Jersey City Unity Service
Jersey City City Hall
November 1, 2018
In Plain Sight
Back
in the 1980s, I had the chance to travel to Germany.
And
while I was there, one of the places I visited was the concentration camp at
Dachau.
Dachau
was the first concentration camp in Germany – where the Nazis first began
sending Jews and others who were viewed as undesirable, as less than fully human,
as the source of all trouble.
Walking
through that place of great horror was a very powerful experience. But, what I
remember most is what I saw just before and right after I visited the camp.
I had always imagined that concentration camps
were in isolated locations, way off in the wilderness, far from the prying eyes
of people who might have objected to the cruelty happening inside.
But that wasn’t
the case – or, at least, it wasn’t the case for Dachau.
It was right there
in plain sight.
The concentration
camp – this place of suffering and death – was located right there beside the
town – there were streets with houses right there, just outside the gates.
This place of
horror was right there in plain sight.
I was so surprised
– so shocked – by that.
I remember walking
through the streets of the town and looking at some of the older people I saw
and wondering:
Where were you
back then?
What did you do?
What did you fail
to do?
Of course,
shamefully, the people who spewed hate, the people who built and operated the
camps and the people who cheered all of that on or maybe just kept their heads
down or looked the other way – those people all somehow claimed to be followers
of Jesus of Nazareth, teacher and healer, a man who lived and died a faithful
Jew.
I wish I could say
that most Christian leaders of that time and place followed their Lord and
stood up for the poor and the vulnerable and the oppressed.
I wish I could say
that most Christian leaders of that time and place said – no, stop, we must
love all of our neighbors, no exceptions!
But, that’s not
the truth.
Yes, there were a
few Christian leaders who risked everything but most either supported the horror
or kept their thoughts to themselves.
It was all right
there in plain sight.
It’s been said
that history doesn’t repeat exactly but it does often rhyme – and today so many
of us are hearing the ugly rhymes from a hateful past that many of us (perhaps
foolishly) thought we had finally left behind.
We are hearing the
rhymes loud and clear as some of our leaders delight in whipping up their
followers into a frenzy of fear and hate.
We are hearing the
rhymes loud and clear as some leaders and some in the media use not so thinly
veiled language to describe certain people as undesirable, less than human, the
source of all trouble.
We are hearing the
rhymes as some people interpret these messages of hate as an invitation – as a
license – to begin killing those they’ve been taught to hate.
All of this
ugliness – this hatred – this violence – it’s not happening in secret – it’s
not off in the wilderness somewhere, far from prying eyes.
No, it’s happening
right here in sight – right here in our towns and cities – right here on
our TV screens and internet.
It’s right here in
plain sight.
Standing before
you tonight, I am ashamed to say that - just like in Europe in the 1930s and
1940s - most of the people doing all of this damage today at least claim to be followers of Jesus of
Nazareth.
So, it is so
important that my fellow Christians and I are here tonight – standing in
solidarity with our mourning Jewish friends – our beloved older brothers and
sisters in faith.
It’s so important
that my fellow Christians and I are here tonight - standing with people of other
faiths and people of no particular faith except goodwill and decency.
And, today, all of
us - but especially my fellow Christians and I - we face some big questions:
Where are we?
What are we doing?
What are we
failing to do?
Decades from now
when people look back at us, what will they see?
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