100 --> 00:08:10.900 We believe that it. Surely it is. 132 00:08:14.600 --> 00:08:17.200 The Spirit works in wondrous ways doesn't he? 133 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:21.800 And so then he comes back about a week before we got ready to be 134 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:22.100 placed. 135 00:08:22.100 --> 00:08:24.500 And we said I don't think we're ready young man to do that. 136 00:08:24.500 --> 00:08:28.600 So we going to have to call all of you out to African-American 137 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:31.100 congregations is all eight of us went out to African American 138 00:08:31.100 --> 00:08:31.400 congregations. 139 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:35.900 We have not always dealt with one another according to the Gospel. 140 00:08:37.700 --> 00:08:41.000 About how God has called us to love each other and you care about each 141 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:43.900 other and to be about this work together that God has called us to 142 00:08:43.900 --> 00:08:44.400 serve. 143 00:08:47.500 --> 00:08:48.800 Your call when Jesus, 144 00:08:50.100 --> 00:08:51.900 was about the work of the Kingdom. 145 00:08:52.800 --> 00:08:56.100 The Scribes and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law often times 146 00:08:56.100 --> 00:08:58.400 would test him. On one instance 147 00:08:58.400 --> 00:09:01.400 they asked him what must I do to inherit eternal life or the other 148 00:09:01.400 --> 00:09:05.100 instance they say what is the greatest commandment in Law? 149 00:09:05.100 --> 00:09:06.600 And each time 150 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:08.100 he would go back to that Old Testament 151 00:09:08.100 --> 00:09:10.800 shema that you know that word hear this 152 00:09:10.800 --> 00:09:11.600 Oh Israel. 153 00:09:12.800 --> 00:09:14.300 The Lord thy God is one God. 154 00:09:15.900 --> 00:09:16.700 Love the Lord 155 00:09:16.700 --> 00:09:20.500 thy God with all your heart all your mind, all your soul and all your 156 00:09:20.500 --> 00:09:22.800 strength in the second commandment is like unto this. 157 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:26.200 Love your neighbor as you love yourself. 158 00:09:28.300 --> 00:09:29.600 Any then he says everything 159 00:09:31.800 --> 00:09:37.400 all of the law of the writing hinges on these two Commandments. That 160 00:09:37.400 --> 00:09:41.500 you love God and that you love your neighbor as you love thyself. 161 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:48.600 We have arrived in our country at such a time as this. 162 00:09:51.900 --> 00:09:52.900 I like what Dr. 163 00:09:52.900 --> 00:09:54.000 King calls this 164 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:57.900 the fierce urgency of now. 165 00:10:01.300 --> 00:10:03.200 He talks about this fierce urgency. 166 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:07.400 He said we are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is 167 00:10:07.400 --> 00:10:07.700 today. 168 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:14.100 We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now in this unfolding 169 00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:16.100 conundrum of life in history. 170 00:10:16.100 --> 00:10:18.400 There is such a time as being too late. 171 00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:21.300 Procrastination 172 00:10:21.300 --> 00:10:23.400 he said it's still the thief of time. 173 00:10:24.800 --> 00:10:28.500 Life often leaves us standing bare naked and dejected with a lost 174 00:10:28.500 --> 00:10:28.600 opportunity. 175 00:10:30.500 --> 00:10:34.100 Then he went on to say this may be mankind's last chance to choose 176 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:36.400 between chaos and community. 177 00:10:37.700 --> 00:10:40.700 And in that book that he wrote his last book "Where Do We Go From Here 178 00:10:40.700 --> 00:10:42.400 Chaos or Community". 179 00:10:43.900 --> 00:10:48.700 He tried to deal with the racial Injustice and unrest in our country. 180 00:10:50.300 --> 00:10:55.200 He tried to deal with that as he tried to hold at bay the radical 181 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:58.500 African Americans who really wanted to fight 182 00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:03.100 the injustices with arming themselves and and and fighting the 183 00:11:03.100 --> 00:11:06.100 Establishment over against loving and caring. 184 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:11.700 Trying to help people to see through their bigotry and their racism. 185 00:11:12.900 --> 00:11:15.200 And you understand that there is only one race 186 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:20.200 that is the human race that God created. When he created our parents 187 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:23.000 Adam and Eve and we've all come through that race broken, 188 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:24.800 sinful. 