Author: Rev. Dr. Jarrett Banks

B.S. Wingate University, 1988 M.Div. Southern Seminary, 1992 D.Min. Gardner-Webb University, 2005 Served churches in Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and North Carolina Currently serving at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Lynchburg, Virginia

It’s Not About Us

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Sermons Year BLeave a comment

Its not about us

John 6:24-35 NRSV

Not long after I moved to Louisville, Kentucky to attend seminary, I was called to serve a fairly large church as their youth minister. We had over 1,500 members and about 75 teenagers. I was only 22 years old at the time and as proud as I could be on the staff of such a large church.

One of the first things that the personnel committee wanted to do after I was called was to turn in my name and driver’s license number to the church’s insurance company so I could drive the church’s vans.

About a week later, I was asked to meet with Norman Hartman, the chairperson of the personnel committee, and the pastor. We went into the pastor’s office. The pastor shut the door. Norman said, “Jarrett, we have a small problem. You’ve had right many traffic violations haven’t you?”

I hung my head down in shame; face all red. “Yes, I have.”

The pastor said, “Tell us about it.”

And as if I was in a confessional booth I started: “Well, I have had a couple of accidents that were my fault. I got a ticket each time. And I believe I’ve had four speeding tickets but none were for going over 70.”

“It says here in this report you’ve had five speeding tickets,” Norman said, sort of reluctantly.

The pastor shook his head.

“One of them was not for speeding. It was for passing someone on a double-yellow line.” Norman and the pastor grimaced.

I tried to explain: “But I was on my way home for school for Spring Break going through this small town in North Carolina called Bethel. And I had been behind this car forever that was going 20 miles an hour! And as soon as we got out of the town, I passed.”

The pastor asked, “With all of those tickets, it seems like they would have taken your license away.”

“They were going to,” I said. But I went to a driver’s improvement clinic so I could keep it.”

Then the news came. I will never forget it. “Well, it’s nothing personal Jarrett,” Norman said, “but we are not going to be able to let you drive our vans. We think it would be too risky. Besides, putting you on our list of drivers would make our insurance premiums sky-rocket.  Our agent said that if you don’t get any more tickets in the next three years, you might be able to drive when you turn 25.”

Seeing that I was completely devastated and utterly embarrassed, the pastor said some of the most uplifting and comforting words: “Jarrett I want you to know that you driving record in no way makes me think less of you and your ability to be a fine youth minister. So, hold your head up, it’s not about you. We just can’t justify paying the increased premiums.”

“It’s not about you.” As a pastor, that’s a phrase that I find myself using rather frequently with different people.

One of my church members in Winston-Salem got her feelings hurt when I did not visit her in the hospital. She told someone in her Sunday School class that she spent nearly a week in the hospital and I never once came by to see her. However, the fact was that I had no idea that she was ever in the hospital. How was I supposed to know?

When I found out she was upset, I went to see her. She started the conversation by complaining that if her last name was so-in-so (she named a prominent family in the church) I would have been there. She said: “I know that I’m really not that important in this church.”

I said, “This is not about you. It has nothing to do with who you are or what your last name is. I didn’t go see you because I simply didn’t know you were in the hospital. It’s not about you.”

I had a conversation with someone who has experienced a lot of tragedy recently. She was visibly very depressed about her situation. “I can’t believe that all of this is happening to me? Why is God doing this to me?  What in the world have I done to deserve all of this?”

I said, “This is not about you. Your loved one got cancer because he’s a human being and sometimes human beings get cancer. Your car had a flat tire, because that’s what tires do when you run over a nail. And your pet died because that’s what pets do, they die. It’s not about you.”

I believe we are somewhat trained by our culture to take everything personally, to think of ourselves as the center of the universe. We judge all people, experiences, and events, all organizations and relationships on what they do for sweet, adorable me.

This is one of the reasons I believe church can be difficult for us. Because church, what we are about here, can be quite a reach for us because the truth is that Church is about God. It’s not about us.

A friend and I went to chapel when I was in seminary to hear a well-known preacher in our denomination. In his sermon, he talked about people in his church who were committed to selfless service in their daily lives. His examples were inspiring.  He talked about people who visited the sick, people who reached out the poor, people who stood up for justice and for what was right in spite of the possible repercussions.”

On the way out, I was thinking of what a great sermon it was when my friend commented, “You know, not one time did that preacher mention Jesus.”

And he was right. If you did not know anything about the church, on the basis of that sermon, you might think that the church is basically a volunteer social service agency, some sort of well-intentioned civic organization, and nothing more.

I believe this is the danger of being such a mission-minded church. We make the church more about people than we do about God. We say: “The church is not this building on the corner of Church and Main. The Church is not bricks and mortar. The church is the people. The church is me, and the church is you, and the church is about the people who are outside these walls.

That’s a far cry from speaking of the church as: “the body of Christ.”  And it’s a long way from today’s scripture lesson.

