Racial Justice Sunday

A sermon preached by Grace Hunting 8th February 2026

It is a deep joy and true honour to be with you this morning. Being here feels like coming home. This is the church where I was shaped, where I learned, and where I first found my voice.  Thank you all. Thanks Lucy for inviting me back.  — Today I return to stand not only for myself, but alongside countless others who have fought, and continue to fight, for racial inclusion, justice, and diversity. I stand especially with peers from the Global Heritage Majority, whose voices and stories must be heard. We speak hope, truth and transformation together.

Today as we Celebrate Racial Justice Sunday.  An initiative established in to encourage churches to reflect on racial justice and combat discrimination in response to a brutal murder of an innocent boy because of his colour of skin - Stephen Lawrence in 1993.  This was followed by series of systematic Racial Injustices which sadly continues today. Just this week, many of us were reminded that the wounds of racism are still close to the surface of our common life. We are compelled to address the recent, painful and widely condemned imagery of former USA president Barick Obama & his wife Michelle as PRIMATES shared on social media - demeaning and dehumanizing  - it echoes centuries of violence justified by the lie that some people are less than fully human  When world leaders use their words to demean, they give permission for cruelty to spread. On Racial Justice Sunday, the church must say what love demands:

Nonetheless, grateful to the Methodist Church for starting the justice campaign in support of Lawrence’s family and for Churches Together for making it an annual agenda to remind us to reflect on the greatest second commandment; ‘Love your neighbour as yourself”.

But let’s be honest – it’s a lot harder to live it out. Because our neighbour isn’t always the friendly face next door.  Our neighbour can be a stranger.  Our neighbour can be the person who turns up in our town with nothing but a backpack, speaking a language we don’t understand.                                        And sometimes our neighbour is the person we only ever see in the headlines labelled “asylum seeker”, “migrant” or even illegal”.

Sadly, I am no exception to experiencing the sting of racial prejudice, though my experiences may not match the magnitude of what the Lawrence family and others have endured. I have seen people move away from me, or avert their eyes, in public spaces. I have endured racist remarks in my professional life as a nurse.

My children have faced racial bullying at school because of the colour of their skin. And even as a daughter-in-law advocating for my father-in-law’s care, I have been dismissed and addressed merely as a career. Each moment different — yet all part of the same painful reality.

Nonetheless, all these never stopped me from loving the colour of my skin – but people’s reactions made me realise that other people didn’t love it and with that I carried a weight of anticipation and alertness on my shoulder – a recognition that people might not see my brownness in the way I see it.

Please, don’t get me wrong, it is not all hopeless – for much has now been done by Churches in this area and happy to acknowledge from my experience how much more has been accomplished here at St Andrews.  For that I am thankful.  However more could have been done or could be done. Its all down to us all to act.

I also have many positive and wonderful experiences in my life. Many times, my heritage and skin colour has been celebrated, and I rejoice for those times. But when I am reminded that my heritage and skin colour is not seen as equal and beautiful by other people “IT HURTS”. Paraphrasing words from Genesis 1:26-31. “So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” 

In our Old Statement reading - Prophet Micah opens the chapter seeking justice. He summons creation itself (mountains and hills) to witness His case against a people who have forgotten how to live rightly and asks His people a piercing question: Vs.3 “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you?” God is not indifferent to injustice.

Prophet Micah went further to say to the people:  “.....And what does the Lord require of you?  The things that people were not doing that God really wants- were just these; “To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” 

Please Note - justice, mercy, and humility are not optional virtues for the spiritually gifted. They are required. It concerns how we treat those who are vulnerable, excluded, or unseen.

On Racial Justice Sunday, Prophet Micah’s words confront us. Acting justly means naming systems that disadvantage people because of Race.  Loving mercy means refusing indifference to suffering. Walking humbly means recognizing that none of us is beyond learning, repenting, or changing.

Peter echoes the words of Prophet Micah of humility- says; “…All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.”  Being clothed with humility and standing in solidarity with the suffering. Love of neighbour begins when we take responsibility for how our neighbour experiences the world.

Loving our neighbour and standing in solidarity might mean hearing stories that unsettle us - standing beside those whose pain we have never personally known- giving up comfort for conscience - showing love and welcome to those seeking safer shores to live in as they flee from conflict and other terrors.  And sometimes it means not blaming our neighbours for all the wrongs of this world as an easy option and not taking time to understand the real issues being faced.

And in John’s Gospel, we overhear Jesus praying for His disciples before the crucifixion. He prays not for escape from the world, but for mission within it: He says, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” The Church is sent to workplaces, neighbourhoods, schools, communities etc, to be God’s presence where division exists. Then Jesus prays something astonishing: “That all of them may be one… so that the world may believe.” Our faith asks us to love God and to love each other.  We are not asked to be perfect, for none of us is, but to be willing to follow in Faith.  

Christ sends us into the world as His disciples; to be like-minded, to be sympathetic, to be compassionate and to love one another, for the World to believe that we are true Disciples of the Living God. 

Many colours of God’s people is what is found in the Neighbourly Love that God talks about; love that acknowledges that we are all different – that we may not pronounce words the same way, that we may not sing and pray the same way, that we may have different skin colours.

God’s love embraces everyone made in His own image. These notions of being loved or being seen or being known or feeling cherished are the things that Global Heritage Majority people don’t often feel in our communities and even in our churches.

For us to be ONE in Christ, it calls us; To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. It means advocating for fairness in systems where inequality hides behind tradition. Neighbour-love that is active and brings solidarity. We must remember though that Racial Justice Sunday is not about guilt; it is about hope. It is more than an annual reminder of the Church’s commitment to the task of anti-racism. In the words of Richard Reddie from Churches Together, this Sunday represents “a call for Christians to engage in the righteous struggle for racial justice because racial justice is everyone’s business”. It is God’s intention for His people to recognize His image in one another.

Unity is not merely a pleasant idea. It is evidence of the Gospel. Racial justice is not a distraction from the Gospel. It is a demonstration of the Gospel. When the Church loves across racial boundaries, we reflect the very heart of Christ’s prayer – Amen.