Interfaith Clergy Vigil for Grieving and Healing (in response to the murder of George Floyd)
June 7, 2020, Veterans Park, Napa, CA. Full text of remarks by Rev. Robin Denney
I have been asked to speak from the Christian perspective. We believe that all people are made in the image of God. That all people have dignity, that all people are beloved children of God. And also, there is clear witness throughout scripture that God is on the side of the oppressed; that God seeks justice and healing and new life for those who are downtrodden, and those who are pushed aside and abused and forgotten, those whose power has been systematically removed. God is on your side.
Jesus said a lot of things in scripture. One of the things he talked about the most often was social and economic injustice. Jesus reached out and he touched people. He crossed the barriers of divide in his own time, barriers of race and culture and religion. He reached out and touched Samaritans, the sworn enemy of his people. He reached out and he touched women and those who were considered unclean. He offered love and healing and restoration.
And what made him the angriest, what caused him to form a whip of cords and over turn the tables was injustice; was when the people in the temple were abusing the poor. He called them “you brood of vipers”, for taking advantage of the poor.
Jesus offered love and healing, and the very central point of our Christian faith is that idea of self-giving love. No greater love has a person than this, Jesus said, then to lay down their life for their friends. And yet, it has been Christians in this nation who have enslaved people of African descent, who have abused, segregated, and lynched them. It is Christians over generations in this valley who have committed genocide against native people, who have abused farm workers and railroad workers, who have systematically prevented people of color from having property ownership. We did this. My own ancestors did this. And I am so deeply sorry. I am sorry for the sin of racism which infects my own heart. I am sorry for way that I benefit from systems of injustice and violence which look at people and don’t see their full humanity. I am sorry that the founding principle of this nation, Liberty and justice for all, has never been achieved, and that there is not equal protection under the law. I am sorry.
Those of us who are white have come here today, to say that we commit ourselves to a different way. We recognize that these evils that have been perpetrated in our country, in our community, in our world, are wrong. They are evil in the eyes of God. We commit ourselves to do the hard work of having difficult conversations about race with other white people. We commit ourselves to learning, to educating ourselves, to listening more than we speak, to listen again and again. We are here today, and we are here for the long haul. And we will make mistakes, and we hope that when we do we will be corrected, so that we may learn from other people’s wisdom, so that we may learn and pray, and try again. This work that we do as the community, as a nation, is critical to the soul of our nation. We are called to be repairs of the breach, restorers of streets to live in. We pledge this to you, our brothers and sisters, our siblings of color, we pledge this day, so help us God. Amen.
Photo credit, this article: https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/downtown…