How Jesus Helps Us Talk About Race - Kyle Hanawalt

SPEAKER NOTES

Earlier this week, Vince and I were walking and praying together. We meet once a week to go over all the things we need to go over to make sure the church stays functioning, and then we always end our time praying together. And I’m not someone who sit still well, so when it gets time for us to pray, we tend to walk and pray. This last Tuesday it was cold, so as we were walking outside and praying, we decided to duck into a TJ Maxx just to warm up for a minute. Now, we were just walking around store with no intent on buying anything, just walking and talking quietly to each other, praying. And Vince says to me, “man do we look sketchy, two guys each with our bags, walking around a store whispering, not buying anything and then leaving.” Security could stop us any second to check us for shoplifting

But, I thought about it for a second, and thought there is almost no chance we get stopped because we are two white guys in our 30s. And say to Vince, “Here is the benefit of being a white guy. We can walk shadily through a store with bags, and not buy anything, and just soak in the benefit of the doubt.”

In that moment, I was fully aware that the privilege of being a white man, meant that I didn’t have be nervous or anxious, that I could walk through that store if wanted to without fear of being hassled.

Now, does my life feel easy? - no. Do I feel like everything seems to go my way? - no. Do I feel like things are just handed to me in life without having to work really hard for them? - no. Does life feel unfair to me at times? - Absolutely.

But, I am aware that being a white guy means that there are some things I don’t have to navigate, like how I’ll be perceived wandering around TJ Maxx.

SLIDE:RACE Over the last 10 years, I’ve become increasingly aware of the role race plays in my life -- a reality that for many people feels really hard to talk about -- hard for people of color, because so often they are put in positions to carry the burden in discussions of race which can leave them exhausted -- and hard for white people like me, because our experience doesn’t teach us that we have to think about race constantly and therefore doesn’t teach us how to talk about race openly (that’s the privilege of being white! If we try to avoid race, we probably can.) -- we clam up, we get uncomfortable, we want to change the subject or cut the tension with a joke.

Well, this last 10 years has changed me, and I want to talk this morning, particularly on how helpful Jesus has been to this process for me, and how Jesus can help any of us talk about race.

SLIDE: EXPAND vs RESTRICT Right off the bat, maybe the most foundational way Jesus helps in this is what Vince has been getting at in his talks here this fall on the Gospel of Luke: that a big part of the mission of Jesus seems to be “expanding our moral imaginations”

For me growing up, when I thought about morality or what was right and good, the encouragements made to me were NOT about expanding my imagination, they were about restricting my imagination. Everything really came down to my own personal morality. It was really about my own behavior, was I following the restrictive behavior expectations my church culture had come to understand as right and true, or maybe more so, was I not doing the things that were understood to be bad and wrong. Like as a high schooler, was I not drinking, not having sex, not cheating on tests, not lying to my parents, etc.

And now, I would say that at a highschooler, all of those restrictions would be highly advisable, and good to avoid.

But, the restrictive approach to morality made my understanding of morality almost entirely about some internal sense of personal purity.

There’s a lot missing from that moral imagination. Things that involve my relationship-with and responsibility-to my wider world -- things like the unjust reality of homelessness in our city, or the inequity of academic outcomes in our school along the lines of race. Or the generational poverty that plagues far to much of our city.

And this is where Jesus, especially Jesus as his story is told in the Gospel of Luke, is so helpful.

I think of this story from Luke 18...

SLIDE: SCRIPTURE Luke 18:18 SLIDE: FIRST PART OF PASSAGE 18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.” 21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. I can’t help but resonate with this, I think of myself 10 years ago. I have done everything. I have done right in all these areas of personal morality. Surely that all that matters. Jesus continues SLIDE: SECOND PART OF PASSAGE 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 28 Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!” 29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

If you were with us a couple weeks ago where I talked about Jesus analogy of trying so hard to strain out gnats that we swallow camels. I will say, I am very pleased to be able to bring you back to back camel related sermons. But, that is what you get when we are learning from Jesus, who spent his life as a Palestinian Jew.

