Weaving Promises: Good News for the Poor by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

On July 17^th of this year, Eric Garner died in a neighborhood of Staten Island, New York, after a police officer put him in what many view as a chokehold for about 19 seconds. Chokeholds are a violation New York City Police Department (NYPD) policy. Garner was resisting arrest after police officers accused him of selling single cigarettes.  Officer Daniel Pantaleo, put his arm around Garner's neck and attempted to pull him backwards and down onto the ground. This is all seen on a recording that you have probably seen on TV or Youtube. As four officers restrained Garner, he repeated "I can't breathe" 11 times while lying facedown on the sidewalk. 

 An ambulance was called to the scene. He had a heart attack in the vehicle and was pronounced dead approximately one hour later at the hospital. His death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner’s office. But on December 3, a Grand Jury decided not to indict officer Pantaleo.  (Source: Wikipedia.) 

Demonstrations have erupted across the country with people wearing shirts that say: “I can’t breathe,” and with people lying in the streets having “die ins.”

Rev. Jeff Hood, a pastor in Washington DC had this to say about this incident: "For me, this is a very religious thing. I don’t believe you can love your neighbor as yourself and then kill them. … I think people of faith need to demonstrate. We have a fundamental responsibility to be in the streets, to be creating coalitions, to be building change.

I keep thinking about Eric Garner saying, 'I can’t breathe.- It made me think -- that’s what Jesus is saying in this culture. Jesus is fundamentally connected to the marginalized and right now Jesus is saying, 'I can’t breathe.' I think the church should be saying the same thing -- that we can’t breathe in this culture and we have to change this culture in order for us to have breath and exist in this society."

I think Rev.  Hood is right – not even Jesus can breathe under these circumstances. Something has gone terribly wrong in our culture, in our world. Black parents everywhere will tell you that they have to have “the talk” with their children, especially their sons.  The talk varies but it includes a terrible question posed by Jonathan Lethem in his book The Fortress of Solitude: "At what age is a black boy when he learns he's scary?" You see this is what it means to be a black boy growing up in America. You learn that you are scary to white people. You learn that you have to behave a certain way around police officers because you are, quite frankly, not safe around a police officer.  

I read this in an article: when you are the parent of a black son: you have to “protect your child from a country that is out to get him—a country that kills someone that looks like him every 28 hours, that is by a police officer, a country that will likely imprison him by his mid-thirties if he doesn't get his high school diploma, a country that is more than twice as likely to suspend him from school than a white classmate.”

Source: http://gawker.com/what-black-parents-tell-their-sons-about-the-police-1624412625

Friends, this is wrong. This is what we call systemic racism. There are systems in place that cause children of color to grow up being treated differently than white children. And this is about more than what colleges they will be admitted to and what jobs they will get. This is a matter of life and death. 

You see, it is privilege, white privilege to walk down the street and not be feared just because of the color of your skin. If Eric Garner could not breathe, then Jesus cannot breathe, and the prophet Isaiah cannot breathe and God cannot breathe. If anyone is oppressed then we are all oppressed by an oppressive system. 

Well, in our scripture for today, (Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 from The Message Bible for those following along from afar) Isaiah comes to a people who are living under oppression, and Isaiah offers some promises them from God:

God has sent me to  preach good news to the poor,
    heal the heartbroken,
Announce freedom to all captives,
    pardon all prisoners.
 God has sent me to announce God’s grace—
    …. [To give]
Messages of joy instead of news of doom.

This is what we need today too, isn’t it? We need a Savior. Later, when Jesus comes along, he reads this scripture in the temple, and he says: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled.” Jesus claims that he is the one to fulfill Isaiah’s promise. 

You see, God promises to give us the power to make the world this better place. God promises that we can heal the heartbroken. We can free those who are captive to the unjust systems we have created. We can give messages of joy rather than doom.

But we are not there yet. We thought when we abolished slavery, and then desegregated the schools and passed the Voting Rights Act (or what is left of it) that we had dealt with our racism. But those were only the first steps. Those were the structural and legal things we could do.

