I’ve had the title Speak in mind for quite a while, planning to write about how we’re speaking to each other relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, calling for understanding and respect for people who are living through this time with differing experiences and differing concerns, recognizing that I have great privilege to be able to stay home, walk through my quiet neighborhood, buy two weeks of groceries during one trip to the store.
But today I am compelled by the killing of George Floyd and the unrest in our nation to speak, to say things that I have assumed were known. After all, I am a self-proclaimed Christian.
Our sacred text is very clear about love for neighbors and care for the vulnerable. And about justice.
Believers in Christ are not to show favoritism.
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,”have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?…If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”] you are doing right.But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers…What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. from the second chapter of James
Since the beginning, God’s people were shown his heart through his marvelous deeds and the words of his prophets, including Zechariah.
And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry. from Zechariah 7
I’ve come to realize that we give a lot of lip service to the command to love our neighbor as ourself, but that we don’t often actively do it. Some people don’t like the Bible because it tells us what to do and not to do. Yes, it does that, BECAUSE WE NEED THAT. We are not naturally going to do the right thing. God knew that we did not even recognize our sin, so he gave us 10 Commandments to make it clear, among them, “Do not murder.”
Were it not for the LOVE of God, his loving-kindness and PATIENCE and FORGIVENESS, we would all be lost.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 1 John 1
James calls on us to confess our sins to one another and to pray for each other so that we may be healed.
He also points out that if we know there is good we ought to do and we don’t do it, we sin.
So, I’m speaking this confession. I am sorry for not caring enough about my fellow human beings, created in the image of the God I love and serve, who live under the cloud of prejudice. If I have not sinned by treating someone unfairly, I have sinned by remaining ignorant of their plight. I am grieved by George Floyd’s death, and I am in solidarity with those who want our nation to do better, to truly provide liberty and justice for all. Every one of us, no matter where we live, what color our skin, whether rich or poor, has worth in the eyes of our Creator God, and every one of us has need of the saving grace that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord.
Pray 11 includes a prayer written in response to the murder and reactions.