Sunday, December 4, 2016 Dr. Jan Rivero, preaching
LOVE WINS
The year was 1958. The place was Caroline County, Virginia. Just up the road a piece. The reality was life in the segregated south, a deeply divided south, where blacks still worked the fields as they had done for centuries, and where whites benefitted from the blood, sweat and tears of those who worked for them. There were no integrated schools or bathrooms or water fountains. The “help” who cleaned a white home couldn’t use the indoor toilets. The blacks who shopped in the Woolworths couldn’t eat at the counters.
In that day there was a young man named Richard Loving who fell in love with a lovely young woman named Mildred Jeter. When he learned that she was pregnant he decided to marry her. It might have been acceptable to everyone in the county except for the fact that Richard was white and Mildred was half black, half Native American. For all intents and purposes, as far as anyone who was white was concerned, Mildred was black. The law of the state of Virginia prohibited interracial marriage, so Richard took Mildred, and her father to bear witness, to Washington, DC, where they were married by a justice of the peace. They returned home to Caroline County, but it wasn’t long before hate started to rear its ugly head. In the dark of night the sheriff and his deputy kicked in the door of the Loving’s home and carried the couple off in handcuffs. The movie Loving tells, in an understated and yet powerful way, how they managed to raise a family and rise above the hate, even as they sued the state of Virginia in the courts. As their attorney prepared to argue their case before the Supreme Court, he asked Richard Loving if there was anything he wanted the Court to know. Loving said, “Just tell the judge I love my wife.”
In 1967 the Supreme Court struck down that Virginia law. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion for the unanimous court stating, “Marriage is one of the basic civil rights, fundamental to our very existence and survival.”
Love in the midst of hate. As the movie tells the story, never did either of the Lovings fight hate with hate. Instead they stood strong together in their love for one another.
That spirit of love rising up amidst hate, hostility and fear, was the hope that Isaiah dared to proclaim. Writing when Israel was being threatened by foreign occupation as the Babylonians made their way into Judaea, the people of Israel lived in fear of takeover, oppression and even death. Nevertheless, convinced of the power of God and the goodness of the human spirit, Isaiah dared to believe that the world would be made right again. In the face of total destruction and loss of national identity, he held on to the seemingly crazy idea that there would come a time when, out of the ashes, out of the destruction, out of death, there would come someone who would rule with wisdom and understanding, someone with a heart of goodness and compassion who would judge in favor of the poor, someone who would decide with fairness for the compliant and the unassuming. Out of his faith in God, Isaiah was able to boldly proclaim that once this monarch was in place the unthinkable would begin to unfold. Prey and predator would be safe in the presence of one another. Adversaries, even mortal enemies, would find ways to co-exist without strife, without enmity, without violence. As the earth became filled with the knowledge of God, he maintained, love would rise up in the midst of hate. God’s love would triumph despite all evidence to the contrary.
Today I confess to you, Isaiah had more faith in the human family than I do. I feel more like John the Baptist these days. News reports this week say that there have been over 900 hate crimes across the country since election day. These reports leave me grumpy and screaming, “Get a clue! Repent! Change your hearts. We are better than this! Be better!” But it is Advent, and Isaiah reminds me — reminds us — that what is possible is in our midst, even though it might seem to transcend our imagination right now. Isaiah calls us to task, to believe with him that the reality of the world around us is not what we shall become. But — what the world shall become is on us, right? As much as we love God and trust God, we know God is not in the habit of waving a magic wand to make the world better. It’s on us to generate love in the midst of hate.
Valerie Lowry tells her story of doing just that. She owns her own landscaping business. That means she does bids, design, billing — everything. She especially works hardest in the field, with her 5 male employees. Due to a very mild fall they were working on a job just last week. The homeowner came out to see their progress and asked her why she was working “with the boys” and didn’t she think she was more “suited for desk work.” She calmly explained that she does have a desk where she works from it from 3am to 7am before hitting the field with her team. He continued to hound her, asking why she thought she could run a crew of men, why she decided to go into business in a “mans world” and why she didn’t stay at home and turn the “rough” work over to her crew. After what seemed to her like hours, she finally said ” What do you do for a living? Do you own a business?” “No,” he said, “I work at a call center.” Taking the high road, Valerie replied “Would you like to own your own business someday?” Of course he said yes. She handed him her shovel and pink gloves and said “Here, let me show you.” Love in response to hate.
Maybe you heard about the video that went viral this week of the man on a Delta airline flight who stood up mid-flight and began a political rant. In particular he called out women whom he assumed did not support Donald Trump. As I watched that video I asked myself, “What would I have done if I had been on that plane? What would I have said, knowing that the hatred he spewed was pushing my buttons.” The passengers seemed pretty mortified, but they were all looking down at their phones or their kindles choosing to ignore rather than engage him. No one took him on. No one confronted him or challenged him. No one even attempted to comfort him. They all followed a path of least resistance and had what the military calls a “failure to engage.” But in situations like that if we don’t speak, who will? Who will birth love in the midst of hate?
As Isaiah dared to boldly announce the coming of God’s love into a realm of hostility and hatred, God calls us to do the same. And I dare to believe that when we need them, God will even give us the words to do it. In fact, Jesus said that very thing, in words we heard just a few weeks ago, According to Luke he said, “You will be given an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.” Words of love. Friends, it’s on us. With God’s help and even God’s words given to us, it is on us to be certain that the world around us is not what we shall become.
To put it differently, as we dwell in God’s love, we are, in a sense protected so that we do not become the world around us. It is the very love of God that blossoms in us so that we become love in the midst of hate. It is the power of God’s love within us that enables us to remain true to who we are as God’s people, even as the world around us grows evermore dark and hostile.
You know, that is no small order at this point in history, and we have to draw our strength from the One who made heaven and earth, because I guarantee you: we cannot do this on our own. Where economics is concerned it is increasingly difficult to sit back and watch the disappearance of a strong, robust middle class and hold out hope for the unemployed. Where social construct is concerned as a denomination, we wait to see the impact of our differences over human rights, and our challenge is to stand in love as we pray for justice to prevail. Where politics are concerned we grow cynical, anxious and even despairing as corporate greed and xenophobia erode the common good. Ours is a job of resistance as we stand in love, even as the messages around us devolve into hate. Our love, the love of God within us, is stronger than hate. Our love, that love demonstrated in the life and death of Jesus Christ, is stronger than fear.
So I, for one, am thankful for the words of Isaiah today, words reminding us of the hope that God has for the human family. I am thankful to be reminded once again that there is another reality possible than the one building up around us. Should we choose it, ours is a reality that exceeds our wildest dreams and reminds us what we shall become. Love grows. Love lives. Love wins — even in the midst of hate. That is the world to which God calls. Thanks be to God. Amen.