189 00:11:26.500 --> 00:11:31.500 Yet have been healed and redeemed in the person of our Lord and Savior 190 00:11:31.500 --> 00:11:32.100 Jesus Christ. 191 00:11:32.100 --> 00:11:33.300 Where do we go from here? 192 00:11:36.700 --> 00:11:42.000 I tell you I was I was really taken aback when to see the death of 193 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:52.200 George Floyd. And I said in my mind, when I thought about that, I understand it in the South because that's 400 years of bigotry and hatred that has been 194 00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:55.900 picked up and built up in their people often times down there not 195 00:11:55.900 --> 00:12:00.200 everybody but some who just can't get over this thing called slavery 196 00:12:00.200 --> 00:12:02.500 and bigotry and racism. 197 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:06.900 And I say surely this can't happen in the North? 198 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:12.600 And yet it does. 199 00:12:13.900 --> 00:12:15.700 And yet we are faced with this conundrum. 200 00:12:16.900 --> 00:12:22.500 How do we respond as a nation and especially how do you and I respond 201 00:12:22.500 --> 00:12:23.400 as the church? 202 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:29.000 And I tell you I've been getting a lot of calls done a lot of Zoom 203 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:31.700 meetings and everything and I've heard from young white pastors and 204 00:12:31.700 --> 00:12:33.700 their congregations. And simply say pastor 205 00:12:33.700 --> 00:12:38.800 listen, our builders and older older Boomers don't want to talk about 206 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:39.900 race and racism. 207 00:12:41.200 --> 00:12:43.400 They say they just need to get over it. 208 00:12:45.800 --> 00:12:49.700 So we we're having difficulty of talking about this thing in our 209 00:12:49.700 --> 00:12:51.100 congregations in among our people. 210 00:12:53.900 --> 00:12:57.000 But we must talk we must listen. 211 00:12:58.300 --> 00:12:59.200 We must here and 212 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:04.200 we must respond in a way in which God will respond to us with his love 213 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:08.900 his Grace and his Mercy that is found only in the person of his Son 214 00:13:08.900 --> 00:13:09.500 Jesus Christ. 215 00:13:10.800 --> 00:13:15.800 Then the Epistle lesson on Sunday Paul writing to the Philippians 216 00:13:15.800 --> 00:13:17.900 said whatever happens. 217 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:23.600 Whatever happens in our world show yourselves to be accountable to the 218 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:24.300 Gospel of Christ. 219 00:13:26.100 --> 00:13:29.700 That we're accountable to God's grace and his gospel that is found only 220 00:13:29.700 --> 00:13:33.300 in the person of his Son Jesus Christ, but what do we go from here? 221 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:40.800 Man, it's been it's been 66 years since I've been on the face of this 222 00:13:40.800 --> 00:13:42.100 Earth seeing this stuff. 223 00:13:44.100 --> 00:13:46.100 I mean I live in the segregated South. 224 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:52.000 I was 1 years old when Martin Luther King arrived in Dexter Avenue 225 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:57.300 Baptist Church there on Dexter Avenue 300 yards from the state capital 226 00:13:57.300 --> 00:14:01.700 where the capital had the statue of Robert E Lee and flew the 227 00:14:01.700 --> 00:14:02.700 Confederate flag. 228 00:14:04.200 --> 00:14:09.600 Who denied African Americans their basic rights in 1955 when he 229 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:10.400 arrived there. 230 00:14:12.900 --> 00:14:17.900 I can recall never going to school with a white kid from kindergarten 231 00:14:17.900 --> 00:14:19.200 all the way through 12th grade. 232 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:22.700 Not one white kid ever came to the black schools in Montgomery, 233 00:14:22.700 --> 00:14:26.100 Alabama. And when they desegregated the schools. 234 00:14:29.500 --> 00:14:31.500 They basically did not integrate. 235 00:14:32.900 --> 00:14:34.200 And when they forced integration 236 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:38.500 they sent the black kids over to the white schools. 237 00:14:38.500 --> 00:14:43.900 They sent the white teachers over to the black schools many of the 238 00:14:43.900 --> 00:14:47.200 black teachers lost their jobs because they could not teach with not 239 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:48.900 be allowed to teach in the white schools. 