Before I go further my cards need to be on the table. I am a white guy. I grew up in an area where there really weren't any minorities. My brother and the best man from my wedding are police officers. One of them serving in an urban environment. Thankfully my life has taken a turn where I now have come very close friends who are black. One of these friends is a police officer. I live in a community where my neighbors cross most racial boundaries.
I have no doubt about the white privilege that I experience on a daily basis. I have no doubt about the systemic racism that my black friends experience on a daily basis. I have witnessed it. I have witnessed it when I was with them. I have seen it in places like my son's football field. It is real and it is present.
If I want to engage in this conversation I must at the start admit, confess, and clearly state that I don't have a clue about what the black folk in my community experience on a daily basis. I must realize that there is a reality in my community that I don't experience. I don't know what it's like to live daily in fear that I just "look like that other black person". I don't what it's like to be followed around the store or to have old women clutch their purses as I pass. I don't know what it's like to have a first assumption made that I'm probably a bad person (well, this one maybe).
I just don't know. My cards are on the table.
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So Church, how do we respond?
First, we need to check our own hearts. What are our presumptions? What are our own prejudices? What are our own experiences with race? What are our own experiences with the police and with the power structures under which we live?
Second, we need to learn about the hearts of others. What are their presumptions? What are their prejudices? What are their experiences with race? What are their own experiences with the police and with the power structures under which they live?
Third, we need to learn the value of listening and research. In a world of immediate media we are quick to speak our opinions and slow to pray and learn. We must learn the art of being fast to prayer and slow to speaking. Proverbs 29:20 is helpful here, "Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him."
After we have done these things, we search the Scriptures. We need to learn what God says about justice and law, grace and mercy. Any fool can utter an opinion, we as the Church need to take the Scriptures into account because as a friend of mine likes to say, "The world is watching."
Finally, before we respond we must ask, "How do I respond with grace and truth in love?" This may be the hardest of all questions.
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As I have been preparing my own heart for this day, I have come to this conclusion: In our world there are two kinds of justice. The justice of the state and the justice demanded by the gospel. The first is largely out of our control. Neither you, nor I, can really control the justice system of our country. The second though, is where we have significant influence.
We don't know the ins and outs of a particular case. I don't live in Ferguson and so I can't do much about bringing the justice of the gospel there. However, I do live in Ypsilanti and here, here I can. Here, I can influence the person at the bar or coffee shop who sits next to me. I can influence my neighbor. The justice that the gospel demands is hyper local. Eugene Peterson says it well, "The ways Jesus goes about loving and saving the world are personal: nothing disembodied, nothing abstract, nothing impersonal. Incarnate, flesh and blood, relational, particular, and local."
Our response as ambassadors for King Jesus is to bring grace, truth, love, and mercy. Ultimately this means that we need to be reconcilers. We need to help both sides of a situation like this understand the other. For those who hate the police we must show them the good and help them understand what people like my brother go through on a daily basis. The fear that he will pull someone over and be shot. The fear that when my sister-in-law calls it is to tell us that he won't be coming home today. The constant awareness that he has to have every where he goes with his children because someone he arrested may want to hurt them. He's always living on edge.
For those who don't understand the response of the black community to this shooting we must help them to understand the fear that they live with every single day. We must help them understand that every day they live in fear of being arrested while being black. We must help them understand that there is a disproportionate number of black folks living in poverty and in jail. We must help them understand that living in America as a black person is not necessarily a blessing. They're always living on edge.
If you're a follower a Jesus you are called to be a bridge, to be a peacemaker. If you can not fulfill this role, then it is best to not speak but to pray. Pray for your own heart first and then for the others.
The world is indeed watching. May we make peace in our neighborhoods.
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