Racial Justice Sunday 14 September 2008

Last year, 2007, marked the 200th anniversary since the abolition of the slave trade act went through parliament.  It also led to a wide variety of commemoration activities and opportunities for us to consider the legacy.  During that year we were actively encouraged to ask questions of our own understanding of the slave trade, our historical links to it, and the legacy for us now.  At the end of the year, many of the discussions have ceased and life has ‘gone back to normal’.  The challenge today is to try and develop an understanding of what it means to be living in a country with a very large colonial history and how that affects our search for justice.  We’ll look to the readings we’ve heard this morning to try and gain insight from the Bible, and see if we can find hope and justice through Christ.

The reading from Exodus places the Israelites mid escape from the oppressive and tyrannous power they were living under.  In their escape from the slavery in Egypt they are led by God through a pillar of smoke and fire until they reach the Red sea.  At this point, as many of us will be familiar, God let the Israelites pass safely and dryly through the sea.  By comparison God, after commanding Moses to make it so, brings the waters back down over the Egyptians troupes.  This passage should be incredibly challenging to us, not only for the violence and brutality of it, but also when compared with our own history as the oppressive power over many nations and slaves.  We, frequently, have acted in a similar way to the Egyptians rather than the Israelites.

In the passage we’ve heard, the Israelites are the ones who receive their liberation from God, but we need to acknowledge what happened to the Egyptians, and consider how the Israelites came to terms with it.  Recalling the reading, we were told that Pharaoh’s chariots and charioteers were all in the sea when the tides returned.  In God’s power, not one of them lived through the experience, and in the morning the Israelites saw the bodies on the banks of the sea.  Such violence and murder is very difficult to understand now, but how could it have been understood at the time.  The bodies on the sea shore, and the death of Pharaoh’s entire army even through an act of liberation may have been a significant challenge to the understand of those who saw them.  How can you ever reconcile a situation like that?  The key to the Israelite understanding of this is in the text, and in the understanding of God at the time.  For the Israelites, this death was caused by God for their liberation.  As God’s chosen people, they were protected by him.  At the time everything – good, bad or indifferent – came from God, therefore there was no doubt that the deliverance – and murder – was from and of God. 

Our understanding of God, today, is often different.  Few of us attribute every action or inaction to God – when tragedy happens, we don’t hold God up as instigator, rather we’re more likely to seek peace, hope and healing from him through our intercession and wisdom and compassion through our petitions.  The Egyptians would also have had to come to terms with the destruction – despite being neither God’s chosen people nor those liberated.  Would they have also attributed it all to God, and written it off as the acts of a God too strong for them, without taking responsibility?  Would they have discussed amongst themselves that, however horrific the acts (plural, for the plagues have only just ended), they were complicit in a tyrannous regime?  Would they seek to absolve themselves of the responsibility?  While the despite being neither God’s chosen people nor those liberated.  Would they have also attributed it all to God, and written it off as the acts of a God too strong for them, without taking responsibility?  Would they have discussed amongst themselves that, however horrific the acts (plural, for the plagues have only just ended), they were complicit in a tyrannous regime?  Would they seek to absolve themselves of the responsibility?  Whether the punishments received seem fair or just to us, the Egyptians would still have needed to develop their own understanding of what happened and it would not have been complete unless they acknowledged their role as the tyrannous, oppressive, colonial power.

Such power was held by the UK for a long time and we need to look at the way we understand our historical, and current links with our less than joyous history.  Paul’s letter to the Romans offers advice on how to best understand our presence in this.

We are taught that we are not to judge one another but that we have a responsibility to them.  In the passage about food law, and observance, we are told that we should be supportive to one another, and not bait or deride another for the choices they do and have made, but to honour God.  In this situation, we have a responsibility not just to follow the law, but to consider how that will affect those around.  In this responsibility comes an honest acknowledgment of our own presence in the situation.  A contemporary and very physical example may be related to allergies – if someone has an extreme allergy to nuts, we cannot have a snickers bar unwrapped in the area.  To knowingly ignore that, and to claim after the affected person collapses, that we didn’t mean any harm and just wanted the chocolate, is to fail to respect those around us.  Such respect demands that we acknowledge the affect our presence has on those around us.  This is a key element in our own Christian journey – regardless of the situation – but it is also essential to the way we can start to develop a post-colonial identity and understanding.  Our challenge to be non-judgemental does not exclude ourselves from the honest evaluations of our own behaviour, nor our need to forgive ourselves and seek forgiveness from those around us.

Matthew tells us of Jesus’ teachings on forgiveness in the parable of the ungrateful slave.  In this passage, it is the forgiveness we are commissioned to offer to one another which is central, but it also develops the wisdom on personal responsibility. 

In the parable, the slave is condemned for his actions, not so much because he ungraciously sought the payment of his debt, nor in passing his debtor to the authorities, but because he’d already received mercy and forgiveness from the one to whom he owed a debt.  He is condemned and criticised that he has not been able to see his similarities with the one he oppresses – just a few short sentences earlier, he could have received the same treatment and that seems to have escaped his understanding.  His liberation, so lovingly, mercifully and graciously won, is then lost by his own actions.

To provide a comparison for our own situation in a post colonial environment:  God, through Christ, has already liberated us yet we have held others enslaved.  When they sought understanding or freedom we failed to grant it for many years.  It was not ours to withhold for our freedom comes from God.
As we consider ourselves on another Racial Justice Sunday, we need to build on these teachings to help us understand.  As with the Egyptians, we were involved in brutal, unjust tyranny across the world.  We have a responsibility to those around us, whether we have been involved in any form of oppression over them our ourselves, for we are all one in the eyes of God, and we should treat each other with love and grace.  Through this love and grace, coming from God, we can find our hope.

In the acknowledgement of the wrongs of the past, we can become embroiled and guilt ridden in a past we cannot change.  The hope we are offered is one of liberation and love – and is a hope that looks to the future.  Our first step is to honestly explore and appraise the actions of our ancestors.  In that, as with the violence and horror stories of the Bible, we need to reluctantly embrace the facts and try and understand them but not to excuse them.  We need to try and pass on the stories to generations to come, along with the morals learned through our explorations.  The tales of violence were often passed down to prevent or discourage the action happening again.  In this way we can hope and pray that this and coming generations will not make the same mistakes of the past.  Through this, our actions can start a pattern of freedom and liberation, inspired by (and coming from) God in all we do.  Through God we are each created, embraced and forgiven.  Through Christ we are each liberated, loved and taught justice.  Through the Spirit we are each offered guidance, support and the tools we need.  Through each other we should find the support and companionship we need on the route.  We have the gifts, guidance and opportunity… now we just have to get on with it.