This Hurts

[Sabbath morning, May 30, 2020, Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church Senior Pastor, Paul Kevin Wells, conveyed the following essay during our worship services. We have embraced this as our official response to the tragic events of this past week.]

This Hurts

So it was, when the Angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.” (Judges 2:4, NKJV)  

The people were overcome with the prospect of perpetual burden because of their failure to trust God. Sometimes we face challenges that seem to thwart our hopes of a trouble-free future. In a similar manner our society has faced apparently intransigent problems, some old, some new, that disturb our hoped for sense of peace. 

The newest addition to our gallery of anxiety inducing trials is COVID-19. Depending on the experts it may possibly threaten us with occasions of great ferocity or with the irritation of the pebble in the shoe. In either case it appears to be here to stay, lurking in the petri dish of life.

As a community of faith the few of our members who have contracted the illness, for the most part, are on the road to recovery. However, some of our fellowship have lost family members and other loved ones to the illness. Tragically the United States passed the grim milestone of 100,000+ deaths just this week. Keep in mind these deaths have all occurred subsequent to the first official death from the virus, reported at the end of January. 

One of the particular challenges this disease has presented is actually not medical in nature. With the exception of the arrival of the HIV/AIDS crisis of the early 1980’s no disease has been so politicized in modern American history. For instance, people taking the simple step of either wearing or not wearing a mask in public has been perceived as a political statement. By the way, when you wear a mask you are not doing it for yourself. The primary benefit is to protect others from whatever viruses you may be unwittingly carrying. 

It should not be surprising that this plague has caused so much societal discord. In addition to the danger of the disease itself, governments around the world have taken extraordinary measures that have seriously damaged the global economy and way of life. In the United States millions of jobs have been lost, some of them never to return. Our rituals, weddings and funerals, or rites of passage, such as graduation ceremonies, have either been postponed or canceled. 

The collective weight of this disease, and measures taken to address it, has devastated our sense of normalcy. It is in the sense of normalcy we often take both conscious and unconscious sanctuary and when it is gone we find ourselves often retreating to places of fear. And fear never bears a satisfying harvest. 

But what about us as the Christian community? Are we any different from the those who do not have the hope that we have of a loving God who has promised to never leave us or forsake us? Or do we let ourselves be overcome with the societal and political noise of the age? 

One way that we as a community of faith can be a beacon in this world is to demonstrate compassion and consideration for everyone we meet regardless of whether they share our opinion about this particular matter, especially fellow believers. Paul counseled the members of the Roman church to be sensitive to the differences of opinions that existed among the cadre as it related to diet. However, his counsel received from the Holy Spirit is relevant beyond dietary concerns. He was direct in the opening verses of chapter 14 by reminding his readers that ultimately all of us will have to give account, not to each other, but to God in all matters of life. And he concluded his introduction with instruction we should do all in our Spirit-provided power to realize when he wrote,  “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.” (Romans 14:13, NKJV)  

As was stated above some of our problems are not new, such as COVID-19, but have been with us for generations. Unlike the virus, the disruption of normalcy is not the cause of such distress in those situations. Some would argue it is the apparent normalcy of the situation that causes the lifting up of voices and weeping. 

An example of such a persistent problem that has plagued our society has been our history of racial conflict and discord as most recently highlighted by the death of George Floyd, a black Texas native, who died while in police custody in Minneapolis. Mr. Floyd was detained for allegedly attempting to pass a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill at a neighborhood grocery store. 

If you have not seen the video footage of the detainment it is nothing short of horrifying especially when you consider that you are witnessing the pleadings of a man who will be dead in a matter of minutes. Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, is recorded for eight long minutes with his knee crushing against the side of Floyd’s neck. 

While the video is being recorded there is no apparent attempt by Floyd to resist arrest. However, the video does record his repeated cries that he is unable to breath and the protests of onlookers that he is in distress. Eventually his body goes limp and only then does the officer remove his knee from Floyd’s neck. Emergency medical personnel summoned to the scene report they were never able to establish a pulse and he was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Presently the official cause of death has not been made known. 

