#GeorgeFloyd #JusticeForFloyd
I’m sure you’ve seen something online about George Floyd. He should not be dead, but he is. This tragedy comes on the heels of the death of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Three more image bearers of our God who are no longer breathing. Three more families and communities that grieve unnecessary loss. Three cases in which hatred, abuse of power, and murderous force left an irreversible mark on our world. Three opportunities for justice to do all it can in mending what was broken, a partial healing, some retribution, because that is all it can do. This sort of justice won’t bring any of these people back to life.
I’m not sure that I know “what” to do just yet, but I do know that speaking about it and grieving over the loss are good places to start. Friends, these wrongful deaths are the symptoms of a greater disease that lives in the bones of our country. We need to turn our attention to this atrocity. We need to ask for others, who know better than we do, of the evils of racism in our country to make us aware. And we need to find our place of agency -- to weep & mourn for individuals but also for communities in which this sort of racial injustice is still on display. To speak where we can and to whom we can about the darkness of racism. To pray for the Lord to flood the hearts of broken individuals with his love and grace. To listen to diverse individuals and groups in our city. To advocate where we can with the power that we have for legitimate equality in our city, places of work, and neighborhoods.
In 1963, while in a jail in Birmingham, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote these words among others, to white christians in the south.
“I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.” Martin Luther King Jr. - Letter from a Birmingham Jail
In other words, fellow believers, our silence is not golden, it is oppressive, damaging, and outright sinful. “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17). Jesus came and spoke words of freedom from injustice (Luke 4). As Christ followers, we ought to speak openly and loudly for those who have less or no voice. The very idea of oppression is that all common liberties are stripped and stolen and therefore someone who’s liberty has not been stolen must enact justice on behalf of those beaten down.
As a pastor and a shepherd of the flock at First Pres, part of my role is to give voice to God’s enduring commitment to justice and righteousness so that the echoes of his precepts reverberate in the hearts of all those that I have the privilege of shepherding. Like the prophets of old, God uses pastors to reveal the idols of his people through the preaching of his word. And he is revealing my idols of comfort and safety, of the ways things have always been, even as I write this.
We need to pay attention to more than our own experience. We need to be aware of how different the world works for people who don’t look like us. We need to be agents of change to protect the very life of those who are oppressed.