The crowds are chasing after Jesus, thinking that he will produce bread on demand. Jesus tries to teach the crowds that they ought to hunger after bread that is eternal life. “I am the bread of life,” he tells them.  That’s what Jesus often does, especially in the gospel of John. He turns our earthly, selfish needs away from ourselves, and toward the things of God, things eternal. This Sunday, as on most Sundays, our scripture lesson is not about us, it is about God.

However, if we are not careful in our culture, and as I said, especially in a progressive, mission-minded church such as ours, it is easy to get confused into thinking that the church is mostly about us, that worship is little more than a pep rally to motivate folks to live better lives, and go out and to serve others, and that the supreme test of our Sunday is that “we get something out of it.”

And yet, it is my duty to tell you, and to keep reminding myself, that “This is not about us.”

What is this about? It is primarily about Jesus, crucified, risen and presently reigning. This is about God. William Willimon once put it this way: “worship is primarily about learning to suppress some of our self-concern and cultivate more God-concern.”  Sunday is a time we confronted with God’s feelings about us. Worship isn’t some pep rally to get us busy doing things for God, but worship is primarily an occasion when we celebrate what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.[i]

There is a word for worship that we don’t use very much. Maybe it’s because we don’t feel it that often. That word is ecstasy. The tragedy is that we probably only think of this as a name for an illicit drug or as some other type of physical arousal. The word ecstasy comes from the Greek, meaning literally to “stand outside one’s self.”

When we are in ecstasy, we stand outside ourselves. That is a very hard thing for modern people like us to do. For our culture encourages us to delve deeper into ourselves, constantly monitor our personal feelings, continually worry about questions like, “What am I feeling now?  What am I thinking?  What am I supposed to be doing?”

Sunday worship is a blessed opportunity to look beyond ourselves, to get outside ourselves.

When I was taking a pastoral care class at Gardner-Webb a few years ago, the professor asked us to share our feelings, to talk about our fears and frustrations, and to courageously look within ourselves. At first, it was a bit awkward, but eventually we all joined in the session. After all, most of us, especially pastors, despite what we say, we really enjoy talking about ourselves.

And yet one of the pastors had very little to say. He said to the group, “I tried looking inside myself on a number of occasions, and frankly, I don’t see much there. To tell the truth, I think I am a rather superficial person, rather weak. I am not sure that I have much of significance to share with the group.”

The professor assured this pastor that this was not the case and that whatever he shared would be significant to the group. I remember thinking that this was a person who obviously needed greater self-confidence. We all encouraged him.

But then the pastor said: “I really feel that some of the most interesting things about me are the things that are outside of me—my relationships, my family and friends, and my God. I think that the most interesting thing about me is that God has chosen me, me with all my inadequacies and failings, to do good work for God. I think that is what makes me special. The significance of my life has come from outside my life.  If I stripped away all those who are outside me—my family, my children, my wife, and the people in my church, and my God, I don’t believe there would be much there.”

I thought that his statement was one of the most profound Christian statements I’d ever heard.  He could have put it another way, namely, “It’s not about me.”

Thanks be to God that it is rather about God, God who loves us so much that God became one of us to save us, to be with us, to give significance to our lives that we could not have given them on our own. Thanks be to God that we are not called to leave this service to love others simply because we are supposed to be good, ethical people. No, we leave this place to love others, because God in Christ first loved us.

[i] The inspiration for this sermon came from a sermon by William Willimon that was printed in Pulpit Resource, Logos Productions, 2006.

A New Day Dawning in Farmville

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Farmville Enterprise1 Comment

McNairIn the late 1930’s Harry Albritton began dreaming of a new day for Farmville. It began one day when he and his best friend decided to go to the movies together at the Paramount Theater. When they arrived, Harry became confused, agitated and disappointed as he was told that his friend could not sit with him. For you see, his friend, nicknamed “Ting,” was black. Harry was told that he was welcomed to come in and sit downstairs, but his friend had to use another entrance and sit in the balcony. Harry, not wanting to be separated from his friend, remembers responding: “If Ting is going to sit in the balcony, I am going to sit in the balcony too.” He said, “I was the only white boy in the balcony that day, but I was not going to let skin color separate me from my friend.”

It is almost eighty years later, and a lot has changed in Farmville. However, a lot has remained the same. In many ways, we are still separated. The new day of Harry’s dream as a little boy has yet to arrive.

Yet, there appears to be a light glimmering on the horizon. It’s a distant, faint light, but it’s a light nonetheless. Last Thursday, the Apostle Dr. Aaron McNair from the Mount Moriah Church spoke from the pulpit of the First Christian Church. He boldly admonished us to come together erasing the lines that separate us to be one Church to do the work of Christ together, side-by-side, hand-in-hand: feeding the hungry, lifting up the poor, giving hope to the despairing, speaking truth to power, and exorcising all kinds of demonic evil: structural, systemic, personal and even ecclesial.

