August 15, 2017
Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The events
that took place in Charlottesville last weekend are a haunting reminder to us
that the world in which we live is not only broken, but infected with the worse
kind of disease there is: Hatred. The following prayer excerpt was offered by
the ELCA Council of Bishops prior to last Saturday’s event.
“Just and merciful God, we give you
thanks for our sisters and brothers – bishops, pastors, deacons, people of God
– who this Saturday walk the way of the cross in Charlottesville, Va. On this
day and in that place, they join other courageous and faithful people across
time and space to stand against bigotry, hatred and violence; to stand with
those who are intended victims; and to stand for justice and mercy, peace and
equality for all people…By your might, break the bondage that bigotry, hatred
and violence impose on their victims and their perpetrators. May your Kingdom
come on earth as in heaven. And, we pray,
empower us in our own communities to follow their lead as fellow servants to
your dream of a community in which all people and their gifts are welcomed and
honored, cherished and celebrated as beloved children of a just, merciful and
loving God; through Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the life of the
world.”
No one,
including myself, imagined that innocent lives would be lost that day. Hundreds of torch bearing, white privileged
“nationalists” many of whom bearing Nazi Swastikas and dressed in riot gear,
beat and intimidated anyone who dared oppose their protest message of hate and
destruction. Make no mistake about
it: This was not a protest for
equality. It was a protest for
supremacy.
We in the Lutheran Church have a tragic legacy of quietism when it comes to hate-filled crowds promoting themselves as a superior race and desiring the elimination of “inferior” ones. With the exception of the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany, who refused to be silent in the face of human extermination, the Lutheran State Church of the 30s and 40s said and did nothing; even when forced to display swastikas as altar paraments.
It would be
easy for us to turn off the television and pretend that nothing is wrong; to
claim the media is making mountains out of mole hills; to turn and look the
other way when we hear stories of violence perpetrated against persons of
different ethnicities and immigrants. It
would be easy for us to look away saying, “that’s just the way the world is”
without asking what or who has unleashed and given voice to the hatred.
As followers
of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, who reached across all boundaries and divides,
advocating love and justice for the least of these, we know what we have to do. We cannot and we must not remain silent. We, like the psalmist, have voices that “sing
to the Lord a new song”. A song that anticipates the lion and the lamb coexisting in peace; A song that proclaims
justice rolling down like an everflowing stream; A song that emboldens us to
love recklessly as Christ on the cross first recklessly loved us; A song that
declares love of God and love of neighbor are all that matter.
Let us raise
our counter-cultural songs together as we engage in both conversation and action
in the weeks to come. Let us not be fearful in the face of hatred. Let us not remain silent in the face of
racial atrocities. For the world is now
too dangerous for anything but Truth, and too small for anything but love.
Walking with
you in Christ,
Pastor Doug
No comments:
Post a Comment