240 00:14:48.900 --> 00:14:53.500 And so most of the black schools that still where there they closed some 241 00:14:53.500 --> 00:14:54.200 of the black schools. 242 00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:58.100 We all still went to segregated schools, even though they forced 243 00:14:58.100 --> 00:15:02.200 integration with blacks in the white schools. There's some history here 244 00:15:02.200 --> 00:15:02.700 people. 245 00:15:04.300 --> 00:15:06.300 It is hard to talk about isn't it? 246 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:12.800 It's just hard to believe that such things existed in our world in society 247 00:15:12.800 --> 00:15:16.800 which God has called us to be children of God in a broken world, but we 248 00:15:16.800 --> 00:15:17.600 are broken people. 249 00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:24.000 And broken people break things hurting people hurt people. 250 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:31.000 I can remember Dr. 251 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:31.400 King. 252 00:15:33.500 --> 00:15:36.000 And all of the civil rights leaders there. 253 00:15:37.400 --> 00:15:40.700 I was too young to participate really too young to know anything about 254 00:15:40.700 --> 00:15:41.100 it. 255 00:15:42.400 --> 00:15:48.100 But I heard African American leaders talk about maybe now is the 256 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:48.300 time. 257 00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:52.000 Warren Lattimore said in his statement. 258 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:53.800 Maybe now is the time. 259 00:15:55.500 --> 00:15:58.600 Maybe now is the day of the fierce urgency of now. 260 00:16:00.300 --> 00:16:05.300 But Society in the government can't do it on their own the Church must 261 00:16:05.300 --> 00:16:06.100 rise up. 262 00:16:08.500 --> 00:16:13.100 The Church must rise up and simply say that God has created all of us 263 00:16:13.100 --> 00:16:13.500 in His image. 264 00:16:15.800 --> 00:16:17.700 And though sinful and broken yet 265 00:16:17.700 --> 00:16:20.000 e have been recreated in the image of his Son 266 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:21.200 Jesus Christ. 267 00:16:23.400 --> 00:16:27.500 We must treat one another as children of God. 268 00:16:30.300 --> 00:16:32.500 We must love we must care for one another. 269 00:16:34.800 --> 00:16:38.500 And we must fight for the rights of all humanity no matter where we 270 00:16:38.500 --> 00:16:39.300 find them. 271 00:16:41.800 --> 00:16:44.900 You must tell them about a God who still loves the world and has 272 00:16:44.900 --> 00:16:45.300 proven 273 00:16:45.300 --> 00:16:49.200 his Love by giving us the greatest gift of all and that is to give up 274 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:50.600 his son Jesus Christ. 275 00:16:52.900 --> 00:16:54.700 Brother Latimer with his statement 276 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:57.900 quotes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 277 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:02.200 And he says this as love of God begins with the listening 278 00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:03.000 to his word. 279 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:06.400 So the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to 280 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:06.599 them. 281 00:17:07.800 --> 00:17:11.800 It is God's love for us that he not only gives us his Word but also 282 00:17:11.800 --> 00:17:13.200 lends us his ear. 283 00:17:14.700 --> 00:17:17.099 Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. 284 00:17:17.099 --> 00:17:21.099 They do not find it among Christians because these Christians are talk 285 00:17:21.099 --> 00:17:23.000 and where they should be listening. 286 00:17:24.900 --> 00:17:27.500 This is the beginning of death of the spiritual life 287 00:17:27.500 --> 00:17:28.200 and in the end 288 00:17:28.200 --> 00:17:32.200 there's nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension 289 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:34.400 a reign of pious words. 290 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:39.000 When who cannot listen long and patiently we're 291 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:41.200 presently be parking beside the point. 292 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:45.900 And anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping 293 00:17:45.900 --> 00:17:51.900 quiet while eventually have no time for God and his brother but only 294 00:17:51.900 --> 00:17:53.800 for himself and for his own follies. 295 00:17:57.700 --> 00:18:00.800 I want to close kind of with this quote from Barna and I was reading 296 00:18:00.800 --> 00:18:01.400 that the other day. 297 00:18:03.300 --> 00:18:04.800 It is somewhat alarming. 