PRESS ON.

This sermon was delivered in honor of Óscar Romero Day, delivered in Marquand Chapel, on Tuesday, October 10, 2023.

Now though I am a practicing Catholic, I have been formed in the fires by my Baptist and Pentecostal beloveds, so if something resonates with you, please feel free to talk back to me.

It is Tuesday, my friends – Tuesday, in the middle of October, on the eve of Convocation and reading period is soon: WHEW.

We have made it this far, and though there are things to come – WE WILL MAKE IT.

But until then, here we are.

This morning, we celebrate St. Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, who was canonized on October 14, 2018 by the Catholic Church.

St. Romero is most well-known for his advocacy of the poor, being virtually the most influential authority speaking out against the Salvadorian government’s violent crimes against its citizens: kidnappings, torture, executions and so much more.

He was loved by the people, and tirelessly fought for justice until his last breath.

In figuring out a text for this morning, I looked back on the final days of his life and came across the Philippians passage we heard earlier. This passage comes from St. Romero’s final Sunday:

v.12 “not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal’ but I press on to make it my own…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God, in Christ Jesus.”

Whew. What was he thinking when he heard those words? Meditated on them as he prepared for the week?

This was a man who upon his first arrival, was seen as a safe choice by the Salvadorian government. This was a man who was seen as a concern by progressive priests, someone who would maybe be obedient or willfully ignorant, and refusing to see the plight of the poor. And yet, he was none of those things. After the assassination of his friend, Rutilio Grande, Romero transformed into something more.

Instead of shying away from the realities of his people, Romero dove in headfirst: he dedicated his life and his ministry to speaking out for those who couldn't speak, to becoming a voice for the voiceless-- this was a man who delivered sermons on the radio weekly, and daily called for the government to stop killing its citizens. This was a man who truly became a “microphone for God”.

But I can't help and wonder, what it is that kept him going?

Though many regard his friend's assassination as his conversion moment,

i am stuck on figuring out how he lived out his conversion.

Because all around him, he saw death, pain, suffering: it is enough to make any person's heart churn. It's enough to make any body, want to shrink away.

But Romero didn't do that. Instead, he decided to do something risky: tell the truth.

We all know what telling the truth can do, we know that the truth, especially when it’s spoke to power is often unwelcome.

We have heard and see what happens to truth-tellers:

Ugliness shows up.  
Ugliness shows up in death threats, gaslighting,
denying racism and sexism and calling it an issue of “character”.
UGLINESS shows up and tries to find ways to mask settler colonialism, to hide white supremacy,
UGLINESS SHOWS UP and tries to erase the truth,
It tries to silence truth-tellers.

But here’s an uncomfy truth, my friends:

Telling the truth is risky. Telling the truth can be dangerous.
And I know what I’m saying can be asking a lot, I know full well the risks with this call.
But my friends, some of us, have been living in risk all our lives. Some of us are living in risky bodies every day.
Some of us are wearing the truths on our sleeves, on our hearts, and refusing to be silent.
But you wanna know what’s riskier than telling the truth?

The only thing riskier than telling the truth—is not telling the truth.

It’s knowing that colonialism and imperialism still hold a death grip on the world, that occupational oppression continues to thrive, that trans youth continue to make up 40% of unhoused persons in this country, that misogyny and xenophobia run rampant in our schools and yes, our churches and still choosing to be silent.

The only thing riskier than telling the truth, is knowing the truth, and choosing not to tell it.

Denying the truth? Denying the realities of our world because they’re uncomfortable, does no good for a suffering world.  

What do we do, Mike? Because right now, what you’re telling me, is that the moral calculus for truth telling consists of risk and ugliness?

What do we do when the odds seem stacked against us? When the forces of evil seem to be looming over?

I think back to what Romero must have felt throughout his life. I imagine him ruminating repeatedly what would happen to him. I imagine he knew the risks every day, knowing that each day could be his last.  I imagine Romero must have been fearful, he MUST HAVE BEEN.

But on that Sunday morning, I imagine that Paul’s words were both a soothing balm and the stick that continued to stoke the fire in him:

“Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

EVEN FACING DEATH— he pressed on. Even amid fear he pressed on.

Because my friends, the measure of this work isn’t in our becoming fearless: it is in our ability to do as the Green Lantern Abin Sur said, overcome great fear; to look evil and injustice in the face and keep moving forward; to do as Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman reminds us: to keep pressing.

PRESS ON MY FRIENDS. PRESS ON, BELOVEDS—Because we’re not done yet.

PRESS ON — Because the shadow of death is still with us. It is still with the people of Palestine and Israel, it is with the indigenous peoples of this nation and every nation whose land has been stolen.

We Press ON, because colonialism and white supremacy have not lost their grip on our world, because the world is groaning, burning, and flooding, and some of us may not have a place to call home anymore.

WE PRESS ON, because the God we worship, the LIVING God of abundant love and fierce righteousness, does not give us a spirit of fear, but the willpower to keep moving forward, to keep going after that long awaited future,that ‘heavenly goal’ that awaits our descendants, that beautiful, beautiful, beloved community that God has in store for us,

PRESS ON DEAR FRIENDS, because we’ve still got work to do, and the truth demands to be told.

PRESS. ON. We’re not done yet.