Race Matters: SF Achievers Share Their Stories
Reverend Joann • June 28, 2020
Please join us for this online Calvary Adult Education program that focuses on the important work of San Francisco Achievers, one of Calvary Presbyterian Church’s non-profit partners, whose goal is to help close the opportunity gap for African American young men seeking to fulfill their potential through higher education. A panel of recent and soon-to-be college graduates from SF Achievers, who were mentored by Calvary congregants, will share their personal insights into the current events around Black Lives Matter and where we go from here. San Francisco Achievers mission is to support African American young men in San Francisco to lead and thrive in higher education and beyond by closing the opportunity gap.
SF Achievers does this through college scholarships, leadership training, and mentoring. The students benefit from a community of support that starts with staff and extends to volunteers, businesses, and nonprofits throughout the Bay Area. Studies show that African American men make up only about 5.5% of all college students, with only 1 in 6 graduating with a college degree. SF Achievers addresses these disparities through its programs: a skills development program in high schools; a Leadership Academy for selected high school seniors; and scholarships, mentoring, and other support for college students. For more information on AF Achievers: https://www.sfachievers.org/.
In today's reading, Peter denies Jesus three times. Peter isn’t any worse than any other sheep in God’s flock. Here, at least, he’s also not better. We are people, like Peter, who deny. We deny our connectedness. We divide into “us and them”. We seek easy answers to complicated questions.
On the night we expect bread and cup, John’s gospel gives us a towel and a basin. Jesus kneels, turning ritual into relationship and power into vulnerable love. Communion is not words at a table, but embodied connection that changes and binds us together—when we dare to be present.
The rhythm of living, dying, and rising is the story of our faith, and the rhythm of our lives. We worship a man who rose from the dead. After he had lived. And after he died. As we enter the season of Lent, we'll focus on the story of Lazarus, and see how living, dying, and rising affected him and his community.
In John's Gospel, the signs Jesus performs are supposed to point people to see who Jesus is, to connect them to God. But in the sign of the blind man receiving his sight, it doesn't seem to work. When Jesus' signs don't match what we know to be true in the world, do we dismiss them, explain them away?
Many of us feel things are falling apart-either in our personal, professional, or public life. How can suffering invite us toward deeper freedom, integrity, and trust in God? How can our helplessness transform us into the people God has created us to be?
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What makes Jesus angry? Injustice, exploitation, and religious complicity with corruption and power, among other things. Tom Morello said in the 80s, "If you aren't angry, you aren't paying attention." Perhaps it is time to join Jesus in overturning some tables.
Jesus' baptism is where Christian community begins. The community Jesus creates comes about because of non-anxious invitation. Inviting people to see Jesus is not a popularity contest or a numbers game where we measure victory by budgets, attendance, or other measures.
As we claim and remember our baptismal promises,