Sermon
I've always known that what I learned in school about any events in history were only part of the story. I've always known that there was more; kind of like what Paul Harvey would call “…the REST…of the story.” I always thought my family lived a fairly bohemian life, intentionally avoiding anything that seemed like the straight and narrow normal life. I was kind of proud of our life-on-the-outskirts way of seeing the world. We were one of those families that looked like the Brady Bunch on the outside, but the façade was thin. When I was beginning to come into my own and experiment with adult opinions, I felt as if that gave me a certain street cred for talking about things that didn't fit my demographic as a middle American white girl, and woman. As I grew older I realize that in so many ways we actually fell smack in the middle of the spectrum of my early surroundings. We were typical in some ways after all.
There were some things that we did to put ourselves on the edge of the main line. We didn't buy lettuce, in support of Cesar Chavez and his support of farm workers. We sang protest songs and edgy music at The Old Town School of Folk Music every weekend. Always sticking up for the little guy. We protested the Vietnam war. My family even had a wedding party when Tiny Tim got married on the Tonight Show, back when Johnny Carson was the host.
I am finding that as I participate in the 21-day anti-racism challenge I am revisiting, again, my claim to have some street cred. Just four days in, I'm learning some old lessons in a deeper way as well as some new lessons. I don't mean just facts. That too. The best way I can describe it, is to say that unlike Paul Harvey when “the REST of the story” meant the final part, the 2nd half, moving toward an ending, life stories are not linear. We know that, and we may even have a good sense of that. But it has just struck me, using just my own life as an example, that my contemporaries aren't just living a different version of my own life. They're living completely different parallel lives in entirely different contexts. When I think of other cultures, I don't just think of other lands, other vistas, other languages. Culture includes the history and narrative of another. People living at the same time as me, are living lives shaped by things that I considered stories, history, and therefore “other” with all due respect.
Instead of my bubble being accepting and open to others and being satisfied with that, I am realizing that I am actually on the outside looking in, in more ways than I have thought. I thought that I was really open to expanding my bubble, to fit everyone! But, really I have to step out of my bubble, and breathe new air. I'm the one who has to take a step out.
One way my family was typical was how we celebrated the Fourth of July. We went to parades; we had cook outs, and as soon as I was involved in music, I was marching in parades, or playing band concerts in the park on the 4th. I have played the piccolo part to Stars & Stripes Forever a gazillion times. We watched fireworks in every town we ever lived in. I've even seen my share of green, red, blue fog, thanks to fireworks in San Francisco.
As far as celebrating independence though, I may not have made as deep a connection as I could have. If it were a book title, I thought of the book as titled “The Fourth of July” and “Independence Day” was the subtitle. This year, thinking of this weekend as “Independence Day” weekend, seems like a bad joke.
I was a little relieved then, to discover that the Black Lives Matter movement has given me the opportunity to see things a little differently. Historian and author Dr. Holly Jackson writes that “the better part of the 19th century, many groups in addition to abolitionists, including Native Americans, utopian socialists, women's suffragists and industrial workers, chose to use the Fourth of July as an occasion for social-justice agitation.” (“American Radicals: How Nineteenth-Century Protest Shaped the Nation”) Looking at Independence Day through the lens of black lives, I learned about the non-fourth of July speeches.
For example, on July 4th, 1827, New Yorkers celebrated the abolition of slavery in their state with a parade. Except for blacks. Some black leaders called for a day of mourning and reflection instead. The parade that did happen for blacks wasn't until July 5th. On that day 4,000 blacks marched down Broadway with an honor guard and a grand marshal.
Also in 1827 Rev. Nathaniel Paul, a minister of The First African Baptist Society in the city of Albany, New York, celebrated the abolition of slavery in that state. His address given on July 5, 1827 in Albany marks that occasion.1
And in 1852, statesman, abolitionist, and activist, Frederick Douglass was invited to speak at the July 4th celebration of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Association in Rochester, New York. He refused. He spoke on July 5th instead. His speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” was not at all what they were expecting. 2 It was a scathing assault on a nation that celebrates the writing of a defining document while the country it defines is not living in accord with those ideals.
As God would have it this holiday weekend in 2020 graces us with our day of worship on July 5th. What will we do with our July 5th? How is today's July 5th meaningful? Where in the world does the final portion of the Book of Job fit in?
