My most recent sermon is the fourth installment of our summer series, “Privilege and Promise: This is America.” I begin with a brief recap of the series thus far, but if you are interested in experiencing the full effect:

Prologue, “The Past is Prologue”

Part 1, “Moving Beyond Fear” by the Rev. Danita R. Anderson

Part 2, “Being Colorblind”

Part 3, “He Said, She Said, We Should Say” by the Rev. Danita R. Anderson

Our readings for this service came from the Lectionary: 1 Kings 3:5-12, which we read from The Voice version; and Matthew 13:31-33, 44-48, from the Contemporary English Version. Basically: Solomon gets his wisdom wish and Jesus trumpets the amazing growing mustard seed.

With those texts in mind, we (finally) get into the privilege portion of “Privilege and Promise.”

And that right there is where we often run into trouble when talking about Privilege. Like all words, Privilege has multiple meanings. For many of us, especially we who are white, when told we have white privilege, it sounds like we are being told we had it easy, or we didn’t really work very hard, or everything in life was just handed to us. For someone like Solomon, that was true. But most of us aren’t Solomon and resent the implication that we are him.

I spend some time attempting to unpack all that. “White privilege doesn’t mean your life hasn’t been hard; it means the color of your skin isn’t one of the things making it harder.”

The sermon begins at the 47:53 mark of the video. (If someone knows why I can’t embed the video to start there despite selecting that option, please let me know!)

Here’s the audio-only version, if you prefer that.

By having awkward conversations we can recognize our various privileges and work to allow opportunities for others without those privileges. That too is how the Kin-dom of God spreads.

Let me know what you think and, most importantly, what I missed and how I can improve.

Next up: details of the various resources educating and influencing me.

Featured image by Joshua Lanzarini on Unsplash