McNair said: “Think of what a better town this would be. Think of what a better nation this would be, if we would just come together.”

After he spoke to the congregation that was gathered, he and I embraced there on the chancel. As we hugged, he whispered, “I believe this is the start of something big.”

I whispered back, “I believe it is.”

The light on the horizon is faint, because there is much work to do. If the new day of Harry’s dream, and of so many others since, is to arrive, much will need to change. However, the good news is that wherever there is just a flicker of light, there is hope. And last Thursday, I saw more than a flicker.

Loving God with All of Our Heart, Soul, Mind and Strength: A Pastoral Prayer

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Farmville EnterpriseLeave a comment

heat soul mind strengthO God, give us hearts that are full of gratitude.

And forgive us for taking so many things in life for granted. Forgive us for not living with the awareness that all of life is a gift of your amazing grace and unconditional love. Forgive our prideful, self-righteous hearts, for oftentimes acting as if we deserve life, as if we have somehow earned the blessings of life.

O God, give us souls that are full of compassion.

And forgive us for not living, acting, and speaking ask if we know anything at all about your suffering in Christ and the immense suffering of others. Forgive our complacent, self-centered souls, for oftentimes acting as if we are the only people in the entire world that matter.

O God, give us minds that are full common sense.

And forgive us for not using the holy gift of our brains for thoughtful contemplation and critical thinking. Forgive our ignorant, shallow, closed, and pompous minds, for oftentimes behaving as if we already have all the answers, for making things too simple, too black and white. Forgive us for being unwilling to seek your truth and your justice that has the power to set all people free.

O God, give us strength in our bodies and determination to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.

And forgive us for living as if our bodies were created only for our own pleasure. Forgive our self-indulgent, comfort-seeking, carnal ways, for oftentimes living only to please ourselves, for being unwilling to step outside of our comfort zones, outside of the safe sanctuary to selflessly and sacrificially love all our neighbors as ourselves. Forgive us for using our strength, our power and privilege to exploit the weak, the powerless, and the unprivileged.

O God, thank you for your love and give us the grace to love you with all of our hearts, all of our souls, all of our minds, and all of our strength. Amen.

Without God, All Things Are Possible (and Probable)

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Sermons Year BLeave a comment

without god2 Samuel 11:1-15 NRSV

Psalm 14 NRSV

Ephesians 3:14-21 NRSV

A wonderful facet of Holy Scripture is its sheer candor. Unlike much of other ancient literature, the Bible does not protect its greatest heroes from their shortcomings and failures as sinful human beings. Absent of any spin and bias, the writers tell their sordid stories with astonishing honesty.  Their misconduct and foolishness are laid bare, with remarkable objectivity.

All who take time to study the Bible are privy to the impatience of Moses, the skepticism of Sarah, the reluctance of Jeremiah and the cowardice of Peter. But of all the offensive exploits of God’s special men and women, perhaps none is more despicable than David’s dealings with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah.

David’s treachery is even greater when we compare it to Uriah’s fidelity. Uriah is faithfully defending his country when David learns that Bathsheba is expecting with his child.

David thinks: “I have to cover this up.”

David deceitfully pretends to inquire about the war’s progress, but his real purpose was to devise a reason for Uriah and everyone else to assume that the unborn child naturally belongs to Uriah.

He encourages Uriah to go home to be with Bathsheba so the adulterous affair might not be revealed.

However, Uriah’s integrity and loyalty to his comrades on the battlefield supersedes the hospitality of his wife. Uriah sleeps out back in the servant’s quarters, explaining to David that this was his way of keeping faith with his fellow soldiers.

Frustrated, David tries once again by getting Uriah all liquored up.  However, even while intoxicated, Uriah remains faithful to his comrades by sleeping on the sofa.

Uriah’s loyalty to his troops is especially remarkable when we remember that Uriah is not even a native Israelite, but a Hittite. Yet, his personal code of conduct, his unwavering fidelity repeatedly stands in the way of David’s deceitful plans.

And here is when the story really goes awry. Frustrated by the fidelity of Uriah and knowing that as soon as the child is born it will be clear to all that adultery had been committed, David spirals out of control, desperately, deceitfully and audaciously ordering the death of Uriah.

Perhaps we have all heard the hopeful words of Jesus recorded by Matthew, “With God, all things are possible.” Well, the story of David reveals that the opposite can also be a true.

It was the 19th century Russian philosopher Dostoevsky who penned the phrase, “Without God, everything is permissible.”  Without God, things are quick to go awry, get out of hand. Without God, we all have the propensity to spiral out of control. Without God, everything is possible.

As the Psalmist warns, without God all behavior that is foolish and destructive is not only possible, it has no limits.

