A Great Uncovering

The Church of St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ

June 21, 2020

Year A: Proper 7

Genesis 21:8-21

Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17

Romans 6:1b-11

Matthew 10:24-39

A Great Uncovering

            During my morning walks through Lincoln Park, I cross a small bridge that spans an inlet through which water flows in and out of the Hackensack River.

            I cross that bridge almost every day but I’m often amazed at how different the inlet looks, depending on the tide.

            Sometimes, the pull of the moon and the churning of storms can raise the waters so high that it almost looks like the bridge might be washed out.

            And, other times, those same forces pull out most of the water, uncovering rocks and vegetation, uncovering much of what had been hidden beneath the surface.

            I thought about this ebb and flow of the tides when I began to reflect on the stark words of Jesus in today’s gospel lesson:

            Jesus says, “…nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.”

            Jesus describes a great uncovering.

            The other day, someone called me to ask a difficult question.

            She asked if I thought that God had sent Covid-19 in order to punish us.

            I don’t know, maybe you have wondered the same thing.

            It’s a difficult question because we can’t really know the mind of God and we get ourselves in trouble when we say more than what we can know about God.

But, the truth is that you don’t have to look too hard in the Bible to find examples of people believing that God sent plagues as punishment – I mean, just think of the Egyptians at the start of the Exodus story, right?

On the other hand, God is the God of love, the God who loved Hagar and her child, and I just can’t accept that God would inflict so much suffering on anyone, especially on the people we know who have endured - and even died from - this virus.

Frankly, if that were how God operates, I would hang up my collar, find something else to do with my life, and enjoy a socially distant Sunday morning brunch with everybody else.

So, I told the person who called me that, no, I don’t believe God sent us this terrible virus.

But.

But, I also said that God never misses an opportunity – and I think that this virus has given God an opportunity for a great uncovering – an opportunity for us to see the injustices and inequalities and challenges that, for some of us anyway, had been mostly just under the surface.

It seems to me that God is using the virus and all of the other tragedies we are enduring – God is using all of that as an opportunity for a great uncovering, helping us to see what’s been there – helping us to see what’s been here – all along.

             Jesus says, “…nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.”

            So, during this great uncovering, we’ve all seen the wide disparities in health and health care between white people and people of color, between the rich and the poor.

            Because of our unjust system, because of food deserts and environmental racism and substandard hospitals and nursing homes, because of the stress, the crushing stress, of just getting through the day as a black person in America, because of all these pre-existing conditions, this virus struck our African-American sisters and brothers with a devastatingly destructive force.

            A great uncovering.

            And, just as that tragic state of affairs was uncovered, we all got to see the killing of George Floyd, crushed under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, reminding everyone in the most heartbreaking and infuriating way of the terrible history between law enforcement and black people.

One of the things that has been uncovered for me is that even the most highly respected black citizens are wary of the police.

            As a well-known local black pastor – a pastor - one of the finest people I know – recently said about the police, “When I see them, I try to head the other way.”
            Of course, right?

            A great uncovering.

           

And, how much we care or don’t care about one another has been uncovered, too.

            In the days after George Floyd’s killing, people all across our country, and even around the world, rose up in protest. White people stood beside, linked arms with, black people and with people of all different colors and backgrounds, demanding change, insisting that we can’t go on like this any longer.

            We are capable of great compassion.

            At the same time, unfortunately, many people in our country seem to have gotten tired of Covid-19 - or just decided that we have to accept that many more thousands of people are going to die and, sorry, but that’s just the way it is - or we’ve fooled ourselves into thinking that the danger has passed, and we can just go back to normal – or maybe we indulge in a little magical thinking, assuming that bad consequences are for other people, but not us.

            So, it never fails - each morning when I take my walks through Lincoln Park, crossing the little bridge over the inlet, people go by me running or biking, breathing hard, exhaling through their open mouths with either no mask in sight, or just dangling uselessly around their neck.

            And, of course, since apparently everything in our country has to be politicized, mask-wearing – or deciding to not wearing a mask – has become a political statement, as if Covid-19 cares if we’re Democrats or Republicans.

            A great uncovering, indeed.

And, God’s great uncovering is not just happening “out there.”

It’s happening in our own lives and in our own hearts.

Maybe some of you read this week’s message that I sent out to the parish and posted on Facebook.

I took a little trip down memory lane, writing about how, right out of college, I was hired for my first teaching job despite the fact that I had no experience and no real qualifications.

 And, I wrote about how the experience of constantly running into my students and their parents all over town – including in the supermarket where they could never resist taking a peek at what was in my cart – made me realize that I wasn’t just a teacher in the classroom or in school but that, in a sense, I was on duty all the time.

And, the same is – or should be – true of us as Christians – and that we mess up in small and big ways when we think that we can squeeze our faith into a little compartment, that we only really have to be Christians when we’re at church.

So, that was point I wanted to make.

But, as I was remembering and writing about my long-ago job interview, I realized something that had never occurred to me:

If I had been black person with the same lack of experience and credentials, I would have never been hired.

In fact, if I had been a black person with even more experience or credentials, I probably wouldn’t have been hired!

In a way, that job – that opportunity - from 30 years ago set in motion the rest of my life, but I had never recognized the white privilege that got me in the door, hadn’t seen it until it was uncovered right now.

And, it makes me wonder how many other times I have benefited from white privilege without giving it a thought.

A great uncovering.

In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus is speaking to his disciples – speaking to us - about a time of trouble, about a time of decision.

 It’s a time of trouble when we will need to take a stand – a time of decision when being a disciple might actually cost us something – a time of trouble that may threaten some of our closest relationships – a time of decision when there can be no real peace while so many are oppressed – a time of trouble when we are called to put everything on the line for Jesus and for the poor and suffering, the people he tells us are blessed in the Kingdom.

So, no, I don’t think God sent us this virus as a punishment for our many sins, but I do believe God never misses an opportunity – and this virus has given God an opportunity for a great uncovering – helping us to see the injustices and inequalities and challenges that, for some of us anyway, had always been just under the surface.

The journey ahead is challenging and it’s natural to be frightened and it sure is tempting to look away from what has been uncovered, to close our eyes, to wait for the tide to flow back in, and try to get back to “normal.”

Next Monday evening, Rev. Laurie and I will be part of a panel discussion on white privilege and I confess to be being nervous about it, concerned that my words won’t capture what I really want to say, worried that I’ll end up doing more harm than good.

I sure wish they had asked some other white guy!

But, in the midst of his stark words to us disciples in our time of trouble and decision, Jesus reminds us of the great truth that, no matter what, God loves us so much – God is so close to us that every hair on our head has been counted – each one of us is of infinite value to God.

So, my prayer is that this great love will comfort and strengthen us as together we face - and respond to – all that God has uncovered.

Amen.