Rev. Dr. Beth A. Donaldson
United Church of Christ in New Brighton
June 28, 2015
Lifting our Flags and our Voices
Psalm 30
I need to beg your forgiveness today because I am dealing with a pretty bad cold and am not feeling very well. And I know that you all would have been fine if I had not come to work today and had sent word with Amy or Aaron to just lead a hymn-sing or something. But I wantedto be with you all this morning. TODAY is a truly NEW DAY in our country, and I wanted to be able to share in a celebration of this new day with my faith community.
And here is why it was important to me. I will confess to you all that I have never, in my 53 years on this planet, had a real desire or inclination to wave our American flag with any real zeal or enthusiasm. If anything, I have avoided and been somewhat mistrusting of what people have meant when they do. The debate over what is implied and represented by the raising of what is being call the “Confederate” flag in South Carolina and other southern states has sparked in me some of my own uncertainty over the enthusiasm some have for the American flag itself. Over the years, as someone who has lived in other lands, it has been interesting to me to become aware of the thin line that sometimes exists between national pride (which is a wonderful thing) and “nationalism” – which, if we examine it we might see, is not very far from racism when it boasts a power over, or a sense of supremacy. I have also encountered, and I know this is not universally true at all, that our flag has often been associated strongly with some of the more exclusivist ideals of our country, which I am reluctant to support – most especially sexism, homophobia, racism, and the right to guns upon guns upon guns.
So it has been difficult for me, over the years, to get excited about it as a symbol of my own American-ness…until this week. As we approach our Independence Day holiday, and we make plans for celebrations next weekend, I am so excited about what it will mean for some of our people to wave the flag of this country this year. I am so excited about the ways many of us can now stand tall and strong in our national pride and wave the flag with true enthusiasm. This past week or so has been a watershed week for our country in terms of legislation and cultural assumptions. This week the Supreme Court began handing down decisions, and starting with housing, it affirmed that discriminatory practices may be prosecuted even if they were not intentional! I’m not a lawyer, so I will probably get the details wrong, but what I felt and heard in the essence of this law was support and compassion for some of the poorer people in our country – advocacy not for the wealthy and powerful, but for some of the least among us! This is something to be celebrated! If this is America, I will wave my flag high!
And then, the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, and as flawed and imperfect as it may be, again, I heard and felt in this decision, an awareness of the ways that it is a source of support for the least among us – an articulation of inclusiveness and access for so many more Americans in need! This is something to be celebrated! And if this is America, I will wave my flag high!
And then, on Friday morning, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that makes marriage equality true for people in all 50 of our United States! And what I felt and heard in this decision was an awareness of the love and commitment that are at the center of the desire for all people to marry, and an affirmation and inclusion of a segment of society that had been so excluded and brutalized for centuries, now welcomed into one of our most primary institutions. This is something to be celebrated! If this is America, I will gladly wave my flag high!
And in the midst of all these wonderful decisions being handed down, there has also been this fantastic shift in awareness of what the so-called “Confederate” flag symbolizes for African Americans and others in our country and a push to remove it from public display. I want to share some information about this particular flag before going. Author and theologian, Director of the Soul Repair Center, Rita Nakashima Brock shares this:
“The Confederate army flew under three different flags, none of them the one weassociate with the controversy. The history of the changes in the confederate flag are ironically funny. The first flag looked too much like the stars and stripes and got confusing on the battlefield, so they put white in place of the stripes, but then it looked sort of like a surrender flag, so they put a red vertical bar down the right side for blood, which they lost a lot of in losing.
The flag now flying in SC as a so-called symbol of their history was Northern VA's flag, the flag of Gen. Robert E. Lee, not the confederacy. Old Dixie emerged in 1895 as a symbol of the south's defeat and resistance to reconstruction and in 1961, to oppose integration. It is a white supremacist symbol in its use, not a symbol of the south as a heritage. My family in Mississippi is part of my heritage, where I was immersed in their lives from 1956-64, but I did not grow up with the flag flying in SC, and I would never consider it related to that time or part of my heritage, though I certainly experienced white supremacy and racism as the only nonwhite student in my junior high school, long after Brown v Topeka. My family of white southerners, however, never treated me or my mother as any less than as members of their various clans.”
And another religion and culture writer, Diana Butler Bass, shared these thoughts this week: “FIVE of my husband's ancestors were killed serving in the Confederate Army. His family has honored those ancestors by fighting and working for civil rights forall Americans. We honor the dead not by supporting a cause that excludes others; rather, we honor the dead by making sure democracy works on behalf of everyone. Creating a better America is the way to honor those who died out of love for their homeland, however misguided or sinful their political and social views may have been. Honoring one's ancestors sometimes means correcting the wrongs they committed.”
