It is very fitting that we’re gathered here in front of the Lincoln Memorial for our first service of Worship in the Spirit of Justice. Abraham Lincoln was a great leader who cared about a great injustice in his day, and we are here to urge our leaders to care about a great injustice in our day.
If you ascend the steps behind you and enter the memorial and look to your right, you can read the words to Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address. It was March 4, 1865. It had been raining for weeks. Pennsylvania Ave was a mess of mud. The mall that stretches green before us today was a sea of brown mud that day. We may complain about the heat today, but imagine the crowd gathered to hear Lincoln speak that March day, cold and damp, ankle deep in mud. The end of the Civil War was in sight, everyone knew. But nobody knew that Lincoln himself would be dead in just over a month. It was in many ways a horrid time, as the full cost of the Civil War was being felt, and as the arduous task of reconciling a divided nation faced both North and South. In times like those, leaders simply needed to tell the truth about what was going on, about what had brought them to that point, and about what lay ahead. For as Desmond Tutu and people of South Africa have shown us in more recent history, there can be no reconciliation without telling the truth. And so, standing there that muddy March day, Lincoln tried to tell the truth. He said,
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war.
Lincoln told the truth, that one of the most significant causes of the Civil War was the color of skin. Racism was at the heart of the problem, and Lincoln named it; Lincoln told the truth. What was true in 1865 is also true today in Darfur. Many of you will remember that moment in the movie Hotel Rwanda, when a character says that if the atrocities happening in Africa were happening among white-skinned people, the world would intervene. But racism makes them act as if people of some skin tones are worth less than others … and we must tell the truth about the racism that lets these atrocities continue.
I am white. I am a Christian. The people of Darfur are black. Most are Moslem. But because of my Christian faith, I believe we are human beings, sons and daughters of the living God, whatever our color of skin, whatever our religion … All are precious to God. My mother taught me a little song as a child: “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight! Jesus loves the little children of the world!” I believed my mother, and I still do … Racism is wrong. It must be named. It must be confronted. And just as Lincoln named it that cold March day, so must we on this hot June day.
But it wasn’t just racism that fueled the Civil War. It was also greed. Lincoln spoke of slavery as a “peculiar and powerful interest.” Greed is a peculiar and powerful self-interest that tempts people to do horrible things – things like genocide, slavery, exclusion, injustice. Closer to home, greed keeps us from caring. Let’s be honest: the fact that 180,000 to 300,000 people have died in Darfur is largely about our love of money here. It costs money to help. Right now, there are 2400 African Union peacekeepers patrolling an area the size of California. Why are there so few? Because we love money too much. Everyone knows the number of peacekeepers needs to be increased – to 7,000, maybe 12,000 or 15000 at a bare minimum. What’s the problem? Money. It costs money to send and sustain peacekeepers, and we haven’t had the compassion or courage to overcome greed and do what needs to be done to save lives in Darfur. We need to realize that budgets are moral documents. It’s easy to talk about faith and values and faith-based initiatives. But we need to put our money where our faith and values are. Budgets speak louder than words about what our true values are. We are here to persuade our government, and the American people, that saving lives in Africa is a moral way to spend money and design budgets.
But it’s not just the government that needs to work against greed: it’s also the news media. Why are there 20 hours of Michael Jackson coverage each week? The answer is simple: ratings, and dollars. Why is the suffering in Africa receiving little to no news coverage on TV, radio, and print news media? Because the Michael Jackson trial or whatever the hot infotainment item du jour might be raises more ratings and advertising money than the truth of what’s happening in Africa. We are calling the news media to wake up and realize the truth about themselves: what news directors decide to air is a moral decision. They budget time to increase money. So, if we want to focus on Michael Jackson … and forget about Darfur … the TV, radio, and print news media will be glad to aid and abet our denial, and in this way to reinforce it. We’re here to call the news media to face the moral reality of their decisions of what to air and what to ignore. We’re here to say we want journalists to courageously tell the truth about what’s going on in Africa.
But let’s bring it closer to home: in the coming weeks, months, years, the humanitarian effort must grow in Darfur and all of Africa. The problems there won’t be solved easily. Each of us will have to confront our own greed as we make decisions about giving money to help people of Darfur survive and rebuild lives. Some of us will give money – others of us may even go over there, to be with the people, to help and serve – and in so doing, we will show ourselves to be followers of Jesus, who taught us that receiving, having, saving, owning, acquiring and accumulating might be good things … but that giving is even better, even more blessed.
When President Lincoln delivered his speech in 1865, our nation was bitterly divided. The North and South had amassed armies to kill one another with unprecedented bloodshed. Lincoln noted the strangeness or irony of the situation.
Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.
