Nature, Trinity, Progress (2020-06-07, Triniy Sunday)

2020-06-07 _ Trinity  ●Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9  ● Psalm (Daniel 3)  ● 2 Corinthians 13:11-13  ●  + John 3:16-18 ●

Title:    Nature

[_01_]    In 2003, in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the Catholic archbishop published a letter about what it means to resist or reject the idea of being made in God’s image – writing on the subject of racism.

          Here I  quoting his letter (Archbishop Harry Flynn, St.Paul-Minneapolis, 1995-2008)

          “Racism is a form of xenophobia, a fear or dislike of those who are different from us. Each of us has some element of this fear within our hearts. In my own experience, I remember an incident on my sixth birthday. My mother said I could invite the members of my grade school class, and I replied that I would like to, but one of the girls in my class was African American, and I said that I didn’t think I wanted to invite her. Fine, said my mother, you don’t have to invite her, but if you don’t, then you won’t have a birthday party.

I still have a vivid memory of that birthday party and of my mother warmly greeting the young African American girl as she came up the sidewalk to attend the party. That single act made a very deep impression on me. In an instant, my mother dissolved some of the xenophobia that had been in my heart.”

[_02_]     Racism is a fear or dislike of those who are different from us, and a fear or dislike because they are different.

It is certainly a temptation and perhaps an easy path to go down, to dislike or even to disown the other.

[_03_]    Our community – the township of West Orange – and the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes is made of people of every race, income level, socioeconomic background and education level.

          Our goal is NOT to be “color blind” … We would not want to be blind to differences or diversity. That is, we recognize differences between women and men. We are not blind to such differences.

          Our goal is not to tolerate the differences or overcompensate for the differences between any 2 individuals, but rather to lose the fear and hatred that may be associated with the differences.

          It is Trinity Sunday and on Trinity Sunday we celebrate and acknowledge God as 3 persons with 1 divine nature.

          In a parallel fashion, we recognize that we are the Body of Christ – the Church – sharing not only in that one divine nature through grace, but also through a shared humanity, a shared human nature.

          There are so many things that divide us and distinguish us.

          Of course, it is true that I have a nature or personality unto myself and you do as well.

 

[_04_]    The death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis has sparked deep outrage across the country.

          And, we might say, it also shows that in the police officers who were sworn to protect the public, to protect George Floyd himself there was a rejection of this sense of a shared nature.

          The reason all of us believe in human dignity is not simply to uphold the law or to avoid punishment or even to provide comfort. Those are the effects or results of human dignity. The cause of human dignity is a recognition that we have a shared nature.

          That’s why that mother of taught her son, in teaching him to invite all his classmates to his birthday party.

 

[_05_]   In 2015, Anthony Ray Hinton was released from an Alabama state prison, released from death after a complete exoneration and recognition of a wrongful conviction.

          Read his book called The Sun Does Shine. It is a beautiful autobiography of his perseverance, his dignity, and his triumph.

          While Anthony did not die at the hands of the police, we could certainly say that after 28 years on death row for a crime he did not commit and a justice system and prosecutor refused to accept evidence and really disowned him because he is African American. They told him so.

          Anthony, however, chooses not to live as a victim. He is a free man today, not just because the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously 9-0 ruled in his favor, and because he is no longer behind bars, Anthony is a free man because he has embraced mercy as part of the journey toward justice.

          Now, you and I often think of MERCY and JUSTICE as 2 different and opposing realities.

          But, in God, MERCY and JUSTICE can be one and the same.

And, in fact, when we are children, when we live the simplicity of childlike attitude to God, we can see MERCY and JUSTICE as the same.

          Here is an example – consider a small child in your care does something willful and disobedient. Children are capable of this from a very young age, right?

          But, parents – loving parents – are also capable of intervening to teach the child simultaneously both that something is wrong and and that that wrong can be forgiven.

          That’s mercy and justice simultaneously, in real time.

          That’s what I suggest we pray for right now, in the United States, in Minneapolis, everywhere. Justice + Mercy.

[_06_]    When he was on death row, he met a fellow prisoner: Henry. Henry had also received a death sentence for homicide, not just any homicide. Henry was a Ku Klux Klan member and had taken the life of a young black man. Henry had been raised in a KKK family. But in prison, Henry changes. Henry repents and tells this to Anthony, admitting that he realizes everything he learned about superiority and inequality was a lie.    

In prison and on death row together, Henry and Anthony became true friends. One day, Henry’s parents were visiting and Henry introduces his friend - Anthony  - to his mother and father. One of them smiled faintly. The other refused to shake his hand. It was not a perfect moment.

          When someone asked Anthony what happened..what was that all about, Anthony simply said: PROGRESS.       

          In 1997, Henry was put to death, executed. It was the first time in 85 years that a white man had been executed for the killing of a black man and Henry’s death was a significant moment outside the prison walls, in the outside world. But in Anthony’s world, it was just the death of a friend.

        Friendship is progress.  Justice is progress.  Mercy is progress.

          Knowing that we all share one nature – human nature – that we are all made in the image of the Trinity of God is progress, + in the name of the + Father, and & of the Son, & of the Holy Spirit  Amen.  [_fin_]