Rev. Mac Charles Jones, a Sojourners contributing editor, was pastor of St. Stephen's Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, which hosted the Gang Summit, when this article appeared. Jones preached the following sermon at the closing worship of the summit.
- The Editors
I want to take just a few moments and try to understand what is happening at this Gang Summit, and what ought to be the response from the church, the community, and the world. I think the response that this summit has received is totally out of kilter from what it ought to be.
It's the response of those in power who are afraid of an emerging new power and don't know what to do with it. It is the response of those who have exploited, robbed, and violated other communities, and as they see those communities no longer fighting each other and coming together, they are responding with fear.
I want to help folk understand that they don't have to be afraid. Yes, they're going to have to give up something. You can't steal, exploit, and create a negative situation, and then act like the victim is the only one to pay a price. You can't ask folk to give up their only means of survival and then act like you are not going to give up anything yourselves--but just applaud because they have given up the violence and the dope and all the stuff that you've been complaining about.
Everybody's going to have to give up something. We need to figure out what is happening here, so we can know how to respond properly.
THE STORY OF THE PRODIGAL SON from the gospel of Luke can help us here. In many ways it fits our own plight.
It's a story of broken relationship. The younger boy in the text goes off to a far country; he leaves home. Before long he's lost ties with his community. His daddy doesn't know where he is. His mama can't find him. He's lost his identity. He doesn't know who he is anymore. Survival will sometimes do that to you. This young man, he lost himself.
Not only is he in a far country, but the money he had is lost. And the folk he thought he could trust, he couldn't trust. And the end result is that this young man is in a hog pen. That's a false identity. The suggestion of the text is that he would have eaten the hog's food himself. He has lost who he is.
My brothers and sisters, as you hear this text, I want you to understand that all of us have lost our identity. All of us have been fooling around in hog pens. All of us have acted out of character. That's what this culture does to us.
This culture makes people of color ashamed to be who they are. It makes those who are of European descent feel that they are beyond who they are. It creates walls that should not be. And we end up losing our basic identity. We start treating each other as objects rather than human beings. That's hog pen mentality.
When you violate another person, you're not violating something that has no feeling. You are violating God! And the violation is not just with a gun, or with something you put in folk's bodies. The violation can be done through a law in Congress. It can be done when folks refuse to pass deals that allow for jobs for young men and women who have nowhere else to turn. It can be done when we leave each other out here by ourselves, acting as if we don't care. We become like hogs in the hog pen.
The beauty of what happens here is based on the fact that this brother was a Jew. You have to understand how bad this is. In the Jewish community, the hog was the worst possible animal to be associated with. You don't fool around with no hogs. But this brother is in the pen with the hogs--about to eat its food!
Then a strange thing happened. The young man was born again. He didn't go to the church or synagogue to get born again. Right there in the hog pen he gained a new consciousness! The Bible says he came to himself.
Now for those of you who are trying to figure out what's happening at this summit, these gang members didn't come to the church to be born again. Before they ever got here, they were talking about peace and justice--right there in the hog pen! They found themselves.
Now I've got to tell you, community, we've got to find ourselves. All of us have to come to a new awareness about our relationship to each other, because we've got our own hog pen. When we have our noses up, walking around with judgment on our faces, we're walking around in our own hog pen. We need to come to ourselves that we might be one.
WHAT WILL OUR response be when young folk who have decided to end the violence want a new beginning, and want to build a new vanguard movement? These young folk want to be a new voice for the whole community. They want to break down the barriers between each of our communities and join together with sisters and brothers learning to respect each other. What will our response be?
I want to tell you what the response in the Bible is. They had a party. You can shout for me this morning, because they had a celebration. They said get out the fatted calf, and they got out the best calf. They said I've got a robe that I've been saving for a royal guest. Royalty is about to show up! Get the best robe. I've got a ring--not any of that fake stuff--a real gold ring. Get the gold ring and put it on his finger. That was celebration, joy, and victory. Folks were ready to shout.
You have to understand, this was possible only because the father never gave up on his son. No matter how bad it looked, every morning the father was out of his bed, looking down the road to see if his son was on the way home. My brothers and sisters, we cannot give up on our daughters and sons. I don't care how bad other folk talk about you, don't you talk about yourselves like you don't know who you are. We've got to learn to have faith in one another.
The text says that the father saw his son at a distance. Remember, when he left home his belly was full, he had clean clothes, and he had money in his pocket. He looked like somebody. But now look at him. He's been in a hog pen. He's got nothing but heartache and pain. And yet his father saw him and knew him.
While he was yet in jail, he knew him. While he was yet on the streets, he knew him. While he yet had alcohol on his breath, he knew him. And he declared, I'm having a party, because he who was lost and she who was lost is now found. Glory hallelujah! It's party time. Go tell the press it's party time. Go tell Clinton it's party time. Go tell the ones who didn't believe it's party time.
Let me tell you about me. I wasn't always a preacher. I ran some streets myself. I know what it means to have to try to survive with folks looking at you. I've had the FBI after me. I've had some other folk after me. As a matter of fact, my mother used to wonder whether I would come home dead or alive.
But I want to tell you something. My mama and my daddy, they never forgot what I looked like. When I came home they would be standing on the road waiting on me. One day I came down the aisle and said, "The Lord has called me to preach. I got to talk about justice and good news. I got to talk about justice for poor folks and about redeeming the streets."
You know what they did? They sang "Amazing Grace." He could have been dead today. But they just sang--amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now we are found; was blind, but now we see. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, we have already come. T'was grace, God's grace, not my power, but God's grace, that brought me safely home.
There might be somebody here now who wants to respond to this gospel. Won't you stand and sing with us? There might be somebody who wants to come, somebody who might be born again this morning. It's party time!
LET ME GIVE an invitation now. I want to say at the end of this summit that last night a brother called me in tears. He told me about a young brother who wanted to come out and work with this summit and give up the violence to himself and to others. I want to make an invitation for those who want to lay down your colors--for those who want to find another way.
I want to invite you to come right now to the altar. I want you to know that from this day forward, a new thing is happening. You can do something else.
This morning we are praying for peace and unity; for justice, love, and power. We are praying for a new community. We are praying for a party. Come to the altar, won't you?
I want some of the brothers to come and sit with those who come forward, because we want to understand what this means. God is working right now. It's party time. After the party, the work has to begin. We've got to make them know that they've got a new family. We've got to bring them right into our hearts. We've got to help make a way.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)
Then Jesus said, "There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them.
A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.
But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands." ' So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.
Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate."
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