“GOOD” WHITE CHRISTIANS, DONALD TRUMP, AND WHITE SUPREMACY

©Wendell Griffen, 2017

Justice Is A Verb!

August 17, 2017

It has been interesting to observe reactions by “good” white people who claim to be followers of Jesus and also supporters of Donald Trump in the past several months.  And it has been “interesting” to observe “good” white followers of Jesus who are Trump supporters struggle to explain their disappointment and shock surrounding last weekend’s tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia.  There, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, neo-Fascists, Ku Klux Klan sympathizers, and others associated with the so-called “alt-right” movement physically assaulted and threatened counter-protestors, including people assembled for a Friday evening prayer and preparation service at a Charlottesville church.  The next day they attacked counter-protestors.  After those attacks, a young woman named Heather Heyer was killed and 19 other persons were injured by someone who rammed into a car into them as they were walking away from the site of the violence.

It has been “interesting” to observe “good” white politicians who claim to be followers of Jesus and also Trump supporters as they’ve tried to distance themselves from Mr. Trump’s full-throated claim that the people who carried torches and shouted racist and anti-Semitic chants as they marched toward the church where counter-protestors were praying were “many fine people.”

It has been interesting to watch Southern Baptist and other neo-fundamentalist clergy and laypersons who voted for Trump in overwhelming numbers and, by doing so, elected him to the presidency.  The common theme running through their responses to what happened in Charlottesville has been a call to prayer and re-affirmation that racism and bigotry run counter to the gospel of Jesus, as shown in this article (http://bpnews.net/49363/charlottesville-violence--sbc-leaders-urge-prayer).

But white evangelical Christian leaders have not criticized President Trump since Charlottesville.  When have you seen or heard a local pastor of a congregation of Trump voters criticize Trump’s statement that the crowd of torch-carrying and slogan chanting people who marched on and surrounded a Charlottesville church where counter-protestors gathered for prayer and preparation included “many fine people”?  “Good” white evangelical Christians have been practically speechless since the November 2016 presidential election despite the fact that news outlets, in-depth magazine reports, and even Facebook and YouTube postings have detailed acts of hate speech as well as physical and online acts of racism. 

Given what happened in Charlottesville, white Christians who voted for Donald Trump should remember what John Pavlovitz, a member of the pastoral staff of a white, non-denominational evangelical church in Raleigh, North Carolina, wrote on his blog the day after Donald Trump’s electoral victory in a post titled White Christians Who Voted for Donald Trump:  Fix This, Now (http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/11/10/white-christians-who-voted-for-donald-trump-fix-this-now/).  

We Christians like to talk about Hell a lot, so let’s talk about Hell a little.

In the very first few daylight hours after Donald Trump’s election victory it began:

Near San Francisco, a home in Noe Valley flew a Nazi flag where kids walk by to get to school.

A white middle school student brought a Trump sign to school and told a black classmate it was time for him to get “back in place”.

A gay New York City man getting on a bus was told that he should “Enjoy the concentration camps, faggot!”

The NYU Muslim Students Association found the word “Trump!” scrawled on the door of their prayer room.

A female seminary student was stopped at a coffee shop with the words, “Smile sweetheart, we beat the cunt.”

Parents of children of color spent the day picking up their children early from elementary, middle, and high schools across the country because they were inundated with slurs and harassment and unable to study.

A group of Hispanic kids in Raleigh were taunted by white children, telling them they were “going back to Mexico.”

And it has continued 

This is the personal Hell we’ve unleashed upon our people. 

And if you’re a white Christian and you voted for Donald Trump: You need to fix this. Now.

You comprise the lion’s share of Trump’s elevation to the highest office of our country.

You knew exactly who this man was while you held your noses and covered your eyes and endorsed him anyway.

You are fully responsible for the flood of personal sewage now engulfing children and adults of color, those in the LGBTQ community, those in the Muslim community.

And you, white Christian, better get your spiritual shit together and figure out how you’re going make this right.

Let’s be clear about something, brothers and sister:

This is not the time to appeal to minorities and marginalized communities to “come together in unity” with white people right now. That was Hillary Clinton’s message, and even though she had the track record and the experience and the wherewithal to make it happen—you passed on it. Instead you chose the guy who’s [sic] entire resume is about supremacy and privilege, whose entire campaign was about the fear of the other (the other in this case, being anyone not white, straight, and Christian). You chose the guy endorsed by the KKK. You did.

