Jesus came onto the scene proclaiming the Reign of God , defining that Reign in His hometown of Nazareth. In proclaiming this Reign of God, Jesus used different words when speaking to different people. To many Jesus said: “Your sins are forgiven, go in peace.” To those who sat at Jesus’ feet to learn from Him, He said: “ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you — you of little faith?” The Pharisees Jesus addressed as “you brood of vipers.” Despite the differences in all of these words Jesus was proclaiming the love and mercy of God and calling all to follow Him. In the title of this paper I use the Pharisees as a paradigm for white Christians in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, I consider the Pharisees to be those in Jesus’ time who possessed both knowledge of the Word of God and trust in the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel. In addition the Pharisees possessed cultural power, granted to them by the Roman government, and used their power of the Word to influence the other faithful to be submissive to the power of the world. In His dealings with the Pharisees, Jesus over and over again called them to reinterpret the Law by way of the two great commandments: loving God and loving neighbor. As I consider the preaching of anti-racism and white skin privilege to white congregations I use the working assumption that the white congregation, too, have cultural power granted to them (and me) through the systems and institutions set in motion over the years of this nation’s history. Likewise we possess the power of the Gospel, given to each baptized person. At present, the cultural power is used by white people to perpetuate a racist society
However, for white Christian people there is a power greater than this cultural power, through which racism can be dismantled and we all might come closer to the reality of the Reign of God that Jesus proclaimed. In this paper, I will explore some of the ways that, through preaching, such dismantling of racism might begin to happen within white congregations.
Edited from the introduction.
