"Where Is Redemption?" | KyungJa Oh | April 14, 2024

I've been thinking about how how there are so many leaves in the world. I've been working on this for a really long time. I'm the kind of person that, yes, I think about things like this. Why are there so many different kinds of leaves? I come from Chicago. We have all kind of trees, but there are all kinds of different trees. My spouse had to say the pronounced one like three times before I even knew what it was. They're all different, and beloved, they all do the same thing. At least as far as my lay understanding of science is concerned. But they all do the same thing. Why are there so many?

So I thought maybe I would look at our Good Shepherd. We know Jesus is our Good Shepherd. One Shepherd. One flock. I remember when I heard this scripture and it really sunk in, I was about 12, and I heard "One flock, one shepherd. Other sheep."

Other sheep? How can there be other sheep? We are the sheep, right? Other sheep. Okay.

One Shepherd, one flock. A different fold? That means there are two folds and one flock.

And what if Jesus were to come up to this fold and say "I must go to the other sheep who are not in this fold. I will get them. They will come." Three folds? And what if what if Jesus went to this flock and said– I mean this fold– and said "I must go to get other sheep, so that they may be one flock." Five? Will that do it? Five? Five folds? One flock. One Shepherd. A whole bunch of folds. Yes? Yes?

How does this play out in the world? We love diversity. We love diversity. We love the diversity of trees. We like to go and watch the birds because they're all different colors. Fish, anybody have an aquarium? Sometimes you can only get one fish in there, but sometimes you can have a community. What about clothing? Diversity of clothing? Diversity of hairstyle? We love it.

Except when it comes to other people.

Think about that a minute, beloved.

We love diversity.

But we seem to have a real problem when it comes to the diversity of people.

I've been here all week on the good graces of all of you and Trinity Cathedral to bring together Episcopal Asian American Pacific Islander leaders to get them ready to take their place in the leadership of this Church. There was so much pain because how we are treated and ignored, exoticized, infantilized, invisible, the model minority. All of those stereotypes that I was born into in 1951 are still present in our culture.

How does this run on the ground?

I'm going to tell you a story, beloved. It's a sad story, I want to warn you about that. But I promise I won't leave you in the sadness. Because we, after all, never talk about death without talking about resurrection, because we are an Easter people, are we not? Yes. A little louder. Thank you.

In 1960, I was 9 years old. My father was born in Portland, Oregon, so I have in a sense come back to my roots. But they didn't live in Portland, they had to live outside the city. The whole family– it was a massive family– outside the city. In 1960, we got a phone call in Chicago. We had to come out, we had to fly.

My grandfather died.

He was murdered.

Because he was someplace that he "ain't ought to be."

It completely destroyed that enormous family, to the point that my father's sister had a son who went to the University of Chicago for medical school. So that's a long time, right? Never once did he call his uncle, not once.

When my father's sister died, he did not know for two years.

That is how broken. We talk about George Floyd, and yes, that is a name that's important for us to remember. But what has happened to the family?

This family left Oregon, and since 1960–1960– I am the first member of my family to come back here. And it was a terrifying trip from Chicago.

I know Portland is not like that anymore. I know that it wasn't all of you. I don't have malice in my heart, and, beloved, that's what I want to talk about. The malice. The malice in my heart, here.

There isn't any.

There isn't any.

I know the circumstances, I know the context, I know what was going on. And yes, I lost my grandpa.

Where is redemption here, beloved?

Where is reconciliation?

Where is reparation?

We look to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We cling to God and the Holy Spirit, because we have heard this morning that the Lord is our Shepherd. We don't need anything.

When I am so protected that I can eat an eight course Chinese dinner and still have room for dessert, I think that's a pretty good deal. In front of enemies. People that hate you and are snarling at you, who really don't want you there.

And I'm sitting there having pre-dinner cocktails with this big spread, and I can eat just fine.

Can you eat when you're nervous?

Can you eat when you're scared?

The Lord with rod and staff, something hard and something hard, are my comfort.

Are my comfort.

The reparation for me? Three generations later, this family was invited to come to this place to talk to all of you.

Isn't that resurrection? Yes, it's resurrection. And thank God we are in Eastertide! With that kind of support that is an eternal Covenant, beloved, we can face anything.

And the work of the Asian American and Pacific Islanders is not to come in and take over the church cause it's ours.

We have like this many people, right? [laughter]

We want to be the Magi.

The people who come from the East bearing not gifts, but treasure in treasure chests.

We are the ones who bring the exotic gifts, the gold the frankincense, the myrrh. And we are not coming to the church begging for help because we're so needy and so forlorn.

We are coming as value because we have a different perspective on the world, and the more perspectives that we can have about God and God's love and how we get along together, beloved, that gives us another piece of the puzzle. Does it not?

My story that started so tragically is now triumphant because of the effort of so many people all the way down the generations.

This is resurrection and redemption.

Because the Lord has always been my shepherd, and while I have been beaten and attacked and thrown into the street, even at my age, I know I am beloved, and that there is a fold for me. Because God must love diversity.

We are created in the image of God, the reflection of God. Why do we struggle with this?

Beloved, I don't know, but something tells me that the Holy Spirit is asking us to think about it, from the safety of our green pastures and still waters, and knowing that each of us is so beloved by God.

I still don't understand why we can't get along with– with me [laughter]

[muttering]

[Applause]