A Tale of Two Marches:

A Tale of Two Marches:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

(With Apologies to Charles Dickens)

Two marches took place on Saturday, August 12, 2017: one in Hayneville, Alabama and one in Charlottesville, Virginia. I had written my sermon on Friday, August 11, before the events and aftermath of the two Marches. It was entitled, “If you want to walk on the Water, you have to get out of the boat,” and was based on Matthew 14:28-33.

Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

It was, I thought, a pretty good sermon. By late afternoon on Saturday, I knew that today, Sunday, was going to begin very early in the morning, before daylight. Who knew we would have to “get out of the boat” so soon?

I did manage to keep the first couple of paragraphs of the original sermon, so there is that. I began with two questions: What is the situation in the church and the world today? Of what are we afraid? And, if we are afraid, we get out of the boat anyway. At Christ Episcopal Church, our drive circles around the church building and the entrance and exit are marked with signs, “Enter to Worship, and Exit to Serve. The message we receive each week is “come together in community to worship and receive strength, then go out into the world and do what Jesus did.” And do this, even if our feet get wet, and even if we are out of step with the world. To quote from the Beatitudes,

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil

against you falsely for my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in

heaven, for in the same way the persecuted the prophets who were before you.

(Matthew 5:11-12)

Now back to our two Marches. The first March in Hayneville, Alabama, a March for justice, peace and equality, is in memory of Jonathan Myrick Daniels, an Episcopal Seminarian and graduate of Virginia Military Institute, who came to Alabama in 1965 to help African Americans register to vote. Daniels and several others, including Ruby Sales, an African American teenager, were arrested and held in the Lowndes County Jail. When they were released, some of them crossed the street to Cash’s Grocery to by something to drink. As they entered the store, a part time Deputy Sheriff leveled a shotgun at Sales and fired just as Daniels stepped in front of her to save her life. He died instantly. The Episcopal Dioceses of Alabama and the Central Gulf Coast sponsor this yearly pilgrimage to commemorate Daniels and all other martyrs of the civil rights movement.

The second March, which took place almost simultaneously, was “Unite the Right,” and was about hatred, terrorism and murder. Both of these Marches force us to “get out of the boat.” As we get out of the boat, we, like Peter, must keep our eyes on Jesus in order to withstand the storm and stay afloat.

Where were the Christians on this weekend in Charlottesville? On Friday night they were inside St. Paul’s Church on the Campus of the University of Virginia praying for justice and peace and surrounded by White Nationalists with torches. They were not able to leave until marchers disbursed. On Saturday, clergy and lay Christians were on the sidewalks carrying signs proclaiming justice, peace and equality and singing “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” I believe Jesus would be and was there with them.

The White Nationalists were also on the streets. They were carying Nazi flags and Confederate Battle flags, making Nazi salutes and proclaiming Blood and Soil, a German expression coined in the late Nineteenth Century which refers to an ideology that focuses on ethnicity and territory. The phrase was popularized in the 1930’s with the rise of Nazi Germany.

President Trump finally made a generic statement that condemned the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides, on many sides.” But in this case there were not “many sides,” the perpetrators were White Nationalists. Terror is terror whether it is carried out by an ISIS driven car or a White Nationalist driven car, whether people are killed by radical Islamists or radical White people. Thank God for Congressman Paul Ryan, Senator Marco Rubio, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others who were willing to call this a terrorist event carried out by White Nationalists. Sessions has called for an investigation into the incident as a terrorist attack.

We as Christians, as Americans, must call terror, terror. We must call racism, racism, and we must call hate, hate. One of the people interviewed in Charlottesville was David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the KKK. I have met David Duke, looked into his eyes and felt I was in the presence of pure evil. I believe we as Christians can never, ever be a part of any movement that Mr. Duke is involved in. Historian, Howard Zinn wrote a book several years ago entitled, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train.” We can never be neutral, we must choose sides. Remaining neutral, not choosing sides, is to side with the oppressor.

Remember what Jesus said: “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely for my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way the persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)

Rejoice and be glad! Proclaim God’s Kingdom “on Earth as it is in Heaven!”