Speaking Up For What's Right
Stories
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit
Series V, Cycle C
Object:
As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. (vv. 27-29)
Elton Trueblood told the story of a man who was in New York City years ago in the days of segregation. The man stood in line at a large hotel waiting to ask for a room. Directly in front of him was an African-American gentleman. The first man was Caucasian and he couldn't help but overhear the conversation taking place between the African-American gentleman and the desk clerk. The clerk was turning the man away stating that they had no available rooms.
Well, the Caucasian man did not have a reservation. But after the African-American gentleman vacated the front of the line, the white man asked the desk clerk if the hotel had any available rooms. The clerk replied, "Yes, certainly, what price did you have in mind?"
The fact that the desk clerk asked about the price range indicated that there were several rooms available. The African-American gentleman was being turned away solely based on the color of his skin. Surely he could have afforded the least expensive of the rooms.
What would be the appropriate response for the white man during these days of segregation? He could do nothing and be grateful that he had found a room for the night. Dishonesty happens all the time. Tend to your own business. Don't borrow trouble. You have enough of your own.
But he knew it wasn't right. He could not allow the injustice to occur when he knew it was happening. So, knowing that the African-American gentleman man had not yet left the hotel lobby, he called out to him. He said, "Come back. The clerk made a mistake. There is a room for you, because there is a room for me!" Then he turned back to the clerk and challenged him. He asked, "What are you going to do about it? You know the law of this state. I mean to see that it is enforced."
The man saw the African-American gentleman as a brother -- a fellow traveler looking for a place to lay his head. Because the man chose to speak up, the clerk reversed his action and both men were given rooms.
Paul reminds us to look at each other not with division, but instead with unity. "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." We can safely say there is no more black or white, and that God includes us all as children who receive the inheritance of eternal life.
(Elton Trueblood, The Yoke of Christ [Waco, Texas: Word, 1958], pp. 103-104)
Elton Trueblood told the story of a man who was in New York City years ago in the days of segregation. The man stood in line at a large hotel waiting to ask for a room. Directly in front of him was an African-American gentleman. The first man was Caucasian and he couldn't help but overhear the conversation taking place between the African-American gentleman and the desk clerk. The clerk was turning the man away stating that they had no available rooms.
Well, the Caucasian man did not have a reservation. But after the African-American gentleman vacated the front of the line, the white man asked the desk clerk if the hotel had any available rooms. The clerk replied, "Yes, certainly, what price did you have in mind?"
The fact that the desk clerk asked about the price range indicated that there were several rooms available. The African-American gentleman was being turned away solely based on the color of his skin. Surely he could have afforded the least expensive of the rooms.
What would be the appropriate response for the white man during these days of segregation? He could do nothing and be grateful that he had found a room for the night. Dishonesty happens all the time. Tend to your own business. Don't borrow trouble. You have enough of your own.
But he knew it wasn't right. He could not allow the injustice to occur when he knew it was happening. So, knowing that the African-American gentleman man had not yet left the hotel lobby, he called out to him. He said, "Come back. The clerk made a mistake. There is a room for you, because there is a room for me!" Then he turned back to the clerk and challenged him. He asked, "What are you going to do about it? You know the law of this state. I mean to see that it is enforced."
The man saw the African-American gentleman as a brother -- a fellow traveler looking for a place to lay his head. Because the man chose to speak up, the clerk reversed his action and both men were given rooms.
Paul reminds us to look at each other not with division, but instead with unity. "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." We can safely say there is no more black or white, and that God includes us all as children who receive the inheritance of eternal life.
(Elton Trueblood, The Yoke of Christ [Waco, Texas: Word, 1958], pp. 103-104)
