Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Luke 14:25-33
Lectionary 22 15th Sunday after Pentecost
They had gathered to study God’s word and to discern the Holy Spirit’s working in their lives. This group of African-Americans welcomed into the holy space of their lives a young white man. Before the night was out, nine of them would be shot by this stranger to whom they had shown hospitality. It was a little over a year ago that this mass shooting took place at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church, the oldest black church in the south.
At the accused gunman’s first court appearance, relatives of those who were killed were able to speak directly to him. Even as they spoke of their pain, they offered prayers for him. ‘”I forgive you,” Nadine Collier, the daughter of 70 year-old Ethel Lance, said at the hearing, her voice breaking with emotion. ”You took something very precious from me. I will never talk to her again. I will never, ever hold her again. But I forgive you. And have mercy on your soul.”’[1] Please do not confuse forgiveness with justice. People need to be accountable and responsible for their behavior.
On this one year anniversary, the church issued a call to action. You can find this statement on their web site:
[On June 21], everyone is encouraged to perform their own personal Act of Amazing Grace. With thousands of acts of grace being performed around the world, we will surely make the world a better place. No act of kindness or grace, no matter how small, is ever wasted. This can be any activity that you choose. For example, visiting a nursing home, reading to children at school, mowing the lawn for someone, giving another person a compliment. The possibilities here are limitless. We can think of no better way than a day of ACTS OF AMAZING GRACE to honor those persons who lost their lives, and the families, friends, and a church continuing to Move Forward.[2]
Quoting 1 Corinthians, [16:19], the church posts, “Let all that you do be done in love.”
The Israelites had first been slaves, and then wanderers in the wilderness for forty years. When they finally arrived at the Jordan River, they were more than ready to enter the land of promise. Moses would not be going there with them, but before he dies, he teaches the people about their life in this new place. If the Israelites do not keep steadfast in their identity as God’s people, they will be seduced by Canaanite practices. “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity…. I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you….” Enabled by God’s grace, the Israelites need to choose to receive what God has already promised.
The gunman who killed those in the Bible study chose prejudice, hatred, and violence. He chose death. The members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church choose life. They choose forgiveness. They choose to inspire and encourage. They choose to be kind. By doing for others, they choose to honor the lives of their mothers, their brothers, and their friends who died.
We are called to choose life in response to our God who asks us to be God’s hands and feet in this world. We are called to choose life so that the people God created in God’s image, whether white or black, short or tall, male or female, are seen as equal without prejudice. We are called to choose life in order that God’s peace prevails instead of our violence and war. We are called to choose life so that God’s light can be seen through the darkness in our world. We are called to choose life so that people can hear God whisper, “I love you.”
Sometimes choosing life is not a popular thing to do. The forgiveness shown by the people of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was counter-cultural. Being Jesus’ disciple won’t always make you popular. Even Jesus tells us that! “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” As disciples, our relationships will be reordered. Our family will include the poor and the lame, the person with no permanent home, and the one who cannot advance our future. There is a cost to following Jesus! Dietrich Bonhoeffer defines cheap grace as grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.[3]
“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,” Jesus says. Jesus invites us to give away our lives. Just as love grows when we give it away, so we live when we give our lives. “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, will save it.”[4] Choose life!
That is what Jesus does when he himself is sacrificed on the cross. Jesus chooses to give his very life for us to know God’s love and God’s forgiveness. Because Jesus gave his life for us, because of God’s unconditional love for us, we are free to choose life. That’s God’s promise to us. That’s what the cross is about, not just sacrifice, but about abundant life found in radical inclusion and in giving ourselves to others.
. “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity…. I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you….”
~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/06/19/i-forgive-you-relatives-of-charleston-church-victims-address-dylann-roof/?utm_term=.cdaa2e25312d accessed 9/2/2016.
[2] http://www.emanuelamechurch.org/acts-of-grace/index.html accessed 9/2/2016.
[3]http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/DCARead?standardNo=0684815001&standardNoType=1&excerpt=true accessed 9-2-2016.
[4] Luke 9:24