Without God, God-created sexual attraction is transformed into selfish lust leading to the objectification and dehumanization of others and sometimes to betrayal, deceit, and even murder.

Without God, a little money earned fosters insatiable greed leading to the exploitation of others, especially the poor.

Without God, the understanding that all of life is a gift from God, that all is grace, is twisted into an egotistical and entitled pride leading to all kinds of bigotry and exclusivity.

Without God, power derived from birth, inheritance, dumb luck, is used to dismiss and to oppress, to abuse and to misuse, those born without power.

Without God, the holy call to forgive as we have been forgiven is replaced by a call to resentment, revenge and malicious acts of violence.

Without God, lies and propaganda breed fear, and fear breeds bitterness, and bitterness breeds anger, and anger breeds hatred, and hatred can provoke a man to take a gun into a movie theater, into a school or into a church and start shooting the innocent.

Without God, narcissism, sexism, racism, extremism, despair, murder, limitless atrocities are not only possible, they are probable.

Walter Brueggeman has correctly observed that: “It is the knowledge of the reality of God present and at work in our world and in our lives which sets limits to destructive possibilities.”

David’s problem was simply a lack of this knowledge. David had become so powerful, so confident and so proud, that he became blind to the reality of God present and at work in our world.

David imagined that he was somehow exempt from the supreme law of God to love his neighbor as himself. David lived his life, made his decisions, and acted out without knowledge of God, as if God did not exist. And it was this self-indulgent lifestyle which brought destruction to him and his family.

I want to suggest that the prayer in our epistle lesson can help us to avoid such foolishness or madness—madness of which we, including yours truly, are all capable.

One does not have to be a King to forget who we are and whose we are. For all of us, perhaps especially us Westerners living in the 21st century, there exists the danger to go too far with our freedom. We are tempted to cross the line with our liberty. In our sinfulness and brokenness we tend to forget that the world in which we live in is bounded by the mysterious but trustworthy love and law of God. We sometimes forget the reality of God present, at work in our world and at work in our lives—we forget that all of life is bounded by God’s inexplicable, but unfailing grace.

I believe the prayer for the church at Ephesus needed to be David’s prayer and needs to be our prayer today.

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.

We need to know that God’s connectedness with us is so intimate and so personal that God, God’s self, has named us. God is as close to us as good parents are to their children. We need to know that God cares for us and nurtures us and loves and suffers with us like a devoted parent. We have all heard the phrase, “only a mother could love that man!” God’s love for us is always present. There is no end to its trust, no failing of its hope. It stills stand when all else has fallen. And this love is all we will ever truly need.

I  pray that, according to the riches of his glory that you will be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts as you are being rooted and grounded in love.

We need to know that when we are physically weak, God can and will make us spiritually strong. God can and God will strengthen us to overcome temptations and trials. God will be our conscience and help us through the knowledge of Christ to replace our lust with respect, our resentment with forgiveness, our hatred with love, our disregard and disdain for the poor with a conscience for justice.

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge so that you may be filled with the fullness of God.

We need to know that God loves us more than we can possible imagine. This is why the Bible can be so honest and so objective. This is why this book is a canon of candor. This is why misconduct and madness can be laid utterly bare. David can be as sinful as a person can be, and, by the grace of God, be remembered by the Apostle Paul in Acts as “a man after God’s very own heart” (Acts 13:22).

Think about this:  If David understood the breadth and the length and the height and the depth of God’s love and God’s grace, would David have gone as far as he did to cover up his sins?

God’s love for us is so great and so big, that there is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from it, through Christ Jesus our Lord.  Thus, with God, when we expose our sins, when we reveal our shortcomings, when we lay bare our brokenness, when we confess our anger and hate, we are enveloped by an amazing grace that is greater than our sin.

But, if we ignore our sins without God, never confess it, pretend it doesn’t exist, conceal it by calling it by another name, try to somehow justify it, then, well, anything is possible.

The good news is that the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love is so great and so intimate and so personal that it has the power to make all that is destructive in this world simply impossible.

Without God, things can go completely awry. Without God, all Hell will break loose. Without God, all things are possible. But with God, there are many things that are impossible.

With God, unforgiveness is impossible.

With God, absolute loneliness is impossible.

With God, being completely lost is impossible.

With God, utter despair is impossible.

With God, being unaccepted, unloved and unworthy is impossible.

With God, spiraling out of control into utter madness is impossible.

With God, saying things or doing things or voting for things that harm our neighbors, especially our neighbors whom the Bible calls the least of these, without a conscience that that names these sins and calls us to repent to obey the supreme law of God to love neighbor as self is impossible.

With God, coming to church, praying, singing hymns and listening to a sermon without a divine call and a holy conviction to leave the comfort of this sanctuary to go out into a dangerous world to be the church, to do the things that Jesus did, lifting up the lowly, seeking out the lost, healing the sick, speaking truth to power, and confronting and challenging and exorcising all kinds of evil, is impossible.

