suburbia to white men only. To red-lining, which is as recent as the 1980s in our city.
So, when I was here, one-year-old, my dad was a student at Multnomah Biblical Seminary. We lived in
Northeast. 1981. At that time, if you were a black man or woman, it was really hard, if not impossible, to even
get a home loan in our city. And, if it was, it was only in a select neighborhood, which was then later razed
for Emanuel Hospital and Memorial Coliseum and now the gentrification in Northeast. So, we just see it and
we want you to know that I don't understand it. In all honest, I don't know what it feels like to be scared of a
police officer. I have nothing but good to say for law enforcement. But, I see it and we just want you to
know that you are a part of our community, that you matter, that we value you, that you have not only a seat
at the table, but we want you to even lead our community in this area and many others.
To those of you who are white, which is a few of you, I just want to say, as your pastor, with all due respect,
now is not the time to Tweet or hashtag or blog or debate. Just shut up, if you would. Now is the time to
listen and to learn. I think the right posture right now is humility. It's a lot of reading, it's a lot of podcasting,
it's a lot of conversations with your friends who are people of color. It's a lot of you are the teacher, you are
the mentor, I'm the student. Teach me. Help me better understand this. It's a lot of owning stuff that maybe
you and I don't want to own, in particular as a white man or woman.
And that's the posture. The reality is if you were born white, in particular if, like me, you're male in a middle
class family in a safe, suburban context where I grew up, then you are the beneficiary of hundreds of years
of accrued privilege based on systemic racial injustice in our country. And that is something that we can't
wink at and just say, "Hey, it's not a problem anymore. We've moved on."
We've not. And it's something that, as followers of Jesus, we bear a responsibility for. So, I honestly have
more questions than answers. I would love to just not say anything for the next two years and just read
everything there is and podcast everything there is and get 25 mentors, but I don't have that luxury. So, I
want to say on behalf of our community and behalf of our leadership, this matters to us. It matters a lot. I
don't know exactly what the way forward is. I'm in dialogue with some really incredible people of color and
leaders that I really look up to and respect, and we'll have an ongoing conversation, in particular toward the
end of this summer. We'll dedicate at least a night, probably in September, just to go deeper on this as a
community in both thought process and in prayer.
So, please show us grace, in particular those of you that are way ahead of us on this conversation or those
of you for whom this is not an abstract idea, this is a reality that you live with. Show us grace and just know
that we love you and I think that, in the cultural climate we're in right now of anger, hate, blatant
unforgiveness, sound bites and hashtags, I think a forgiven and forgiving community with love at the center
of the way of Jesus, that is the path forward. So, that's what I want to be as a community; whatever that
So, would you just pray with me for a moment?
Jesus, it's a beautiful day and it's summer and I love our city and I can't wait to open up the Bible. But, I just
feel this weight on my soul. And God, I ask that You would lead and guide our community forward as we
read in the New Testament, in particular in the writings of Paul, about the new humanity that is the Church.
And it's not a post-racial, colorblind humanity. It is a celebration of every color, of every tribe, every tongue,
every nation. And we want to be that. I have no idea how to do that in the whitest city in America. And I
know I have no idea how to do that after hundreds of years of accrued tension.
But Jesus, we ask for You to pastor us, for You to shepherd us. I pray for love to be the center virtue in the
life of our community and I also pray for humility, for wisdom, for us to own our part across the aisle. And
God, I ask that You would show mercy and grace in a time of need to our community, to our city, to our
state, to our nation and to our world. And may You, Jesus, have Your way and may You shape our
community, with all its problems and all its issues, into the image of Jesus as we move forward.
And now, as we open the Scriptures, again we just invite You, Holy Spirit. We want more that
information. We want formation. So, shape us. As a community I pray, Jesus, amen.
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 1. Daniel 1. Last week we started a new series that