Now, there are a few things I want to point out about this passage.
First off, I don’t think this passage is actually addressing wealth exclusively. I think it is addressing privilege. That is why we get both the reference to money and family as obstacles to eternal life.
Especially in light of the fact that Jesus first praised the ruler in the beginning of the passage for honoring his father and mother. The reason that he addresses the family at the end is because, especially in this culture and in this time, ones family was synonymous with their social standing, their financial security. Actually maybe not too dissimilar to modern day. The relative privilege and power of our family is connected to our power and privilege.
In this passage, especially in light of what Luke has been highlighting all through this Gospel, Jesus is showing us that life worth living, worth pursuing, life eternal is one in care, advocacy, support, and solidarity with the poor and marginalized.
And this is the piece that the ruler has the hardest time with. That to walk in the way of Jesus is to see and acknowledge our areas of power and privilege and be willing to use them for the sake of others. For one with privilege to walk in the way of Jesus is hard, a camel through an eye of a needle hard. Because it involves surrender, when you have privilege it is always easier to just hold on to it, to not assess, and be humbled, or do the hard inner work of growth But the good news for one with privilege is that your moral imagination is expanded -- and therefore your heart, your empathy, your capacity for connection with people, your character and integrity! And, the good news for those who feel marginalized is that, God is with you fighting for you, advocating for you, to walk the way of Jesus for the marginalized is easier, because it is a path of empowerment, a path of uplifting.

SLIDE: JESUS/BIBLE FLOW CHART If there is ever one thing I can leave you with about the message of Jesus or the Bible it is this. For those with power and influence and privilege, Jesus’ message and the bible chiefly operate as a challenge to your comfort. Not a challenge to your self esteem or sense of self. They’re NOT meant to shame or condemn you. They’re meant to lead you into a life that finds the freedom and connection we truly long for, that the comfort of power and influence and privilege can never offer us. On the flipside For those of you without power and influence and privilege, Jesus’ message and the bible are meant to heal and lift you up. And the truth of the matter is, the world is not as simple as my analogue understanding of it used to be when I was younger, the truth is that almost all of us have areas where we do have power and influence and privilege that needs challenge and renewal. And almost all of us have areas where we are marginalized and hurt that need healing and redemption. The task of life is, moment to moment, or season to season, discerning which side of that equation we’re currently on.

SLIDE: HOW JESUS HELPS US TALK ABOUT RACE So that’s the foundational shift in my thoughts and feelings that Jesus has done in me, and helped me talk about race: expanding my moral imagination.

SLIDE: ADD 2ND BULLET A 2nd way Jesus helps me talk about race: Jesus reminds us that our task in life is humbly knowing ourselves.

One of his most famous images and teachings (and rightly so!) is to remove the logs in our own eyes, before we attempt to remove specks in our neighbors’ eyes (Luke records this in Luke 6)

And this reminder is a gift to us all, honestly! Because it means our task is NOT the overwhelming and impossible job of trying to know everything about everyone else’s experience who is different from me. Thank God it’s not that!

When it comes to knowing ourselves and our racial reality, I was super helped by an exercise I participated in recently… [give us the context]

SLIDE: EXERCISE (each number its own transition) [Take us through White Privilege inventory] BECAUSE OF MY RACE AND/OR COLOR... I can be in the company of people of my race most of the time. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of hassle-tree renting or purchasing in an area in which I would want to live. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that l will not be followed or harassed. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely and positively represented. When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my race made it what it is. I can be sure that children in my family will be given curricular materials that testify to the contributions of their race. I can go into most supermarkets and find the staple foods which fit with my racial/ethnic traditions; I can go into any hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can cut my hair. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability. I can arrange to protect the children in my family most of the time from people who might mistreat them because of their race I can swear, or dress in secondhand clothes or not answer letters or emails, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race l can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group. I can remain oblivious to the language and customs of persons of color without feeling, from people of my race, any penalty for such ignorance. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a racial outsider. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to “the person in charge," I will be facing a person of my race. If a police officer pulls me over, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race. I can conveniently buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards and children‘s magazines featuring people of my race. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out of place, outnumbered, unheard, feared or hated. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of race. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the place I have chosen. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me. If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones. l can comfortably avoid, ignore or minimize the impact of racism on my life. I can speak in public to a powerful group without putting my race on trial. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.

SLIDE: BACK TO LAST BULLET POINT And a third way Jesus helps us talk about race… Is prayer..“Jesus calms us when we pray”

Whenever I come I’m in a conversation around race, or privilege, and I find myself feeling anxious, or nervous, or defensive, or frankly like I just don’t even want to go there. I will pray a prayer that I come back to whenever I feel those kinds of feelings.

It actually a prayer from the psalms, the prayer book of the Bible, It has helped me a lot. It calms me and I have found Jesus in the midst of praying this to confront me with some pretty heavy stuff, like how privilege plays out in my life, but it doesn’t feel judgy or shaming. Just honest, like yeah, that is there. And it helps me see how confronting this things in me are in fact part of the journey towards a full and rich life

If you want to stand with me, I am actually going to end by inviting to pray this prayer with me. From psalm 139 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.