Today, our nation is divided. We are red and blue, liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat. The winners want to take all. And the losers hope to do the same if they ever become winners. Our division is distracting us. Our polarization is preoccupying us. Our polarizing preoccupation is paralyzing us. Eleven years ago, our country resisted helping in Rwanda, and 800,000 died in 100 days in the most efficient orgy of killing in human history. In recent years, uncounted people have died in Eastern Congo, and hardly anyone notices. And in the last three years, 180-300,000 have died in Darfur, with 2 million displaced and uncounted girls and women raped … and we’re still squabbling over trivialities. We fight about whether the ten commandments should be displayed in front of buildings, but we fail to live out the ten commandments in relation to our suffering neighbors. We’re here today, and we will gather for the coming five Sundays, to say that this division and paralysis are unacceptable to us. We are tired of being divided over trivialities: we believe it is time to come together over an emergency.
In his second inaugural address, Lincoln noticed an even deeper irony:
It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces…
This of us, here today … do you feel the irony of singing “God Bless America” when America hasn’t roused itself to care for those most in need? Do you feel the irony of daring to ask a just God to bless us when we are heedless to cry of our neighbors? Think about it: God – bless us! We’re already the most powerful, affluent, secure, weapon-rich, nuclear-armed, self-centered, wasteful, and materialistic country in the history of the world … but please bless us more! Bless us more!
How different it would be if we knew what Lincoln knew: the God who is real … not the fictive God of an American civil religion, not the folk deity of Republicans or Democrats … but the living God is a just God, and from the time of Abraham in Genesis 12 to the time of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, we have known that this God does not bless one nation to the exclusion of other nations: God blesses some so they can be a blessing to all. God does not play favorites. God does not take pleasure in blessing the careless and selfish. God favors the least, and God will gladly bless America if we stop seeking to be blessed and instead seek to be a blessing, for we have been given much, and of those who have been given much, much is expected.
There’s a lot of theology in Lincoln’s short speech – deep and provocative theology, not just sound-byte religious talk to warm the faithful with a semantic massage. Listen to a few more lines:
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
We need to care for Darfur for Darfur’s sake. But so much is at stake in our own souls at this moment. Perhaps it is only in the healing of others that we will ourselves be healed. Perhaps the soul of America hangs in the balance at this moment. Perhaps the way we respond to the emergency in Darfur and in all of Africa will determine our future more than any other thing we do. We must remember the words of Jesus: if you save your life you will lose it, but if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it. Let’s apply that to ourselves: What if we go to war after war, what if we invest more and more in our own security, what if we go deeper and deeper into debt, what if we buy more, sell more, save more, to preserve our own life and way of living … but what if in the process we ignore our neighbors who are suffering and dying? What if we gain the whole world and lose our own national soul? How would a just God, an Almighty God, an engaged God, a living God … respond to us? How can we sing “God bless America” if we do not show greater concern for those in need? What God could we possibly be talking about?
Lincoln’s greatness was rooted in his refusal to be in denial about injustice. But it was also in his commitment to hope, and his hope for reconciliation. You remember the beautiful cadences of how his speech ended:
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Lincoln was focused on the need to heal divisive wounds, on caring for the widow and orphan, and to working toward a “just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
This is our desire and our hope. We have hope that the wounds of Darfur can be healed? In the process, we hope we can be healed as well … that our divided nation can be united, not by a winner-take-all political contest, but by a return to our moral center, a return to compassion and justice, a return to the deepest roots of our common faith in a God of justice and mercy … the same God who heard the groans and cries of the Jewish people when they were slaves in Egypt, the same God who heard the groans and cries of African slaves here in the United States, the same God who hears the groans and cries of frightened mothers and grandfathers and children in Darfur.
So, this is a good place to begin our five weeks … here on these steps, remembering Abraham Lincoln, and of course … we can’t be here without also remembering Dr. King. Standing here today, we can still hear the echoes of his dream, and our faith dares to dream that in Darfur, the genocide will stop. The rape and murder will stop. The bulldozing of villages will stop. Herding people into refugee camps will stop. Raids by Janjaweed militia will stop. The government of Sudan will stop defending itself for the indefensible. Our government will stop doing less than the minimum – and will instead begin doing whatever is necessary. We can dream that in the coming weeks, Congress will act … Our President will act… the Media will act … and the world will act.
So, it begins here. For five weeks we will gather to worship in the Spirit of justice.
Go home and tell your friends, your fellow church members, your colleagues and neighbors – Tell them you have to come back next week, and you don’t want them to miss it. You have to be part of this. You have to do the right thing. You can’t let this be another Rwanda.
Get on the internet. Spread the word! Other cities around the nation and the world are preparing to follow our example, to gather for worship in the Spirit of justice.
Wherever you can, start a conversation. Ask a question … do you think Liberals … conservatives can come together to help our neighbors in Africa? Are we more concerned about the color of our state, or the state of our soul? Can we get beyond seeing Democrats … Republicans, liberals and conservatives – Can we begin seeing ourselves and one another as human beings, made in the image of God, who have a duty to our neighbor?
I am a follower of Jesus. I am not here as a Republican or Democrat. I am here as a human being, and a follower of Jesus. Since my teenage years, I have sought to live by these words from the lips of Jesus: Seek first the kingdom of God and seek first the justice of God, and everything you need will be provided. Let us seek God’s kingdom and justice together.
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