[Propertalk] Proper 18 b - part 3 a

[Robert P Morrison]

I cut the notes from the third email - 

	 The excuse and blame game can go on and on. Meanwhile, as people who
ought to know better debate and argue, as they indulge in what James
so bluntly called “acts of favoritism” – in which, we have to
admit, Jesus Himself indulged, to His shame – as people can’t stop
thinking about their own riches, about safeguarding their own
positions, sons and daughters are washing up, dead, on beaches; are
starving on sidewalks and under bushes; are being attacked, abused and
killed because of the colour of their skin, or the manner of
expressing their faith; children, and their parents, and their
grandparents are being killed rather than have any political or
economic figure lose the slightest bit of power to which they feel
they and they alone are entitled. 4 

	 Brother David Vryhof cut to the chase when he asked me, asked
everyone, last week, “Are there individuals or peoples or nations
that, in our judgment, are not deserving of God’s favor? Do we
consider ourselves to be better than others, specially favored of God,
worthy of being the primary objects of God’s favor, love, and
blessing? Has this type of arrogance infiltrated our national
consciousness?” 5 

	 He talked about this as being classic arrogance which won’t ask
the question, “What’s wrong with us?” He left me asking myself
how this tied in with those baptismal promises we all renewed last
week.  

	 The point of Baptism, the point of the Gospel, is that we’re
called to change. This is what we try to do with the world around us,
with our family members, with our neighbours, “Change, actual
change, is hard work (,however). And changing our own minds is the
most difficult place to start. (Yet i)t’s the only place to start.
It’s hard to find the leverage to change the way you (and I) see the
world, hard to ull on (our) thoughtstraps. But it’s urgent.” 6 

	 As William James said, “A great many people think they are
thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices...” 

	 Putting it another way, the great twentieth-century theologian, Karl
Barth, wrote, “Holy Communion is offered to all, as surely as the
living Jesus Christ is for all, as surely as all of us are not divided
in him, but belong together as brothers and sisters, all of us poor
sinners, all of us rich through his mercy.” 7 

	 When we see this, we begin to clear out the soil in which racism and
so many other faults grow. And when we SEE this, then we’re on the
way to learning how to alter course, for ourselves and for the world. 

	 Let us drink the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the
Lord. 

	 It may not be easy. But if Jesus could be turned around, surely we
can give it shot too! 

	 “The almighty and merciful Lord grant you and me pardon and
forgiveness of all our sins, time for amendment of life, and the grace
and comfort of the Holy Spirit.” 8 

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