With God, total destructiveness, eternal death, and all Hell breaking loose is impossible.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.

Reflections on My First General Assembly 

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Short Articles3 Comments

soar

Two years ago, I chose to leave my denomination to become a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The 2015 General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio reaffirmed that this was one of the best choices I have ever made.

The workshops were challenging, and  the worship services were inspiring, reminding me that we are not called to merely go to church, but we are called to be the church, the very embodiment of Christ working for wholeness in our fragmented world. 

This reaffirmation and reminder was a great comfort to me as I have struggled over the years with my sense of calling to ministry and with my denominational identity. However, it is a special kind of comfort, a holy, God-given comfort. As Rev. Terri Hord-Owens said in the opening sermon of the assembly: “God comforts all of us, but not to make us comfortable. Our comfort is only a pivot-point to go out to serve and to love those in our world who need to be comforted.”

I chose to be a Disciple because my old denomination seemed to to me to be more about maintenance than mission. It seemed to be more about keeping everyone satisfactorily comfortable, rather than using the comfort of God’s affirmation as a pivot-point to make difficult stands as followers of Christ. They sought to be moderate, mainline and mainstream. However, the reality is that Jesus sometimes calls us to be upstream and anything but moderate and mainstream, even if it is uncomfortable.

Some Disciples are concerned that the resolutions that are made during the business sessions are “divisive.” Although resolutions are not edicts that are imposed on congregations as each church is autonomous, they say that voting “yea” or “nay,” agreeing or disagreeing with resolutions, undermines the unity of the denomination. They say that this is the reason many are leaving the denomination.

However, I believe more people leave denominations and churches when those organizations simply stop looking like or speaking like Jesus. I believe people who know their Bibles and the actions and words of Jesus are leaving the church in droves, because, instead of looking like Jesus on a mission for social justice announcing and ushering in the Kingdom of God, it looks like some sort of club on a mission to keep everyone agreeable and unified by remaining silent or moderate.

I believe agreement and unity are two different things. With Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, I believe a wonderful aspect of Disciples is that we do not have to always agree with one another to be unified. Our unity does not come from our ability to agree or moderate a position. Our unity comes from God who unites us in Christ and in Christ alone.

This certain and sacred unity gives us the freedom to courageously take risks which are often needed to do the uncomfortable and unpopular work of Jesus of loving our neighbor as ourselves, feeding the hungry, lifting up the poor, welcoming and teaching the children, healing the sick, forgiving the sinner, friending the prisoner, restoring the marginalized, raising he dead and exorcising all kinds of evil: personal, social, systemic, structural and even ecclesial.

As Rev. Dr. Amy Butler preached: “the time is now; the pain of our world is desperate; and the call of God is clear. It’s that serious.”

Rev. Dr William Barber correctly diagnosed our nation’s desperation as a “deep heart problem” that only God can revive by using the church as a “defibrillator to shock the nation with the electricity of God’s justice, love and mercy.”

If we remain silent or moderate to try to maintain the satisfaction of every member, we will continue to lose not only the hearts of our members, not only the heart of our nation, but the heart of the church as we will simply cease being relevant.

This was my first General Assembly, and I could not be more excited to be both a Disciple, and hopefully, a “defibrillator,” an upstream Christian who will no longer compromise by going with the flow to avoid rocking the boat in order to keep everyone on board comfortable. With God’s help, I look forward to trying to do my small part to help us look less like members of a club, or even a denomination, and more like disciples of Christ.

Ten Observations from My Wheelchair

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Farmville EnterpriseLeave a comment

IMG_1821
These things I have learned following my knee surgery:

1. Elevators are usually a great distance from the escalator or stairs.

2. Getting on an elevator when someone else in a wheelchair is exiting the same elevator requires speed, agility and sometimes patience.

3. Not all automatic handicap door buttons function properly.

4. Most doors are dangerously heavy and swing closed very quickly.

5. Going downhill is just as difficult as going uphill, and it is more scary.

6. Some thresholds are insurmountable without extra help from strangers.

7. Extra help is often readily available from strangers.

8. Strangers will make eye contact, smile and offer a warm greeting.

9. Strangers will hold doors open and compassionately ask if there is anything else they can do for you.

10. Strangers will approach you empathetically express concern for your well-being.

What a better world it would be if we treated everyone as if they are disabled or somehow challenged. Because, living in this broken, difficult, obstructed, sometimes scary and dangerous world, aren’t we all?

Freaking out in front of the Pastor

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Farmville Enterprise1 Comment

embarrassed young brunette covering her mouth with both handsI am working on a mission project with a group of men. We are building a handicap ramp for someone who is disabled. One of the men accidently hits his thumb with a hammer. And he says it: “S#IT!”

I look up and smile. Then it begins: “I am so, so sorry preacher! I can’t believe I said that in front of you! May the Lord forgive me!”