July 5th, 2020 is meaningful because the black lives matter movement is demanding that we take another look at the bubble that is white American history. We don't need to just expand our bubble to include more. We need to completely step out from our bubble. The black lives matter movement is that child trying to get our attention yet again, saying will you just LOOK at me! NOTICE me. The black lives matter movement is reminding us that when some get tired of the ugly news and can turn away, there are others who can't. The black lives matter movement happening during a pandemic, is reminding us that hyper-vigilance is exhausting. For some, it's about what sanitizer and mask and gloves we have and our many choices for adapting. For blacks that hyper-vigilance is a part of every day, and every day in history. Not just black history. Our history.
The end of the story of Job fits in perfectly. Last week I described the story as a cliff-hanger because it was only part of the last words of God and Job. The cliff hanger was, what will God say? Why did Job stop speaking when he did? Will Job curse God? How will God respond?
With this part of the story, we see that the reader really has two options from which to choose how to interpret today's final verses. One option is to see the final paragraph of Job's happiness and life restored as the end of the story that begins with the challenge from the satan. As an end to that question only, these last words are answer to the early question, if Job does not curse God will God restore his life, or reward him for his faithfulness? Well yes, God did. Not only did Job get his siblings and friends back, but they came together for him and each brought a small gift. From the gifts of community he was able to build back some of his property and his animals. Not only that, but he chose to have a second family, again with 7 sons and 3 daughters. The three daughters are given names, are boasted to be beautiful, and in a most unusual move, Job gives them an inheritance also. Job is returned to his fortunes two fold. He is even given twice as much life – if 70 years is the average life of a man, 140 years represents twice as much life. If a man might normally see two generations of offspring, Job lives long enough to see four generations of offspring. Job's life is returned and in abundance.
A second option is to see the final response from God as an ending to the entire book, not just the simple lesson of a perfect person tested by God and then rewarded. This second option is not as satisfying because it really leaves us with more questions. After five weeks of hearing the story of Job do we agree that Job has “spoken of [God] what is right?” Job really got pretty angry and vehement and insistent. He may not have actually cursed God to God's face, but he wasn't exactly humble and submissive.
The ambiguity about which interpretation of the ending is correct is exactly why this text is perfect for our July 5th today. The entire book of Job is a collection of options that are available to us, when we question suffering. The friends' comments represented some of the common approaches we have available to us about the meaning of suffering, and our approach to God. We have to decide for ourselves whether the friends were wrong or not. This ending reminds us that we still have options.
Whatever Job said, he always wanted the truth. He always asked for honesty. One commentator points out that the speeches of God don't have a lot of moral language. “God does not remake Job's moral world for him; that remains properly a human task.” Job's mental gymnastics were borne out of the same frustrations and suffering that we experience. But he never gave up, and he demanded that God not give up either, confident that in the end, he would indeed see God.
What we need during this pandemic, during this shift in public consciousness regarding black lives, and along with the rising temperature of public discourse, is honest conversations; truthful conversations. In order to be honest and truthful we need to be sure we can fill in the gaps in our current understanding of history and its effects on our human family. We need to ask ourselves what if…? What if I don't know all there is to know about a story? Where can I get trusted information? What will I do when I get more information? Do I need to change? Do I want to change? Do I know how to change?
No, God does not remake Job's moral world for him, and that is indeed a human task. But God does provide resources. God offers provocative questions about identity, new ways of perceiving the world, patterns and structures of thought that are different, and images that can be generative metaphors for a renewed moral imagination.”
Last week I asked four questions of us:
In what ways are we suffering, lost or confused?
Who do we know that might be suffering, lost or confused?
Who don't we know, that might be suffering, lost or confused?
Are we prepared to include God in our questions, comments and plans?
The story of Job is appropriately long and complicated and confusing and passionate and messy. Because life is all of those things. Christianity is not a religion that suggests that we just buck up. The confident Job has shown that his redeemer will be by his side, is the promise we have that our Redeemer in Jesus Christ has come and is by our side. The honesty and truthfulness and willingness to seek and change, and most of all stay in the relationship with God that Job shows us gives us confidence to speak. We can say, ask, seek, question, struggle, love, laugh, experience joy all in the presence of God because God loves us. God is with us. We are not expected to find the perfect solution to any of our struggles. Because there are many solutions, many directions to move, many levels of commitment, many ways to seek God's will.
Toni Morrison says “The function of freedom is to free someone else.” I pray this Independence Day that we find a way to free ourselves from our burdens, enough to bring someone else to freedom.
Please pray with me.
1 Reverend Nathaniel Paul's 1827 Speech on the Occasion of New York's Abolition of Slavery
2 Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, activist and statesman's “What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?”