What is being uncovered in these discussions, processes, and push-back, I believe, is not only the meanings that are held in the symbolism of this flag, but the actual racism that remains in some people’s hearts. There have been some powerfully wonderful confessional moments – things I have hardly ever witnessed in this country – moments when politicians have said, bravely and earnestly, words like – “I’m sorry I didn’t ever think to do this before, but I’m willing to risk my political career to do what is right now, and that is, to take down this flag.” When previously very conservative politicians speak words of true confession and contrition about something other than sexual infidelity – this is something to celebrate! If this is America, then I will wave my flag high!
And please don’t get me wrong – it’s not just the actual decisions that make me proud and celebratory – it’s the fact that people are willing to be self-examining and to be changed! The latter two Supreme Court decisions – the Affordable Care Act decision, and the Marriage Equality decision – these happened because of changes of heart in one member of the court for each. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote these words in his closing remarks on the reversal on the ban of same-sex marriage, (and as a single person, I read them not as exclusive to marriage, but as making the institution of marriage, for those who enter it, more inclusive.): “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves! Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed!”
And finally, of course, in the background of all of this, has been the ongoing story of the deaths and funeral services for our nine brothers and sisters who were killed and Mother Emanuel Church on June 17. I had opportunity to watch quite a bit of the four-hour service on Friday for Rev. Clemente Pinckney – to listen to the various words of remembrance, and to see the parade of people sharing in grief and loss. And I was absolutely struck by the fact that there was not a single word of anger or hatred or resentment or vitriol or hope of retribution spoken – not a single one. And I was also struck by the witness of the gathering itself – but the testimony of the African American Community that was showing up in all its glory for each other – that was professing and embodying community and communion by being together in so much solidarity. And then it totally struck me that there was genuine joy expressed, over and over again, in the notion that these people were now with God – that they had gone home! Genuine joy and celebration.
I want to wave my American flag today because I am so proud to be associated with all of these people and all of these decisions and all of these actions and all of these beliefs! I am so proud that powerful people have been moved to be changed… and that people who have been struggling for centuries through much pain and persecution, are now being given freedom and rights, and are now, somehow, being heard and honored by our decisions! This is a day to celebrate!
The psalmist says, “As for me, I said in my prosperity, ‘I shall never be moved.’ By your favor, O Lord, you had established me as a strong mountain. (But) you hid your face, I was dismayed.” It’s easy, in our power and privilege, to imagine that God is showing favor on us – but in reality, this prosperity itself is one of the ways God is actually hidden from us. Our power and prosperity hurt and diminish us as much if not more than they hurt those who are oppressed by it. Our fear of change blocks us from experiencing the blessings that come from change itself. Our country will be more united now because we have let go of our fear and hatred! The institution of marriage will be stronger now that it is inclusive of all who want to marry.
No, this psalmist understands so well the truth about God – that even though we may struggle and weep -and we may struggle and weep for centuries - it won’t last forever – and that joy will come in the morning! Often this “morning” is heaven – but today, this morning is THIS morning! This psalmist understands what the African American community is showing us these weeks – that mourning is turned into dancing when we have confidence in God’s love; The psalmist knows what the GLBTQ community knows, that there will and has come a day when they no longer need to be silent, and they can now be clothed with joy! And the psalmist also understands that God, at some level, needs us to celebrate and give praise – needs us to testify to God’s goodness. The psalmist says, “Will the dust praise you? – Will it tell of your faithfulness?” No – God needs OUR praise and rejoicing!
This kind of moment doesn’t come very often – when we can testify with confidence to God’s evident goodness in the big policies of our lives. It just doesn’t happen very often! Today, the evidence of God’s goodness and grace are not just in the natural world around us, or just in the love of people who love us – today, they are shining brightly in the results of confession, contrition, and conversion, among some of the most powerful people on the planet – and this is resulting in change and new life for so many people – and because it doesn’t happen very often, I simply want to invite us all to truly celebrate our Country and our liberties this week. It is a new day, and God is to be praised! Let us join the psalmist in praising God, and let us join the African American community in allowing joy to fill our hearts! And let us join the GLBTQ Community in celebrating that it is a truly new day! And let us stand alongside our sisters and brothers in need as we give thanks for decisions that advocate and support the least among us! Let us lift our flags and lift our voices in praise and joy and thanksgiving! Let us lift EVERY voice and sing! Amen.