I am at dinner with a group of friends. Someone shares a shocking story. Someone else at the table says it: “D&MN!”

Then they turn to me, their face red with remorse and embarrassment, their hands covering their mouths, and they freak out: “Oops, I did not mean to say that word, especially in front of the pastor! Please accept my apology!”

I am standing in a long line at the grocery store with a friend. The person checking out is having trouble with their EBT card. My friend whispers: “That’s the problem with this country. Too many N*%%ERS on food stamps.”

I look at them startled. Then…well, then there’s nothing. Just silence. Like nothing at all happened out of the ordinary. No flushed cheeks. No apology.

During my entire ministry I have been told not to talk about racism. People tell me: “It just stirs things up.” “It creates division.”  And for the most part, like most white preachers in the South who like to avoid controversy, I have acquiesced.

Perhaps that is the reason that people become horrified with regret and overcome with embarrassment when they utter a harmless four-letter word in front of me, but act completely normal when they say a word that has been created for the sole purpose of harming others. Speaking out against racism is not going to suddenly change things; however, I am convinced that ignoring it, pretending that it does not exist, and keeping silent will change nothing.

Like removing a flag or a monument and changing a mascot, changing our vocabulary is not going to magically end hate in our world. Changing what is acceptable and what is unacceptable to say in front of your pastor is not going to suddenly bring about racial harmony. But isn’t it the least we can do?

My hope is that others will join me in speaking out against racism, at least until the “N-word” becomes more offensive than “the D-word,” “the S-word, and the “F-word,” and at least until all people freak out with shame and remorse if one day they ignorantly let the N-word slip out in front of their pastor.

I Pledge Allegiance

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Sermons Non-LectionaryLeave a comment

Romans 13:1-10 NRSV

On the day after our country’s 239th birthday, and in light of the recent events that have gripped our nation, I want to add my voice to the voices of preachers across our land who are faithfully proclaiming, even in the face of persecution, that the United States of America is in deep spiritual trouble.

As the prophets warned Israel, we have turned our hearts away from God to follow our own selfish desires. We have replaced the law of God created for God’s divine purposes and for our eternal good with the law of human beings created for our own wicked purposes and temporary pleasures.

Some argue that the law of God is out of date and out of touch with reality. They say it was written for another time, another place, another people.

Others argue that the law of God is too complicated, open to too many interpretations, to be the law of any land.

And others have the gall to pick and choose, to change and to twist the law of God to support their self-centered, self-seeking perversions.

And preachers are just as guilty.

Ashamed of the gospel, we have separated our faith from our politics. Afraid of offending someone, we have been reluctant to call evil “evil” and sin “a sin.” We have been far too complacent, way too silent, all in the name of the false god of tolerance.

And using the excuse of Separation of Church and State, we have spoken far too little from our pulpits about the need for our nation to be governed, not by the will of the people, not by the law of the Supreme Court, but by the law of the Supreme Being.

So, on this Independence Day weekend, I want to join my voice with preachers all over this great land and proclaim that it is high time faithful Christians wake up and rise up to stand up for the law of God.

When I was growing up, I was taught that it was not only my civic duty, but it was my Christian duty to pledge my allegiance to the flag of United States of America. Since then, I have learned that some Christians do not believe in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Some believe saying the Pledge is disobedience to Christ who said we should not “swear by an oath.” Others believe that we should pledge our allegiance to God and only to God. And some argue that the words “under God” should be removed from the Pledge for reasons of religious liberty.

But in light of current events, I believe it may be time for us to recommit ourselves to this pledge, especially saying it with the words, “under God.” Here’s why…

I

In America, I, as an individual, have certain inalienable rights. As an individual citizen of this country, I have freedom. And with that freedom, comes great responsibility. Each one of us has a voice, has a vote, and has the responsibility to make this country the very best that it can be.

Pledge allegiance

The prophets of the Old Testament and the disciples of the New Testament who were imprisoned by the Roman government for disobeying human laws teach us that our allegiance is not blind. Our allegiance does not mean blindly accepting our faults, never questioning our past, and never second-guessing how current policies will affect our future. Allegiance means faithfully doing our part to “mend thine every flaw.”

It means being loyal, law-abiding citizens committed to our civic duty of voting in elections. However, it also means voicing opposition to laws that need to be changed and to elected officials who need be corrected. Civil allegiance sometimes means civil disobedience.

Like a faithful marriage, pledging allegiance means being loyal to our country in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, never giving up, never becoming complacent, never running away. It means perpetually praying for it, continually correcting it, forever fighting for it.

To the flag of the United States of America

Yes, we pledge our allegiance to the flag. As a child, I remember questioning this, uttering to myself: “It’s just a flag. It’s merely a piece of cloth with a design that someone has sewn together and run up a pole.” But, of course, I soon learned that the flag is much more than that.