298 00:18:06.800 --> 00:18:07.800 Where do we go from here? 299 00:18:07.800 --> 00:18:09.800 Here's what Barney says about the church. 300 00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:14.200 Now, I did not write this but Barna didn't you know, he knows a lot of 301 00:18:14.200 --> 00:18:15.200 research and here's what he said. 302 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:21.400 White Christians have become less even less motivated to address 303 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:22.100 racial Injustice. 304 00:18:24.100 --> 00:18:28.100 He said this year the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arber and 305 00:18:28.100 --> 00:18:30.300 Brianna Taylor and the shooting of 306 00:18:30.300 --> 00:18:34.100 Jacob Blake has sparked a nationwide conversation about racial 307 00:18:34.100 --> 00:18:39.000 injustice. One might assume that the events of 2020 have increased 308 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:42.600 awareness of racial injustice in the United States and motivate and 309 00:18:42.600 --> 00:18:44.000 motivation to address it. 310 00:18:45.900 --> 00:18:49.300 But Barnas research shows that the story isn't so 311 00:18:49.300 --> 00:18:50.100 straightforward. 312 00:18:51.300 --> 00:18:56.100 He's are there signs the past year has clarified how Americans think 313 00:18:56.100 --> 00:18:58.100 about racial injustice. 314 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:03.200 But that doesn't mean that they see the issue or they their role 315 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:03.800 within it. 316 00:19:04.700 --> 00:19:06.800 With greater urgency he says, 317 00:19:07.900 --> 00:19:11.400 In the church, especially their suspense that people are doubling down 318 00:19:11.400 --> 00:19:12.800 on divides. 319 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:19.200 Mission and Ministry of Christ Church 320 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:21.200 my friend has always been. 321 00:19:22.100 --> 00:19:25.300 We have these treasures and jars of clay. 322 00:19:27.800 --> 00:19:33.700 To show the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 323 00:19:37.100 --> 00:19:39.500 If the Gospel can't change us nothing will. 324 00:19:41.900 --> 00:19:46.000 If God's love for all humanity cannot change us to live as brothers 325 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:48.700 and sisters in a broken love world 326 00:19:48.700 --> 00:19:51.600 nothing will no longer be able to change it. 327 00:19:53.100 --> 00:19:56.000 We pass laws down through the years in this country. 328 00:19:57.900 --> 00:19:59.500 But we haven't changed the heart. 329 00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:04.200 Jeremiah says the heart 330 00:20:06.100 --> 00:20:10.700 is evil, desperately wicked who can understand it. 331 00:20:12.900 --> 00:20:16.600 Yet we've been called as people of God to wrestle with this thing called 332 00:20:16.600 --> 00:20:18.600 sin and life and living. 333 00:20:20.500 --> 00:20:22.800 And a walk with one another in this thing. 334 00:20:22.800 --> 00:20:23.900 We call walking together. 335 00:20:26.500 --> 00:20:31.400 To listen when we don't understand the plight and the issues that are 336 00:20:31.400 --> 00:20:34.700 happening in our society among people of color. 337 00:20:36.200 --> 00:20:40.300 And then to reflect and think through that the figure out then how can 338 00:20:40.300 --> 00:20:41.900 we help and what have I done? 339 00:20:43.100 --> 00:20:47.500 In order to not to make the matter better but to make it worse. 340 00:20:49.300 --> 00:20:50.900 Platitudes won't do us any good. 341 00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:55.800 We have CTCR documents talk about racism. 342 00:20:57.700 --> 00:20:58.600 You can read them, 343 00:20:58.600 --> 00:21:01.100 you can study them you can do whatever you want to do with them. 344 00:21:01.100 --> 00:21:02.000 But the truth of the matter is 345 00:21:03.100 --> 00:21:04.400 the heart has to change. 346 00:21:05.900 --> 00:21:07.100 Heart has to change. 347 00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:13.100 Is today, 348 00:21:14.300 --> 00:21:15.600 is today as Dr. 349 00:21:15.600 --> 00:21:19.000 King said where do we go from here. Is today 350 00:21:20.300 --> 00:21:26.500 the fierce urgency of now. Is now is the time as Pastor Lattimore 351 00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:30.600 said in the statement for Brothers and Sisters in Christ 352 00:21:32.900 --> 00:21:36.500 with our white brothers and our black brothers and sisters with 353 00:21:36.500 --> 00:21:41.000 asian brothers and sisters with our Indian brothers and sisters to rise 354 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:42.900 up and say to the world enough is enough. 