You need to understand this.

Oppressed people aren’t obliged to make nice with their oppressors.

The bullied don’t owe anything to the bullies.

Victims don’t have to make their assailants feel better.

Young children of color aren’t responsible to educate racist children—or their parents.

In the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells his listeners, that those who followed after him, those who would bear his name are to love the least; not those who are less-than, but those who are treated as less-than. He then paints the picture of the eternal suffering Christians are always so willing to condemn others to, and he says that it will be their lack of love and compassion and mercy for these most vulnerable, most hurting people—that will condemn them.

White Christians and the white Church, especially if you voted for Donald Trump: this is all on you.

Your pastors need to speak clearly and explicitly into this, now.

Your church websites and social media pages need to address this harassment and bullying and terrorizing, now.

You need to talk to your white children and teach them how not to be horrible to other kids, and how to stand up to those who are being horrible, now.

You need to talk to your kid’s coaches and to your midweek Bible Study and to your co-workers and your church staff and your gun club—and you need to call this poison out, now.

White churches, this Sunday, your only sermon should be the one that reminds your white members what the parable of the Good Samaritan was compelling followers of Jesus to be: radically merciful when everyone else looked the other way.

You need to reach out to your neighbors and coworkers and classmates and social media friends who are part of marginalized communities and reassure them, listen to them, care for them, be Jesus to them.

If not, no matter how you rationalize it or try to squeeze your way out of it, the personal Hell so many people are living in and will continue to live in over the next four years, will be one of your design.

It will be your shared sin.

The blood will be on your hands.                       

I read Pavlovitz’s blog post during my sermon the Sunday after the November 8, 2016 presidential election.  I did not sanitize his wording.  I read the whole post during the sermon because I wanted our congregation to know that at least one white religious leader realized – and was willing to publicly call out – what “good” white Christians who voted for Donald Trump had done.  And I referred to the blog post in the first chapter of The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope because I agree with Pavlovitz that “good” white Christians unleashed “the personal Hell” the latest episode of which occurred last weekend in Charlottesville. 

There is a Biblical lesson that sheds further light on the white supremacy we witnessed at Charlottesville – to which Donald Trump shamelessly gave presidential endorsement by his unscripted remarks on August 15 – which I wrote about in The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope.  It is the story about a commoner named Naboth, King Ahab of Israel and Queen Jezebel, his wife, and the Hebrew prophet named Elijah (see 1 Kings 21:15-19). 

Naboth lived in Jezreel, one of the most fertile regions in Palestine.  He had a vineyard beside Ahab’s palace.  Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard so he could convert it into an herb garden.  But Naboth refused all offers to trade or purchase his vineyard property because it was ancestral land. However, Queen Jezebel – acting in Ahab’s name and authority – sent letters ordering that Naboth be publicly and falsely accused of slandering God and the king, and then executed by stoning.  Her instructions were followed.  Naboth was falsely accused, wrongfully convicted, and then publicly executed by stoning.  Then Jezebel told Ahab to claim possession of Naboth’s vineyard property.  When Ahab did so, he was denounced by Elijah, the prophet. 

Naboth’s life could have been saved if the people who receive the letters from Jezebel had been more interested in love and justice than in being popular, privileged, and favored.  Naboth could have enjoyed peace in his vineyard if the people of Jezreel had loved him as a neighbor.  Instead, they craved access to power. They feared offending Jezebel and Ahab.  Their cravenness for power and cowardice made them complicit in Naboth’s death and the theft of his vineyard. 

White self-professed evangelical followers of Jesus who consider themselves “good Christians” voted for Donald Trump.  They did so, overwhelmingly, despite Trump’s history of commercial violence, personal and commercial racism and misogyny, untruthfulness, and complicity with white supremacy and xenophobia.  Then and now, “good” white Christians preferred access to power over liberty and equality for persons they and Trump consider “others” (racial minorities, Muslims, immigrants, women and girls who dare to live free from patriarchy and who reject the heresy of male supremacy, and persons who are LGBTQ). 