And to the Republic for which it stands

The flag is not a mere sign for our country. It is the profound symbol of our country. Signs are limited as signs only give information. Signs do not have the power to stand for something. Only symbols can do that. Whereas signs invoke intellectual responses from the brain, symbols elicit visceral emotions from the heart and gut. For the Christian, the Stars and Stripes is to our country what the cross is to our faith. This is the reason that the Confederate Battle Flag is so controversial. The flag is not a mere historical marker, label, design or brand but a powerful symbol that stands for something. Flags have the power to move us, stir us, and guide us.

One nation

Although heritage and culture are important aspects of life in different parts of our country, they are never more important than the unity of our country. Jesus spoke truth when he said that “a house divided against its self cannot stand.”

Under God

For me, this is the most important part of the pledge. I could not and would not say the Pledge without it.

Not under God because we are down here and God is up there. Not under God because we want some sort of theocracy like ISIS and other Islamic extremists. And not under God because we believe we were established to be a Christian nation like some Christian extremists.

Rather, as Christians, we pledge our allegiance to country under, after, second to, our allegiance to the law of God.

This is why our allegiance is not blind. As Christians, the Commander-in-Chief is not our chief commander. The Supreme Court is not our supreme being. Our allegiance is first pledged to something that is bigger than our nation, even larger than our world.

It is an allegiance that informs our vote, rallies our civic duties, admonishes our obedience to civil law, and yet, sometimes calls us to civil disobedience. For the Christian, it is the God revealed through the words and works of Jesus who becomes our civil conscience. We believe the law of God revealed through Christ supersedes every human law.

And, no matter what anyone says, this law is simple, and it is quite clear.

Immediately following words from the Apostle Paul regarding good citizenship and obeying the law, we read that every one of God’s laws is summed up in just one law: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said it this way: “On this hang all of the laws of the prophets “…that you love your neighbor as yourself.”

And just in case some are still confused to what “love” is, Paul defines love by saying: “Love does no wrong to a neighbor.”

This is the law of God. This law is not complicated, and this law is not open to interpretation. This law is not outdated or obsolete. And this law is in no way trivial. In fact, Jesus said, “There is no law greater.” It is as if Christ is saying, “If you don’t get anything else from Holy Scripture, you need to get this: ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” Yet, as evidenced by the amount of hatred, racism and violence that is in our nation today, even in the church, this supreme law is widely ignored, disobeyed or rejected all together.

I believe it is when we first pledge our allegiance to this supreme law, that we have the opportunity to be a great nation. For when we love our neighbors as ourselves, when in everything we do to others as we would have them do to us, it quickly becomes “self-evident that all people are created equal with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Indivisible

When we pledge allegiance to the supreme law of God, when we pledge to love our neighbors as ourselves, we promise to work together under God to build bridges to overcome the gaps and barriers that we have created that divide us: racial, sexual, ethnic, political, economic, educational and religious. We pledge to come together, side by side, hand in hand, for the equality and the inalienable rights of all people.

This does not mean that we are to never disagree with the beliefs or lifestyles of others. We can certainly love our neighbor while disagreeing with our neighbor. It is not hating our neighbor when we disagree with the flag that our neighbor flies; however, when we infringe on their life, their liberty, and their pursuit of happiness by supporting public policies or actions that treat them as second-class citizens, that do harm to our neighbor, it is certainly not loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. As our president said in the eulogy of Rev. Clementa Pinckney: “…justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other. [Our] liberty depends on [our neighbors] being free, too.”

With liberty and justice for all.

We pledge to work for freedom and fairness not just for our educated, rich neighbor who can afford the best attorneys, and not just for our advantaged, abled-bodied and able-minded straight, white, Christian, English-speaking neighbors. We pledge ourselves to stand for liberty and justice for all. And according to the Christian faith, all especially includes the minorities, the poor, the disabled, the marginalized and the foreigner.

All even includes people of every nation. That’s why we are planning yet another trip to Nicaragua. For our love, our faith, our mission to stand for liberty and justice has no borders.

For the Christian who pledges their allegiance first to the Christ who loved all and died for all, all truly means all.

This past week, someone raised the following question on facebook, and to avoid being obscene, I am going to paraphrase: “They only represent 2% of the population. Why do they matter?”

This was not just one lone, ugly, hateful voice, but one that was representative of the sentiment many of my facebook friends who call themselves “Christian.”

“They only make up 2% of the population. Why do they matter?”

Like I said, this nation is in deep spiritual trouble.

For the Christian who pledges his or her allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all: Gay lives matter; Black lives matter; because according to everything for which this flag stands under the supreme law of God, all lives will never matter until all means all.

Seeing the Flag

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Short ArticlesLeave a comment

confederate

Raised in the rural South and as a big Dukes of Hazzard fan, I grew up loving the Condederate Battle Flag. I was proud to be from the South and proud to be a country boy. The flag represented that pride for me.