355 00:21:46.200 --> 00:21:52.000 We simply will not tolerate the demonization and the dehumanization of 356 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:53.000 God's creatures. 357 00:21:54.900 --> 00:21:58.500 Well, they all have been created in His image for fallen your creature 358 00:21:58.500 --> 00:22:00.300 created in the image of his Son 359 00:22:00.300 --> 00:22:01.600 Jesus Christ. 360 00:22:05.500 --> 00:22:11.300 So I can imagine the aged apostle as he's wanting to make him way 361 00:22:11.300 --> 00:22:15.700 to Rome and dealing with the issues that are going on in Rome as he 362 00:22:15.700 --> 00:22:17.900 said I'm obligated to preach the Gospel. 363 00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:21.200 I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. 364 00:22:22.900 --> 00:22:24.800 It is the power of God unto salvation to anyone who believes it. 365 00:22:30.300 --> 00:22:31.300 Yes to the Jew 366 00:22:32.500 --> 00:22:36.600 but also to us Gentiles why we're in it. 367 00:22:39.700 --> 00:22:40.400 In the gospel 368 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:44.200 God has disarmed himself. 369 00:22:47.600 --> 00:22:48.300 In the Gospel 370 00:22:49.700 --> 00:22:52.000 God has tied his hands to the cross. 371 00:22:54.900 --> 00:22:55.600 In the gospel 372 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:01.400 God has rolled the stone away from the tomb. 373 00:23:03.400 --> 00:23:04.100 In the gospel 374 00:23:05.800 --> 00:23:09.200 God asked the world why are you looking for the living among the dead he 375 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:09.900 is not here. He is risen. 376 00:23:14.600 --> 00:23:15.600 And He lives. 377 00:23:17.300 --> 00:23:18.900 So that you and I can face tomorrow. 378 00:23:21.800 --> 00:23:23.600 Brothers and sisters. 379 00:23:23.600 --> 00:23:25.100 I don't know where we go from here. 380 00:23:25.100 --> 00:23:26.200 I really don't. 381 00:23:28.500 --> 00:23:32.900 We live in a in a hyper-partisan society. 382 00:23:36.300 --> 00:23:38.500 In our politics and in our religion. 383 00:23:40.300 --> 00:23:44.300 And the divide is so great that we can even begin to listen to each 384 00:23:44.300 --> 00:23:44.600 other. 385 00:23:46.100 --> 00:23:48.100 We would prefer to burn the house down 386 00:23:49.800 --> 00:23:50.900 then to live in it together. 387 00:23:54.700 --> 00:23:55.900 But our God knows. 388 00:23:58.600 --> 00:23:59.900 He has a plan. 389 00:24:01.800 --> 00:24:06.000 I know the plan I have for you says the Lord plans to not to hurt, 390 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:08.900 you know the harm you but plans to give you hope and a future. 391 00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:14.900 Young preachers as you prepare to go out into the world. 392 00:24:17.400 --> 00:24:21.500 Confront your people, your congregation, your community with the Gospel. 393 00:24:23.800 --> 00:24:25.500 When they see you they ought to see Jesus. 394 00:24:27.500 --> 00:24:30.000 When they've been in your present, they all just say I have been in 395 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:32.800 the presence of someone who's been in the presence of God and not only 396 00:24:32.800 --> 00:24:36.300 has that changed your life, but that ought to change their lives also. 397 00:24:40.500 --> 00:24:44.700 As I said, I'm I'm getting a little old to be in this battle with you, 398 00:24:44.700 --> 00:24:47.600 but I'm going to stand on the sidelines and pray you on forward. 399 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:51.900 Pray that God will give you the strength and the courage and the 400 00:24:51.900 --> 00:24:56.100 conviction to do what God has called us to do as the church in this 401 00:24:56.100 --> 00:24:57.800 21st century. 402 00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:05.200 Maybe we can confront the old isms in our society and our world. 403 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:10.100 We can tell the world about Jesus. 404 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:19.000 Now you said that's what would the Baptist guys would say? 405 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:21.400 No, that's my second closing and here's my final closing. 406 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:31.100 Mahalia Jackson sings the song "I'm Going to Tell the World About This." 407 00:25:33.600 --> 00:25:37.500 I'm going to tell the world that Jesus has come. 408 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:42.200 And I'm going to tell the world about what he has done. 409 00:25:43.900 --> 00:25:48.700 That he has brought Joy great joy to my soul. 410 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:50.600 Amen. 411 00:25:51.600 --> 00:25:54.200 God bless you as we continue with this convocation. 412 00:25:54.200 --> 00:25:55.100 Amen.