Why Sunday, September 16th Matters…

Sunday, September 16th, 2001.  

That’s a day I’ll never forget.   

Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, terrorists had struck America.

Planes slamming into buildings in New York and Washington, D.C.

One plane saw the passengers try to retake it and ended going down in Pennsylvania.  

Thousands died.  

America’s heart was ripped open.  

The nation was in shock.  

The church we belonged to in New Orleans had booked a well-known theologian to come in and speak for three days, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.   

Friday…great.

Saturday…awesome.

And then Sunday hit….O Holy Crap.

I was an elder in this church.   

I was young.  Arrogant. Full of myself. 

Thought I knew more than most people.   

Before I continue the story, I need to make a theological point. 

Scripture says, “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)

Wages is what you’re paid.   

You do “X” and you get paid “Y.”

You will hardly find a Christian theology that won’t affirm that because of our sin we deserve to die.   

It’s the result of our sin.   

I affirm that. 

It’s classical Christian orthodoxy.  

But even the deepest truth needs to have timing and sensitivity.   

It’s Sunday morning after September 11th. 

Everyone’s in shock. 

The speaker had told the Pastor and the Elders that he’d be “kind and sensitive and offer hope…”

Those were his actual words.   

He’s in the pulpit discussing God’s justice and sin and then he says it.   

The church was packed.   

Slammed full.

He takes his hand, slams the pulpit and says, “This past Tuesday, the people on those planes…they deserved to die!!”

O.

M.

G.

You could have heard a pin drop. 

Was he theologically accurate?  Yes, for the wages of sin is death.

Was his timing awful?  Yes.

Was he insensitive?  Yes. 

After the service, the congregation wanted to meet with the pastor and the elders about the speaker’s statement. 

In my immaturity, I didn’t bend my heart.  

I didn’t read the room. 

In my own arrogance and pride, I zealously defended what he had said and never once apologized for the insensitivity of his timing.   

I was an idiot.  

And I apologize.  

Some left our church on that day and never returned.   

This is the same moment in which America finds herself.   

(Don’t stop reading.  Please read the whole thing.)

Our African American friends are feeling the sting and shock of death.   

They’re feeling generational pain.  

And we all saw the disaster on tape…the police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck.  

What is our response?   

From what I’m seeing on Facebook, many of us are like that theologian on the Sunday morning after 9/11.  

We’re unwilling to give pain its place.   

I keep seeing post after post that screams, “All lives matter” and some that say, “White Lives Matter. I bet you don’t have the guts to share this.”   

I’m embarrassed once again.  

On that Sunday after 9/11, that theologian should have been more sensitive and given grace.   

It’s the Sunday after 9/11 in America…and we’re failing.  

Do all lives matter?  Sure.  But no one is arguing that point.  

It wasn’t all lives who had a knee put on their neck. 

It wasn’t all lives who was shot while jogging through a Georgia neighborhood.  

It was a black life.  And those lives matter.   

Why are many with my shade of skin unwilling to allow those words to be spoken?  

People have died.   

People are hurting.  

There’s this grand issue that must be addressed.  

But instead, we stand in that pulpit and slam our hands declaring, “All lives matter.”

How would you feel if at your grandmother’s funeral, the pastor got up and said, “Mrs Sarah was a lovely soul.  Cancer took her. But everyone calm down. All diseases are bad.  All deaths matter, not just hers. So, suck it up.”

That isn’t the time or the place to say that.   

Jesus told the truth, but he was never a jerk.   

Stop being jerks.

Jesus didn’t roll up at the tomb of Lazarus and proclaim, “Death happens.  Get over it.”

Nope. He showed kindness and grace.  

Jesus came upon a funeral of a young man in a town called Nain in Israel. 

His mother was a widow. This was her only son and she was burying him.

In those times, the only way the mother would be able to support herself would be to beg or turn to prostitution. 

Jesus didn’t arrive at that funeral and say, “Death is for everyone. Get over up. Suck it up, buttercup.”

Nope.

He showed kindness.  He showed grace.  

He raised the boy from the dead.   

This is a moment.  

This is our Sunday morning.  

Will we slam the pulpit and be insensitive?  

Will we be callous? 

Or will we listen?

Will we be kind? Gracious? Loving? 

Will we be like Jesus?

B

6/9/20

The Hospital Waiting Room

You’re in a hospital waiting room.
Several people are sitting there waiting for their names to be called.
An elderly couple opens the door and scurries to the check-in desk.
They find their seats and begin the wait with everyone else.

Suddenly, the door that exits from the exam rooms opens.
She’s bent over crying.
He has his arms wrapped around her.
The look on his face is one of fear and sadness.
You can see tears streaming down his cheeks.

He turns to those waiting and says, “It’s cancer. Cancer sucks.”

It’s at that moment things get awkward.

A person in the back right stands and says, “Heart disease sucks!!!

A young lady yells, “You should shut up! Diabetes sucks!!!”

The couple who just got the cancer diagnosis is in shock.
How can these people be so callous?
All he did was give context to their sadness and now people all over the waiting room are shouting back with their own diseases.

Finally, one fella stands and walks toward the couple, puts his finger in their faces and shouts, “All diseases matter!!”

How insensitive.
How rude.

More importantly, for Jesus follower, how unchristlike.

This scenario is playing out across America.

Our African American friends are hurting right now.
With the needless of murder of George Floyd, the cancer is back…actually, the cancer never left.
The cancer is just causing incredible pain.

These friends post and say, “Black lives matter.”
Instead of leaning in and saying, “I see you. I hear you. We’re standing with you.”

What do we do?

We’re like the people in that hospital waiting room and began to react with comments that say, “my pain is more important than yours!”

The ultimate cut is when someone stands and yells, “All Lives Matter.”

Are we really that heartless?

Have we drifted so far from Jesus that we’re unable to sit with those hurting and allow them to lament their pain without stating that our pain is equal?

It was once said that when you love someone it doubles the joy you experience and halves the pain.

Seems to me we’re doubling the pain and halving the joy.

We love ourselves more than we love others.

People hold up protest signs in front of abortion clinics that say, “Unborn lives matter” and not a word is said to negate that.
You don’t see anyone in the parking lot screaming back, “Adult lives matter! All lives matter!”
Why?
Because those protesting the abortion clinic are dealing with the cancer that is right in front of them.

Please stop saying, “All lives matter.”
When you do, you undermine the cancer that is eating away at the African American community.
Let’s join them in saying, “Black lives matter.”
Because those lives do matter.

If our response is to stand up and scream back, ask yourself why you’re doing that.
When someone is fighting cancer, why must you scream back, “My diabetes is just as bad!!!”
Do we love ourselves more than we love others?
Do we love a heritage more than we love others?
Do we love a nation more than we love our God?

This is a time to empathize and care.
This is a time to listen.

Black lives matter.

Everyone else in the waiting room needs to sit down and shut up.

Dear America, let’s be more like Lincoln and less like Jefferson Davis.

Brian