I’m white, and I’m part of white culture. Like many Americans, this means some of my racial identity has been lost. I’m English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, German and Polish, but I’ve never felt like those things. I don’t eat their food or sing their songs. I enjoyed having a rare last name when I was growing up, but we didn’t even pronounce it correctly. A few years ago, my parents got to make a trip to Poland, but they could only see it through tourist eyes. It’s not home.
If I could pinpoint a culture my family embraced, it would be Frontierswoman. I grew up in Montana and Wyoming with older family members who were cowboys, ranchers, who lived through the Great Depression, and who built homes in lonely places. My mother cans food, weaves, and spins, and cooks homemade bread. Here’s a picture of family friends and me at a “Western Days Fair” teaching spinning.
I enjoyed these things we shared as a family. I enjoy my culture, and there are many good things in it. A funny thing is that we usually think our families are “normal” and that others are the same. I feel that way a white American too- I’m normal. Others are "strange and exotic and hard to understand."
Working at colleges, I’ve spent a lot of time with international students. I’ve found that they have a lot of different values. A common value in the Eastern world is obedience to family. I love my family too, but as an American, I value independence more. I can’t imagine letting my family pick my degree, career, partner or home. Those values are weird to me. I don’t like that.
Yet, I’m slowly learning to see good things in those values too. Some of you are old enough to have rebellious children and feel that pain. There’s probably a healthy balance between these two sets of values, or a way to find that they have more in common below the surface. Because I have to admit that my values aren’t 100% right either. Some things in my culture aren’t good, Some things in my family aren’t good. It’s helpful to have an outsider’s perspective. Those of you who are married know the challenges of blending two families. My husband told me once, “It was hard to sit and chat with your family tonight. Everyone kept disagreeing with each other and telling each other why they were wrong, That was the whole conversation.”
“No, we don’t do that!” I argued reflexively. Then I sat and listened. He was right. We do that. I do that. I didn’t see it. It felt normal to me. This is an example of a generational sin in my life. “‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’” (Numbers 14:18) This scripture doesn’t mean I’m being punished for something my great-grandparents did - but it does mean they raised their children to be like them, and they raised their children the same, until I was committing the same sins as the ones before.
Friends, this is not a value I want to pass on.
We pass on sexual sins, chemical addictions, gossip, pride, hared and thoughtless words. Jesus breaks sin, and I’m cutting this generational sin here. Generation sin is a tough subject for many Americans because we don’t want to admit that sin from our parents has any hold on us. We’re independent! But this is a good place to receive insight from Eastern cultures, where the family is more important than the individual.
We forget that the Bible was written with an Eastern worldview. They understood family sin, and also community or corporate sin better. When the prophets spoke to the people of God, they didn’t or rarely call out individuals for sinful behavior. They held the whole community responsible.They called the whole community to repentance, like when Ezra read the Law to the whole community and they repented.
On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. -Nehemiah 9:1-3 also see Micah 3:9-12.
When was the last time you confessed your ancester’s sins? It’s weird, right? But this was a people in exile. They were separated from the promised land because of their ancestor’s sins. It’s hard for them to ignore.
We like embracing the good things in our culture and ignoring the bad. I love being a frontierswoman, and there are fewer American Indians left in America, and they are hidden away. Easy to ignore. They've endured devastating poverty and shattered communities. I want to pretend that Christians didn’t take children away from their families and strip away every part of their ethnic identity in an attempt to “save their souls.” I want to pretend that the past is long ago and has no impact on the present.
2014 was a hard year for racial relations in American. We white people have worked very hard to close our eyes to it. Where there has been death and mourning in the black community, the white church has not mourned alongside. The white church has not confessed sins. We have worshipped the values of America rather than the values of Jesus.
I’m not trying to say that American values are unredeemable. America was founded to be a nation of equality- what a beautiful idea! Yet it was built on the backs of African slaves. We pretend the past doesn’t impact the present. But just like the founding fathers wouldn’t recognize their hypocrisy, we seem slow to admit that equality has not been reached. That two children of equal intelligence and skill do not live in American on a level field. MLK said, “We’ve come a long, long way, but we have a long, long way to go.”
The family of God is hurting, but the Body of Christ is not crying out in pain when its fingers have been crushed. We cannot see the vision promised in Revelation 21:23-26 when we refuse to walk in the light, when we keep our eyes tightly closed to the oppressed and the toll we continue to play in their suffering. What glory and honor can my people bring before God’s throne?
We must confess, like Isaiah, that we are a people of unclean lips, who are unworthy to stand in the presence of God! (Isaiah 6:3)
I don’t tell you these things so that you’d have no hope. Revelation shows another vision:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life,as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. -Revelation 22:1-3
Jesus the Lamb is our hope. And he will heal and redeem the nations. “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”” Revelation 21:4-5
Please do not fight the promises of God. Please join with me in mourning and repentance. Let’s pray to have God’s eyes and God’s heart for all people.
Invitations
Confessions: ignorance or choosing to ignore, devaluing the lives and stories of people of color
Learn: I’ll provide resources online, or join my Bible study on this subject
If you doubt these words, pray, ask God for revelation. Listen to the stories. It’s hard teaching to accept.
Prayer:
Lord, I am an unclean woman from a people of unclean lips. I have sinned against you, and against my brothers and my sisters. I praise you for being the God who redeems and I thank you for the blood of Jesus which allows me to stand before your throng. I ask you to shine light on this church. We do not want to be a people of darkness. Take away our unfeeling hearts and teach us to love. We praise you and seek you as our King. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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