The “good” Christians who overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump cannot bring themselves to disavow and denounce Trump after he called people who chanted racist and anti-Semitic chants in Charlottesville “fine people.”   Instead, they will flock to churches this weekend and listen to preachers tell them to pray for peace and healing in the nation. 

Those prayers, sermons, and theology of those “good” white evangelical “Christians” will suffer from one glaring flaw.  They will not include any semblance of personal and collective responsibility for white supremacy, bigotry, and other oppressiveness associated with Donald Trump’s presidency. 

 “Good” white evangelical Christians prefer the contemporary version of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel known as Donald Trump.  That is why Trump is President of the United States.  And that is why we should not expect moral leadership from “good” white evangelical Christians and their leaders concerning prophetic condemnation of and opposition to white supremacy, bigotry, and other manifestations of social injustice during the Trump presidency.

They need to hear from Elijah-like prophets – such as John Pavlovitz.  They will not do so from one reason.  Their preachers are not like Elijah, not like Pavlovitz, and not like Jesus.They need to hear from Elijah-like prophets – such as John Pavlovitz.  They will not do so for one reason.  Their preachers are not like Elijah, not like Pavlovitz, and not like Jesus.

FASCISM, DONALD TRUMP POLITICS, AND ARKANSAS

FASCISM, DONALD TRUMP POLITICS, AND ARKANSAS

©Wendell Griffen, 2017

Justice Is A Verb!

May 10, 2017

Donald Trump has fired James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who may have done more to single-handedly cause the defeat of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trump’s election as the 45^th president of the United States in 2016. 

Trump’s May 9, 2017 late afternoon firing announcement was achieved with typical Trump clumsiness, disdain for truthfulness, and impudence.  Comey was not summoned to the White House.  Trump did not look Comey in the eye like an honorable person and deliver the news that Comey was being sacked.  Trump didn’t ask for Comey’s resignation, either directly or through a White House emissary (such as the White House chief of staff).  Instead, Donald Trump issued a letter that the White House publicized to the world while James Comey was in California on a FBI recruiting trip. 

Add cowardice to the long and growing list of President Trump’s character flaws.

Firing Comey didn’t solve a single problem facing the United States.   But it clearly achieved one Trump objective.  James Comey no longer leads the ongoing criminal investigation about the relationship between the Trump presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s personal and family business activities, and Russia, the foreign government that directly meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign which Trump ultimately won.  Donald Trump no longer has to worry about Comey announcing anything, as FBI director, about Trump’s financial empire and crime.  Donald Trump does not have to worry about James Comey, as director of the FBI, calling him a crook.

Does this mean Donald Trump isn’t a crook?  NO!

Does this mean James Comey won’t someday call Trump a crook?  No, but if that happens, Trump will say Comey would be calling him a crook because Comey was fired.

Does this mean Arkansas politicians and voters – the people who backed Trump’s candidacy with their money, votes, and influence – will distance themselves from Trump’s presidency?  I doubt it.  You see, Arkansas politicians, Arkansas voters, and anyone else capable of basic moral judgment, have always known enough about Donald Trump to realize he is a crook. 

Trump is many things, but he isn’t an unknown or mysterious character.  He is a narcissistic maniac whose addiction to attention, greed, and disregard for morality appears to be boundless.  In many respects, he reminds one of an inferior model of George W. Bush and the people President Bush “43” chose as closest advisors. 

Don’t take my word for it.  Consider Donald Trump in light of what Kurt Vonnegut said about George W. Bush, with Vonnegut’s usual boldness and clarity, in his last book, A Man Without A Country (Random House, 2007, edited by Daniel Simon).

George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka Christians, and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or PPs, the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences.  [This is obviously true about Donald John Trump]

To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete's foot . . .

PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose! . . .
So many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick. They have taken charge of communications and the schools, so we might as well be Poland under occupation.

They might have felt that taking our country into an endless war was simply something decisive to do. What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. They are going to do something every fuckin' day and they are not afraid. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reasons that they don't give a fuck what happens next. Simply can't. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody's telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!

The political word that describes what Vonnegut wrote about is fascism.  According to the Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary, fascism is a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government.