Now as we see hear the stories and see the racial tensions flare, we know that our work is not done. I had a conversation yesterday with three black men and one of their wives: Ollie Townsend who attends The Village regularly with his wife Kim Crosby. I also met two of Ollie’s friends, Chris and Cory. They talked about what it is like to be black men living in Toledo, Ohio. These are men who do not consider themselves to be what they call the stereotypical ghetto black men. They describe themselves this way: they are just regular guys who got a good education, go to work from 9 to 5 every day, wear clothes that fit, and stay out of trouble.  We are not the ones you will see on CNN, because we don’t fit the “type”. But they all have family members or friends who fit that ghetto stereotype. 

In our conversation we all agreed, ghetto or not, people are people, and everyone should be treated fairly by everyone, including police officers.  Amen?!?!

Kim told a story of when she and Ollie had just moved to Woodville which is a little town on the edge of Toledo.  They had lived there a week. She had parked her car in front of a diner and went for a drive with a friend who was showing her around town. When they returned, she noticed that there was a police car parked near her car, like they were waiting for her. She remembered that her license plate had just expired. When she got into her car, and started driving the police pulled her over. They asked her about her expired plates but then they did something very unusual. They said, “Where do you live?” She told them. And “Who do you live with?”  “My husband,” she answered. They said, “Yes we know that house.” 

Now how many times has a police officer, in a routine traffic stop, asked you who you live with? They were letting her know that they did not like a white women living with a black man in their town. Kim and Ollie were pulled over 5 times in less than a year while living in Woodville, for no serious reason at all. They ended up leaving Woodville because Kim did not feel safe living there. 

These three men all told me they will not drive through Ottawa Hills because they know it is not safe for them. For the most part, these three said, they have not had much trouble in life, but at their core they say they live with the knowledge that there is always a target on a black man’s head. Friends, No one should have to live like that, no one.

Isaiah said that one would come who would bring good news to the poor and freedom to the captives. This one would give space so we can all breathe freely. Lots of people in our country cannot breathe freely yet. They leave their houses every morning with a target on their heads and they have to second guess every move they make so it won’t be misinterpreted. That is no way to live. 

So how do we change the world? We breathe. We breathe in the Spirit of God. We boldly ask the Spirit of God to live in us and inspire us. So we walk down the street and look the young black person in the eye and smile. We start up a conversation with and show an interest– let them know that we are loving people and we are not afraid.   We don’t find you scary and we are not afraid to call you fellow beloved child of God, friend, neighbor.  

When we see injustice, evil and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, we speak up. Friday as I was leaving Best Buy, the guy at the door was making a black staff member take off his coat and be searched before he could leave. He waved me and another white woman shopper off without looking at our packages. We were enjoying white privilege. I am ashamed that I did not walk up to that man and challenge him. Why didn’t I ask him, “Why are you searching this man but not me? Is it because he is black and I am white?” You see the black man could never ask that question because he would be called and angry black man, but I can ask the question. This is one simple way to engage in important conversation about white privilege. 

So I have a challenge for us today. There is an invitation in the program today, to change the world, by participating in a “Dialogue to Change” group. The groups are being formed to offer citizens in Toledo an opportunity to have honest conversations about racism. Groups of 10-12 people meet for two hours each week for six weeks, ending with an action plan to change race relations in the Toledo area. There are both afternoon and evening groups. Our own Karen Shepler is the coordinator of this project and can tell you more about it. I have signed up and I would love if if 20 people from The Village sign up to do this in the New Year. This is one important way that we can be part of the change we want to see in Toledo.

Finally, I ask you to pray.  We can all take a deep breath and pray. Pray for our city. Pray for Eric Garner and others like him to follow.  Pray for our police officers.  Pray for the promises that Isaiah makes that are woven into the Advent message. Jesus comes to bring good news to the poor and freedom to the captive. We are surrounded by poor and captive people. And until everyone is free, none of us are truly free. Pray that God might use us, to set all the people free. Amen.