Jun 4 2020 Galatians 3: 1-14

Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? 

We’ve now been home-bound, fretting about this pandemic for three months, and while things are maybe getting better, the new normal is not yet in sight. Meanwhile, emotions have rightly erupted over the senseless killing of another unarmed black man, George Floyd. Nightly protests have continued. 

Meanwhile, it feels like too many are starting with the spirit and ending with the flesh, as Paul chides the people of Galatia. We start with the true and noble goal of furthering God’s commandment. Love God. Love your neighbor. But somewhere along the way, we stop loving. We start sounding, to my ears, strangely similar to what we’re protesting. Don’t judge black people. The aren’t all criminals. Don’t treat black men differently in sentencing, in arresting, in searching, in killing. People are people. Yes!  

Maybe it’s just Portland, but I’ve seen ACAB written all over town. All Cops are Bastards. But shouldn’t those same protestors be able to see the hypocrisy in this pre-judged, or prejudiced attitude? All Cops?  Isn’t that the same as saying All Blacks? 

It is absolutely true there are some police who are rotten to the core. And that should be dealt with. And anyone who’s taken the Harvard Implicit Bias Test knows we all have implicit bias (If you haven't, I'd strongly recommend it)  Even knowing that the test is trying to see if you have a bias, and actively trying to beat the test renders nothing better than actual implicit bias (I’ve tried).

Everyone in our culture has bias, and unfortunately we all apply those implicit biases in our work. Our banking work, our food service work, our pastoral work, our realtor work, even our police work. We all use the tools available to us to unintentionally further our implicit biases. We deem some people less worthy so they get less of our time, our approvals, our forgiveness. It can’t not happen. The largest difference with police is the tools of their trade. When they apply their legitimate tools, people die. And add implicit bias to that, and the results are disastrous. But the same could be true for lenders, and realtors, and church leaders. When we apply the tools of our trade, combined with our implicit bias, the results are disastrous. 

We all start with the Spirit. Especially now, with so much wrong in the world. We want things better. We want all of God’s children to be loved. We want others to be treated with respect and dignity. We don’t want others to be judged. 

And despite the heinousness of any action, we are called to do the same. We are called to love. To treat everyone with respect and dignity. To not judge. 

This morning, I’m thinking about how hard it is to stick with the Spirit, when it sometimes seems so much more effective to lean on the foibles of the flesh, whether it’s prejudice, hatred, bias, violence, unkind thoughts, unkind words. We need to always stick with the Spirit. Love God. Love your Neighbor.