Donald John Trump is what fascism looks like in the 21^st Century version of the United States. This is what Arkansas voters and politicians openly embraced, cheered, funded, and must now be held accountable for inflicting on our own people, the rest of the nation, and the whole world.    

The fascist personality profile and moral character Vonnegut decried in A Man Without A Country more than a decade ago contaminates all three branches of state government in Arkansas. 

·         Governor Asa Hutchinson’s administration high-handedly dissolved the democratically-elected board of directors for the Little Rock School District January 28, 2015.  The Little Rock School District is governed by State Education Commissioner Johnny Key, an unelected ruler and former state legislator who is unaccountable to the parents, children, and employees of the state’s largest and most diverse public school district.

·         State legislators cut taxes needed to support vital public services to schools, workers, persons who are sick, and to preserve our environment as a healthy place for all persons.  The legislators did this so they could give tax breaks to wealthy persons.    

·         The state supreme court refused to rule in an appeal from a lower court decision in favor of marriage equality.  State legislators wanted to impeach the lower court judge who ruled in favor of marriage equality, but said nothing about the state supreme court’s refusal to decide the appeal.

·         The state correction department engaged in deceitful conduct to acquire a drug from a pharmaceutical distributor.  Then it rushed to use the drug to kill four death row inmates last month before the drugs expired. 

·         The state attorney general appears to have known about the deception and worked to prevent trial judges from holding evidentiary hearings about it.

·         The state supreme court and attorney general worked together to prevent the distributor from retrieving its drug product by defying longstanding legal procedures and principles about fairness, integrity, and transparency in court proceedings.

·         Now legislators want to impeach a judge who followed Arkansas law because they dislike the way the judge ruled and disapprove of the way he practices his religion.  Yes, I’m that judge.

·         Arkansas voters appear unconcerned, for the most part, or not concerned enough to do anything to the politicians responsible for these and other abuses of power.

The Bush-Trump version of fascism not only exists in Washington, DC and Arkansas.  Versions of it are also present in Kansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, to name a few obvious examples.  Fascism is what government now looks like and how it behaves in various parts of the United States and across state government in Arkansas. 

What will we do about it?  What will you do about it?

In the words of actor and comedian Arsenio Hall, “let’s get busy.”  As our emerging leaders (sometimes termed “millennials”) now say, “stay woke.”

SHATTERED HOPE AND OPENED EYES

SHATTERED HOPE AND OPENED EYES

©Wendell Griffen, 2017

May 7, 2017 (Fourth Sunday of Easter)[1]

New Millennium Church, Little Rock, AR

Luke 24:13-35

13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles^* from Jerusalem, ¹⁴and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. ¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, ¹⁶but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. ¹⁷And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad.^* 18Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place ther777e in these days?’ ¹⁹He asked them, ‘What things?’ They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth,^* who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,²⁰and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. ²¹But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.^* Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. ²²Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, ²³and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. ²⁴Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.’ ²⁵Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! ²⁶Was it not necessary that the Messiah^* should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ ²⁷Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. ²⁹But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. ³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. ³²They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us^* while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ ³³That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. ³⁴They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ ³⁵Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

       

We seem to be always living in a time of shattered hope. 

In 1960, John F. Kennedy, a United States Senator from Massachusetts, was elected to become the 35^th President of the United States.  Kennedy was the youngest person to ever be elected to that office.  His youthfulness, idealism, handsome appearance, and moving personal and family history caused many people in the United States and around the world to hope for peace and justice.  But, those hopes were shattered, on November 22, 1963, when President Kennedy was assassinated while riding in an open motorcade in Dallas, Texas.

In 1964, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., co-pastor with his father of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia and leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was awarded the Nobel Prize in the field of human rights for his leadership in civil rights and social justice when he was only 35 years old.  Dr. King’s advocacy for civil rights, social justice, and peace through non-violent change challenged the United States and inspired social justice movements around the world.  However, Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.

 

In 1976, Jimmy Carter, a former Governor from Georgia, was elected to become the 39^th President of the United States.  His humility and down-to-earth manners prompted many people to hope that public policy in the United States would be defined by peace and justice.  President Carter embraced equality for women and persons of color.  He promoted energy conservation and human rights.  He convened a historic summit involving President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel at Camp David that resulted in the first treaty of peace and cooperation between Israel and any of its neighboring Arab nations.  But, Carter was defeated in his 1980 bid for re-election by Ronald Reagan, former Governor of California. 

