Summer
Sermon Series: Say It Like You Mean It – Confessing Our Faith
Philippians
2:5-11 and Ephesians 2:11-22
This morning we continue our summer
sermon series “Say It Like You Mean It” about our Book of Confessions. Throughout the summer months we have studied
all the confessions in the PCUSA Book of Confessions. We have looked at the ancient creeds and at
the creeds arising during the violent period of the Reformation. We have studied the Theological Declaration
of Barmen from Germany in World War 2.
We have also discussed the modern creeds of the Presbyterian Church
including the Confession of 1967 and the Brief Statement of Faith. This Sunday we complete our sermon series
with a look at the most recent addition to the Book of Confessions, the
Confession of Belhar.
Like many of the early Reformation
creeds, and the Declaration of Barmen, the Confession of Belhar is a statement
that is geographically located. This
Confession comes from the struggle with racism and apartheid in South
Africa. That country has a long and
complicated history of racial segregation beginning with the arrival of Dutch
settlers in 1652.
When the Dutch arrived they brought
with them Reformed Christianity. Over
time the Dutch began to think of themselves as the indigenous people of South
Africa. And before you judge that
strangeness, think of how Europeans have come to think of themselves as the
indigenous people of the United States!
The Dutch began to call themselves Afrikaners and they spoke their own
language Afrikaans.
By the late 1800s gold and diamonds were
discovered in South Africa. This
generated a lot of outside interest and the British began to exert force in the
country. They enforced English as the
official language and dominated the Afrikaner population as well as the colored
people of the country.
In 1948 the Afrikaners overthrew the British
government. They were now free to
dictate what they felt was best for the country. Racism was already firmly established as
colored children were banned from schools as early as 1861, but now things began
to escalate as Afrikaners denoted a strict separation of the races. No interracial sex or marriage was allowed, all
public venues from buses to hospitals were strictly segregated, and nonwhite
people could be detained at any time.
All colored people were required to always carry a passbook containing
identification information. Although
only a minority of the population spoke it, Afrikaans became the official
language of the country.
Church too was a place of separation. Early on the Dutch had been eager to share
their faith with the heathen people of South Africa, but they had a strong
desire to remain separate in worship and governance. While they established the Dutch Reformed
Church for themselves, they also created the Dutch Reformed Missional Church
for all the colored people of South Africa.
Over time the two churches did not get along, and the Dutch Reformed
Church constantly overruled decisions made by the Missional Church. For over a century one church dominated the
other based on racial differences.
Violence in South Africa increased in
the 1960s, 70s, and 80s as people of color sought equal rights within the
nation. Memorable events include the
Sharpsville Massacre in 1960 where unarmed Africans gathered at a police
station for peaceful protest only to be attacked by white police. 67 were killed and 186 were wounded including
women and children. Over 80% of the
injuries were folks shot in the back as they fled. It was after this incident that Nelson Mandela
was arrested and imprisoned for his support of the movement.
Another famous moment of violence
occurred in 1976 in Soweto. Laws had
been passed that all schools including the colored ones would teach in only the
Afrikaans language. Many teachers did
not speak the language and were fired.
Students could not write in the language and many that could refused to
participate in the language of the government that oppressed them. By this time a quarter of a million children
were out of school. Many children
gathered to protest the situation in Soweto, a suburb of Johannesburg, only to
be met by armed white police officers who shot into the crowds of
children. As news of the death of
children began to spread, rioting flared throughout the country and hundreds of
the people were killed. The country
seemed destined to be forever torn against racial divides.
In was into this environment that the
Confession of Belhar was written. Even
in the face of violence and injustice, the Dutch Reformed Church continued to
openly support apartheid and racial segregation. The church felt that separation of the races
was the will of God and they used biblical, moral, and theological
justification for their arguments.
Finally in 1982 the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches representing 200 denominations and 75 million Christians
declared that the South African Dutch Reformed Church was out of line. It declared that the denomination’s support
of systematic racism was heresy and the Dutch Reformed Church was kicked out of
the Alliance. It was a stinging blow to
the 1.2 million members of the South African Church. The Missional Church of South Africa agreed
with the ruling and offered the Confession of Belhar in support of the
decision.
The confession itself has three
themes: unity, reconciliation, and justice.
Following Paul’s line of thought in the letter to the church in Ephesus,
the confession discuss unity as a gift of Jesus Christ. Through the work of Christ, God has brought
differing people together into true unity.
The forced separation of people is a sin and is against the will of God
for humanity.
The theme of reconciliation is lifted
up as God’s desire for relationship with us and our relationship with each
other. In the famous hymn from
Philippians, we remember that Christ emptied himself, lowered himself, to be
one with humanity. Through Christ, God
took action to reconcile with us. We
therefore should take action to reconcile with each other. Again, any forced separation of people along
lines of race or any other differentiation is declared to be against the will
of God. This separation is an
obstruction to the gospel.
Finally the confession clearly lays
out the issue of justice. God has called
the church to work towards justice in the world. The church is to offer special care to the
poor and oppressed of our world. The
church is called to speak out against those in power who would use authority
for selfish gain. If the church is not
fighting for justice in the world, then the church is not the true church of
God.
The Confession of Belhar was
originally adopted by the Dutch Reformed Missional Church in 1986. Following change in South Africa, the World
Alliance allowed the return of the Dutch Reformed Church as it adopted a
statement declaring apartheid a sin in 1998.
In the years following, several other reformed denominations adopted the
Confession of Belhar as part of their confessional statement.
In 2004 the Racial Ethnic task force
of the PCUSA invited the denomination to consider adopting the confession
ourselves. Study was encouraged by all
folks in the denomination and in 2008 the General Assembly approved the
confession and sent it to the Presbyteries for approval. The motion failed by just 8
Presbyteries. The process began again at
the 2012 General Assembly and this time was approved by the 2/3 majority of
Presbyteries in 2014. At this summer’s
assembly, the motion passed the final vote and now nearly 40 years after it was
written, the Confession of Belhar will be added to our Book of Confessions.
So again we ask, “Why do I care?” Just as with all the confessions we have
studied this summer, the issues that the writers of the confession sought to
address are still issues in our world today.
While the United States does not have legalized systematic racism to the
level of South Africa in the 20th century, we certainly have a
strong undercurrent of racism that is tacitly accepted by those in power in our
country. As a nation, we continue to
struggle with issues of racism, power, and authority and it is all too easy for
the majority of us to simply ignore the problem or to pretend that it does not
exist. The Confession of Belhar reminds
us that even though we might not experience racism ourselves, that it is the
call of all churches to stand up for justice in the world and to fight for the
equality of all people. If we are not
speaking out and standing up against racism, then we cannot call ourselves the
church.
As this summer sermon series draws to
a close, it is my hope that you have gained a deeper understanding of the
Presbyterian denomination and our history as a church. I know that I personally have learned a lot
about the confessions and I have gained a much greater appreciation for our
Book of Confessions. I hope that you
have too. Personally, I thank God that I
am called to be part of a church that tackles challenging issues of theology,
that questions power and authority, and that continually strives to serve the
needy and spread the gospel with integrity.
In a world that calls us to only watch
out for number one, I am proud to be part of a church that has spent centuries
standing up for the little guy. May we
continue to move forward together as a denomination, seeking reform among our
own ranks and in our world. God bless
this church! Amen.
Our declaration of faith today is from
the justice section of the Confession of Belhar. Let us stand together and “say it like you
mean it!”
No comments:
Post a Comment