'A Beautiful Symphony of Brotherhood'

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:

When the voters of this nation elected Barack Obama, on November 4th, to be the next President of the United States, many were responding to his promise of "change" – however that may have been defined in the mind of each voter.
 
Today, it is change that we have. When President Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20, 2009 – one day after the holiday created to honor Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – this country will have its first African-American President. It will be a day which many of us never thought would come and which most Americans, and many beyond our shores, greet with overwhelming emotion.
 
It may be difficult for the youngest members of our society to understand the significance of this event. For them - Praise God! - the notion that children like themselves would not be allowed to drink from the same water fountain as other children, or visit the same restroom, or sit beside them in school or any public place, simply because of the color of their skin - is incomprehensible.
 
For those of us who lived through that time, though, the concept is all too real – as are the memories.
 
Not that all of the memories are bad ones. I have spoken publicly about the thrill I experienced as a young man of 17, when my father and I stood at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 to hear Dr. King deliver the address that gave rise to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and forever changed history.
 
"I have a dream," he said. "That one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all [persons] are created equal.'"
 
It was a dream deeply rooted in his Christian faith. A dream that "one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."
 
"This is our hope," he said. "This is the faith that I go back to the South with …. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood."
 
Are we there yet? Have those "jangling discords" given way to that beautiful symphony of brotherhood? Are we measuring one another by the content of our character, rather than the color of our skin?
 
"A More Perfect Union"
Ten months ago, then-candidate Barack Obama delivered a speech of his own, one he titled "A More Perfect Union." The speech was in response to critics of some statements by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who had been the Obamas' pastor. In endeavoring to explain the climate at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and his own view of race in America, Obama spoke of his "unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people" and said his own story, possible nowhere else on earth, attests to the fact that "this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one."
 
Obama said one of the tasks set forth at the beginning of his campaign was "to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America." And said he believes deeply that "we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and grandchildren."
 
The complexion of our congregations
It is notable that in The United Methodist Church, we surely do not all look the same – nor have we all come from the same place – and that is particularly true in the California-Nevada Annual Conference. In this Conference we pride ourselves on our inclusiveness. We see ourselves working to shift the reality Dr. King identified many years ago, that Sunday morning worship hour was the most segregated time in America. I celebrate the many congregations that are opening doors, opening hearts and opening minds to welcome all of our neighbors to find a home in our church.
 
But all of us must do more.
 
Most congregations in the United States still could be defined as "mono-racial," with at least 80% of their members identifying themselves with a single racial group, according to the Multiracial Congregations Project, a study by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, funded by the Lilly Endowment. Yet more than 54.3 million people told the U.S. Census that they speak at least one language other than English at home. Our challenge is to be even better at transforming our congregations into ones that not only welcome people of all races, ethnicities, and cultures, but also encourage their participation.
 
For example, if your church is "monocultural" and your neighborhood is not, reach out to meet your neighbors. That can help you determine ways they would appreciate your congregation being good neighbors to them.
 
If other languages are spoken, then learn the language(s) – at least greetings and pronunciation rules so that you can pronounce names correctly. Going a step further, consider incorporating other languages into your worship, or offering a non-English service. Consider organizing and hosting study circles – a national effort to bring people from diverse backgrounds together to share their own experiences on topics such as race, immigration, and diversity. It's a way to build relationships of trust among people of different backgrounds.
 
And here's a radical idea: how about extending some "radical hospitality" by holding a worship service at a local community center? That can be a non-threatening venue for people who don't feel comfortable walking through the doors of a church by themselves, or without an invitation.
 
People of God, as we embrace the concept of "change," let us not forget to apply it to ourselves!
 
Prayer for our President
But of course I recognize that change is not automatically a positive thing. Certainly we have seen a great deal of change - not positive to any discernable degree – in our economy, and that catastrophic problem is one of the first that our new President must confront. I am grateful that he will not face that task unequipped, but rather empowered by his faith in Almighty God.
 
Ephesians 6 offers my prayer for our new President, in verses 13-18:
 
"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
 
"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
 
"In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."
 
As your bishop, I ask that you pray regularly for President Barack Obama and for the new Administration. Whether his election signaled the change that you hoped to see or not, we have a new President – through whom God can do great things.
 
"I can do everything," wrote the Apostle Paul, "through him who gives me strength." (Phil. 4:13.)

By: Warner H. Brown, Jr. On 1/16/2009
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