Rev. Jeremiah Wright:: America’s chickens are coming home to roost.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright:

America’s chickens are coming home to roost.

Every public service of worship I have heard about, so far, in the wake of the American tragedy has had in its prayers and in its preachments, sympathy and compassion for those who were killed and for their families, and God’s guidance, upon the selected presidents, and our war machine, as they do what they do, and what they got to do. Paybacks.

There’s a move in Psalm 137, from thoughts of paying tides, to thoughts of paying back. A move if you will from worship, to war - a move in other words from the God of creation, to the war against those whom God created.
And I want you to notice very carefully the next move, one of the reasons this Psalm is rarely read in its entirety, because it is a move that spotlights the insanity of the cycle of violence, and the cycle of hatred.
Look at the verse, look at verse 9, look at verse 9.

Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rocks. The people of faith, by the rivers of Babylon. How shall we sing the Lord’s song, if I forget thee? The people of faith have moved from the hatred of armed enemies, these soldiers who captured the King, those soldiers who slaughtered his sons and put his eyes out, the soldiers who sacked the city, burned their towns, burned the temple, burned the towers — they have moved from the hatred for armed enemies to the hatred of unarmed innocents. The babies. The babies. Blessed are they who dash your baby’s brains against a rock. And that, my beloved, is a dangerous place to be.
Now, I asked the Lord, what should our response be, in light of such an unthinkable act? But before I share with you what the Lord showed me I want to give you one of my little faith footnotes. Visitors, I often give faith footnotes, so that our members don’t lose sight of the big picture. Let me give you a little faith footnote. Turn to your neighbor and say “Faith footnote.”
Congregation: Faith footnote.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright:

I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday. Did anybody else see him or hear him? He was on Fox News. This is a white man, and he was upsetting the Fox News commentators to no end. He pointed out – you see him John? – White man, he pointed out, an Ambassador, that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Mohammed was in fact true. America’s chickens are coming home to roost. We took this country, by terror, away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Arawak, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navaho – terrorism. We took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism.
We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, nonmilitary personnel. We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hardworking fathers. We bombed Kaddafi’s home and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children’s heads against the rocks.

We bombed Iraq; we killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to payback for the attack on our embassy; killed hundreds of hardworking people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day, not knowing that they would never get back home.
We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki. And we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children after school, civilians – not soldiers – just trying to make it day by day. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.

Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred, and terrorism begets terrorism. A white Ambassador said that, ya’ll, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An Ambassador whose eyes are wide open, and who’s trying to get us to wake up, and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The Ambassador said the people that we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die to take thousands with them, and we need to come to grips with that. Let me stop my faith footnote right there, and ask you to think about that over the next few weeks if God grants us that many days. Turn back to your neighbor and say “Footnote is over”.
Congregation: Footnote is over.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright:

Now, come on back to my question to the Lord: what should our response be right now, in light of such an unthinkable act? I asked the Lord that question Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I was stuck in Newark, New Jersey. No flights were leaving La Guardia, JFK, or Newark airport. On the day that the FAA opened up the airports to bring into the cities of destinations those flights that had been diverted because of the hijacking, a scare in New York closed all three regional airports and I couldn’t even get here for Mr. Radford’s father’s funeral. And I asked God, what should our response be? I saw pictures of the incredible – people jumping from 110th floor, people jumping from the roof, because the stairwells and elevators above the 89th floor were gone, no more. Black people jumping to a certain death; people holding hands jumping; people on fire jumping. And I asked the Lord, what should our response be?

I read what the people of faith felt in 551 BC. But this is a different time, this is a different enemy, this is a different world, this is a different terror, this is a different reality. What should our response be? And the Lord showed me three things. Let me share them with you quickly, and then I will leave you alone to think about the faith footnote.

Number one: the Lord showed me that this is a time for self-examination. As I sat 900 miles away from my family and my community of faith, two months after my own father’s death, God showed me that this was a time for me to examine my relationship with God. My own relationship with God. My personal relationship with God. I submit to you that it’s the same for you. Folks flocked to the church in New Jersey last week, you know that fox hole religion syndrome kicked in, that emergency car cord religion – you know that little red box that says “pull in case of emergency”? It showed up full force. Folks who haven’t thought about coming to church for years were in church last week. I heard that midweek prayer services all over this country, which are poorly attended 51 weeks a year, were jam-packed all over the nation, the week of the hijackings, the 52nd week, filled and full.

But the Lord said this isn’t the time for you to be examining other folks’ relationships; this is a time of self-examination. The Lord said, how is our relationship doing Jeremiah? How often do you talk to me personally? How often do you let me talk to you privately? How much time trying to get right with me? Or do you spend all your time trying to get other folks right? This is a time for me to examine my own relationship with God. Is it real, or is it fake? Is it forever, or is it for show? Is it something that you do for the sake of the public, or is it something that you do for the sake of eternity? This is a time for me to examine my own, and a time for you to examine your own relationship with God. Self-examination.

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Published:
3.20.08 / 1pm
Category:
media, politics