I believe in free speech and would die for everyone’s right to proudly fly the Confederate Battle Flag on their personal property if they so choose. I do not believe that flying or displaying the flag makes one a racist any more than I believe that not flying it makes one not a racist.

As a white southerner, when I see the Confederate Battle Flag, I may see Southern history. I have the capacity to see Southern pride and heritage. I can see brave men a ho fought for and gave their lives for their homeland. That is what I see.

I think it is interesting that Jesus talked an awful lot about “seeing.” In fact, he talked more about blindness than he talked about sin. He was constantly asking his disciples: “Do you not see?” “Do you have eyes and fail to see.” Furthermore, it is obvious that when Jesus gives sight to the blind, he is symbolically giving sight to others, especially the religious folks of his day.

In the light of the tragedy in Charleston, I now see the flag differently. With many others, I believe I now see the flag more clearly, more wholly, and more honestly, as I now see it through the eyes of those who were murdered in that church. 

Since the tragedy, I have been reminded how the flag has been used and abused by hate groups, mainly by people who long to go back to the day when “black people knew their place.” l realize that the flag now has meanings that it was never intended to have. I also am reminded why the flag was raised at the South Carolina Capitol in the first place: as a symbol of opposition to the civil rights movement.

I also understand that it is a symbol. It is not a sign. It is not a historical marker. Unlike signs, symbols have a particular power to excite and to elicit. Unlike signs that give information invoking a response in the brain, symbols stand for something invoking visceral emotions in the heart and gut. So when I see the flag through the eyes of the victims in Charleston, I can understand the consternation that most of our African-Americans citizens have in the South when they see it. Seeing it on a bumper sticker, t-shirt, or flying in someone’s yard is one thing; seeing it flying by the government or endorsed on a license plate issued by the government that should be working for liberty and justice for all is quite another thing, especially if that government has a history of oppression.

As a Christian, I believe in the words of Jesus, “love one another as I have loved you” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” I believe we do that best by trying to put ourselves in the shoes of others, when we try to see the world through the eyes of others, especially through the eyes of the oppressed, the poor, the marginalized, the disadvantaged, the least of these our brothers and sisters.

And it is a shame that it took the slayings of nine people to help me see that.

Charleston Wake-Up Call: Five Thoughts

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Short Articles3 Comments

dylann roofI have heard many people call the massacre in Charleston a wake-up call for our country. I believe it is specifically a wake-up call for predominately white churches in our country. As a pastor of a predominately white church in the South, here are five thoughts that have been awakened in me:

  1. We must wake up to the reality that racism is not only a wound from our country’s past, but it is a deadly virus that still plagues us today. White preachers, including myself, have been often afraid to use the “r-word” from our pulpits for fear of “stirring things up,” as if we might reignite some fire that was put out in the 1960’s, or at least by 2008, when we elected our first black president. We must wake up and boldly preach against racism, in all of its current manifestations that are ablaze today: personal racism; systemic racism; and the subtle racism that is prevalent in the workplace, in the marketplace and even in the church, for Jesus could not have been more clear when he said: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
  2. We must wake up to the reality that preaching and working against racism is not “being political,” but it is being “Christian.” When voting districts are re-drawn to limit poor black votes or when laws are created that make it more difficult for poor black people to vote, we must stand up and boldly proclaim the message of Jesus who came to announce “good news to the poor.”
  3. We must wake up to the reality that hatred in this country is being defended by church folks who are calling it “religious freedom.” In the United States of America, where we believe all people are created equally, religious freedom never means the freedom to discriminate. Slave-owners used the same religious-freedom arguments in the nineteenth century to support slavery. Today, we do not tolerate people who want to own slaves, nor should we tolerate anyone or respect the views if anyone who wants to discriminate.
  4. We must wake up the reality that “the oppression of Christians” in this nation and the “war on Christmas” that we hear about every December has been manufactured by folks who loathe what makes our country great, that is our cultural, ethnic, religious and racial diversity. We need to also preach from our pulpits that it is this diversity that makes us look most like the portrait of heaven we find in the book of Revelation: “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (7:9). We must wake up to boldly voice our opposition to the purveyors of fear who are calling on people to bear even more arms “to take our country back.” Furthermore, we must wake up and tell the folks in our pews to please shut up, when they start reminiscing about going back to the good old days of the 1950’s when we had prayer in school. We need to be able to say: “You know, I have many black friends, and I have never once heard them talk about wanting to go back to 1950.”
  5. We must wake up to the reality that the most segregated hours in our country occur on Sunday mornings. We must find ways to build bridges to bridge the gaps that we have created that prevent us from worshipping and serving together. To stand against racism, hatred and violence, to stand for social justice and equality for all, and to persuasively speak truth to power, we must do it side by side, hand in hand, as one body, one Church, serving one Lord.