THE PAIN OF EVIL

Sermon Summary (8/20/17) “The Pain of Evil” (Acts 17:24-27; Gal 2:28)

We visited a family in Ohio when I was 13; their son, Johnny was 10 or 12.  Big sis drove us to the Dairy Queen for ice cream.  There were a few black kids there who wanted ice cream, too.  Johnny screamed at them, “Get out of here Niggers.  You don’t belong here.  Go find your own place.”  As I recalled this despicable act, I remembered that his dad had come to South Dakota three or four years earlier to hunt pheasants.  He brought his hunting dogs that he’d trained on quail.  When they flushed to pheasants far out of shooting range, he beat them with a shovel.  Those poor dogs had no idea what they’d done wrong.  He beat them with a shovel.  I never saw that family again after age 13.  I don’t know what happened to Johnny.  He could have been a skin-head at Charlottesville.  He sure was given a good start.

Two of my favorite moral teachers say we need to stop and talk about racism in America.  Not make political points, “See, identity politics is wrong,” or “it proves conservatism is always racist.”  Stop!  Have the conversation we have never, ever had.

Personally, I’d like to believe it is overblown; it will go away if we ignore it.  But, but, it seems it is the human condition, the desire to be superior, to demean, to dehumanize, to hate, to act hatefully has always be with us. Folks, the church is the hope of the world.  If not us, who?  

As long as we keep our morality straight.  When Christianity moved from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe, it encountered an honor-based morality.  Everything to protect the honor of the family or the individual.  Integrated with Christianity, it sent the Crusades off to the Holy Land to protect the honor of the church.  Christianity is “Other” based.  And it must remain so.  Anytime we see morality based on self or honor, we must challenge it.  Christianity is based on the “Other.”

So the question we must ask is “Does God want us divided or as one?”  God believes in the equal and infinite worth of all human beings (Ge 9:6).  God tells us we all come from the same stock (Ge 1 and 2; Acts 17:26).  Paul tells us unequivocally, “There is no longer Greek or Jew, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 2:28)

Even the Old Testament has one whole book about breaking down barriers.  I’ll bet you thought Jonah was a fish story.  God sends Jonah to Nineveh to call them to repentance.  Jonah hates them.  After being gobbled up and spit out, he goes to Nineveh.  Much to his dismay, they repent.  He wants to die.  God tells him “Shouldn’t I be concerned about them too?”  We are called to resist evil and breakdown barriers. (Baptismal vows).  Christianity of all the world’s religions, bridges cultures.  The Church is the hope of the world!  Be the Church. Resist evil.