In 2006, Barack Obama wrote a book titled The Audacity of Hope.[2] In his 2006 book, Mr. Obama (who was then a United States Senator from Illinois), set out his vision and views on what he termed a new kind of politics based on cooperation, a shared sense of community, and a conviction that we can work together to improve life for all persons.  In the fall of 2006, The Audacity of Hope became a best seller – and reached the number one position on both the New York Times and Amazon.com best seller lists – after the book was endorsed by Oprah Winfrey. 

Barack Obama later became a candidate for President of the United States in the Democratic Party.  He eventually won the Democratic Party nomination.  Ultimately, Barack Obama was elected, in November 2008, the 44^th President of the United States.  His election was viewed in this nation and across the world as a hopeful sign for justice and peace.  After leading the nation to enact Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – the most comprehensive health care legislation in its history – President Obama was re-elected, in 2012, to a second four-year term of office.  During his second inauguration in January 2013, he took the oath of office while placing his hand on a Bible that had belonged to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

In 2016, Hillary Clinton, who served as Secretary of State during the first term of the Obama presidency, United States Senator from New York after leaving the White House as First Lady during the presidency of her husband, President Bill Clinton, and who devoted her life and career to public service and advocacy for equal rights for women around the world, became the first woman in the United States to be nominated as the presidential candidate by either of the two leading U.S. national political parties when she won the Democratic Party nomination.  Ms. Clinton’s candidacy seemed likely to succeed because of her record for public service, and because the nominee chosen by the Republican Party, Donald Trump, had never served in public office.  Secretary Clinton’s candidacy was buoyed by and personified the hopes of many people – in the U.S. and elsewhere – that a women would finally be chosen to lead our nation.  Her candidacy was openly supported by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. 

However, President Obama was not followed by Secretary Clinton.  In November 2016, the hopes for a Hillary Clinton presidency that would build on the policies advanced by President Obama were shattered when Donald Trump, a New York real estate developer and television celebrity, was elected the 45^th President of the United States.  Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” presidential campaign was defined by white nationalism, hostility toward immigrants and Muslims, bigotry against women, persons who are disabled, and other persons who are marginalized.    

I recount these aspects of relatively recent political history so we will identify with the two men mentioned in the passage we read from Luke 24 who were walking toward Emmaus from Jerusalem days after Jesus had been crucified by the Roman Empire at the insistence of religious nationalists who opposed his ministry.  The two men appear to have been followers of Jesus.  But unlike other men who remained in hiding in Jerusalem, these men left Jerusalem.  Unlike the women who followed Jesus throughout his ministry, supported his ministry, followed him to the site of his crucifixion, watched him suffer and die, followed him to the place he was buried in a borrowed tomb, and who had resolved to pay homage to him afterwards, these men left Jerusalem. 

Why? 

Luke’s Gospel gives us a clue.  After a third person joined them along the walk to Emmaus and asked them what they were discussing with each other as they walked along (Luke 24:17), their reply is found at Luke 24:19-24.

 

“The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in word and deed before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.  But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.  Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.  Moreover, some women of our group astounded us.  There were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.  Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” 

These men suffered from shattered hope.  Those of us who were remember what it was like days after President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 should be able to identify with them.  We who remember what it felt like days after Dr. King was assassinated in 1968 should be able to identify with them.  We who remember what it felt like days after President Carter was defeated in 1976 should be able to identify with them.  And those of us who remember what it felt like when Secretary Clinton was defeated and President Trump was elected should be able to identify with them.

Cleopas and his friend are examples of us!  Like them, we have held high and noble hopes.  Like them, we have seen our hopes shattered.  Like them, many of us appear to have thrown up our hands in disappointment, confusion, and disgust.  Cleopas and his friend were not hiding in Jerusalem.  They were not hanging out with the women.  They were not hanging out with Thomas.  They left town!  They quit the place.  They appear to have decided to throw in the towel.

They had seen Jesus ambushed by their own religious leaders.  Their own people had turned on Jesus.  Their own people had turned Jesus over to the Roman occupiers of Palestine.  Their own people had falsified evidence to accuse Jesus with the crime of insurrection.  Their own people, religious leaders, had done all this after bribing Judas, one of the trusted disciples of Jesus. 

After seeing so much corruption, Cleopas and his fellow disciple decided “to hell with it!”  After they had hoped so much in Jesus and seen him do so much for their people only to be rejected by the very people he had served, these men were done with the religion of Jesus.  They were done with hope. 

It is tempting to criticize these men for giving up.  We who have the advantage of knowing “the rest of the story” might be tempted to look down on them.  We might be tempted to think, “Where was their faith?  Why did they leave Jerusalem even after hearing the report from the women who said that Jesus was no longer dead?”  Do you have those thoughts? 

But are we so different from Cleopas and his fellow traveler?  Have we, like them, heard about the risen Jesus?  Have we, like these men with shattered hope, heard that despite everything the principalities and powers of empire and pride did to Jesus, God raised him up!  Have we, like these men with shattered hope, not also been tempted to quit on Jesus nonetheless? 

Shattered hope can cause us to quit believing God will make a way.  Shattered hope can cause us to quit believing that anything we do for God and with God matters.  Shattered hope can make us leave what we believe we were called to do.  Shattered hope can make us stop trusting others we have once trusted. 

And shattered hope can make us blind!  Shattered hope can blind us to realities that contradict and refute our hopelessness.  Shattered hope can blind us to the living presence and power of God walking with us, talking us, listening to us, comforting us, and challenging us.  Shattered hope can make us blind to the power of God.  Shattered hope can make us blind to the truth of God.  Shattered hope can make us blind to the presence of God.  Shattered hope can make us blind to the peace of God.  Shattered hope can make us blind to the unstoppable justice of God. 

Well, if you wonder if there is a cure to shattered hope, there is good news.  The third man who joined Cleopas and his buddy along the walk to Emmaus joined them in the power of God.  God finds us even when have thrown in the towel!  God finds us even when we’ve quit the field.  God finds us and hears, finds us and consoles us, and finds us and challenges us!  God will not abandon us to be people of shattered hope.  In the risen Jesus, God finds us. 

In the risen Jesus, God helps us understand that some suffering is part of every liberation movement.  In the risen Jesus, God shows us that not even God can deliver us without suffering oppression from the principalities and power of empire and pride.  In the risen Jesus, God shows us that even when those principalities and powers appear to have done us in, God has us!  God has a way planned out of our “no way!”  Even when the principalities and powers rise up, rail, and seem to rule over us, God is making a way and God will have the final word.

Because Jesus showed up on the road to Emmaus, shattered hope was eventually replaced by opened eyes.  Because Jesus showed up and drew men with shattered hope into a burning heart fellowship, they could not keep leaving Jerusalem.  They had to return to Jerusalem.  They returned because the power of God revealed by the resurrection of Jesus opened their eyes.  They returned because the Jesus of resurrection had become real to them, not merely a rumor. 

When Jesus becomes real, we will go back to work for God.  When Jesus becomes real, we will not quit when people persecute us.  When Jesus becomes real, we will not dismiss reports from others about what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do.  When Jesus becomes real, people of shattered hope will become people of resurrection truth, justice, and hope. 

We are called to be those people.  We are called, with Cleopas and his companion, to walk with Jesus, learn from Jesus, be challenged by Jesus, have our hearts warmed by Jesus, and then get back to work for God with Jesus!  In Jesus, God is calling us back to the work.  In Jesus, God is calling us back to Jerusalem.  In Jesus, God is calling us to be people of resurrection hope who defy the principalities and powers of empire and pride. 

Thanks to the risen Jesus, people with shattered hope can have our eyes opened, our hearts warmed, and our strength renewed.  Hallelujah!

Amen.

---

[1] The scripture for this sermon is the Gospel lectionary passage for April 30, 2017 (Third Sunday of Easter), and this sermon was originally intended for that date.  However, worship services were canceled at New Millennium Church on April 30 because of severe thunderstorms and flash flooding in central Arkansas on April 29 and 30, 2017.  The sermon is delivered on May 7, 2017  (Fourth  Sunday of Easter) because it is relevant to what Reverend Harry Emerson Fosdick called “the living of these days.”

[2] Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope:  Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, (Crown/Three Rivers Press:  2006).