Because we live in a fallen world with its “normal” problems we, especially when we are not directly impacted, often overlook grave injustices and tragedies. Or we explain them away with assertions such as “If he wasn’t doing something wrong this would have never happened” sort of responses. Quick question, “when did allegedly attempting to pass a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill warrant the death penalty?” As an aside, over the years the church has on occasion received counterfeit bills in the offering plate. I would imagine those donors unwittingly passed along the bogus notes.

In the meantime, how can we as a community of faith address the pernicious effects of racist ideology in our society and in our hearts? If we go back to Romans 14 Paul also gives us the guidance we so desperately need when it comes to relations between races. He asserts, “Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.” (Romans 14:19, NKJV)  

Many people have grown weary of the burden of our race history in America and are wondering what can they do? The first thing you can do is realize that some conditions are endemic, and they are never going away. I suppose you may not see the wisdom in that assertion but please bear with the implications. 

First, if racism is a problem that will never go away this side of Heaven that means that we should always be on guard against its poisonous effects in our lives regardless of our personal racial identity. If we are members of the group perceived as the victims of racism, then the deleterious effects are pretty obvious. Unequal access to services and opportunities both public and private, a constant cloud of suspicion over demonstrably innocuous behavior such as walking in the wrong neighborhood, and other forms of both overt and covert discrimination are the ever-present disturbers of internal peace. 

But what of those who are on the delivery side of the equation? How are they adversely effected and why should we care? This answer may not be as obvious, but it is profound. In fact, the unchecked impact on them will have disastrous implications. 

In Matthew 24 Jesus tells the story of the great day of reckoning that every soul will one day face. In that hour all the nations will be gathered before God and will be divided into two groups of livestock. The sheep will go to his right and the goats to the left. In case you aren’t familiar with the story it does not end well for the goats. 

What does this have to do with the problem of racism? That is actually a pretty simple question to answer. The distinction between the sheep, God’s people, and the goats, Satan’s people is predicated on one simple thing. How have they treated Christ personified in the people in need as depicted in the illustration? 

Jesus identifies with the mistreated and oppressed and whenever we turn a blind eye toward them, we are going the way of the goats. There’s no way around it. When we neglect the least of these, we are setting a course toward ultimate destruction. 

But that’s in the future and some would argue that’s really no big deal. The oppressors aren’t really paying a price here and now and that’s really all that matters. Well, that’s not entirely true. 

Every time we turn away from the suffering people of this world, whether it is because they aren’t like us or just because it is inconvenient, we sear a portion of conscience and that, apart from the supernatural work of God, will never come back. We disconnect from what it means to be human and more importantly what it means to be an image bearer of God.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you won’t have meaningful relationships in your life. What will be the case is that you will be a fraud who systematically squelches the voice of the Holy Spirit. This by the way is the essence of the unpardonable sin. You remember that one, right? That’s the one Jesus warned us about. 

This leads us directly to the second thing you can do to combat racism. You must learn to love others in the language and symbols that make sense to them. That’s the essence of the incarnation. Immanuel, God with us, walked among us in order for us to understand the love of God in a fashion that made sense to us. 

He healed the blind, deaf, mute, lepers, bleeders, and emotionally destroyed. He didn’t give any consideration to the fact that they were different from him or his tribe. Furthermore, he closely associated with them. 

Now I know some of you may think well I have a “blank friend” therefore I’m not part of the problem. But consider this if you can number the “blank” friends that you have then they probably aren’t much more than tokens to you in the first place and are little more than ancillary characters in your life. Have you really meaningfully connected with people from different racial backgrounds or are those people just too different from you and it would require too much effort?

All of us have a social circle of folks that we organically connect with in our neighborhoods, communities, and jobs. If you aren’t regularly encountering and developing relationships with people from different racial backgrounds, then you may have to consider why this doesn’t bother you.

If you want to counter the racial problems you see in society begin by looking in the mirror and deciding that you are going to commit to actively engaging and getting to know people from other racial backgrounds. I’m talking to the brownies as well as the vanillas. When you do this, you are going to first seek to understand them before you insist upon being understood. This will allow you to stop viewing people as caricatures and see them for people you can like and maybe even love. 

A next step you could possibly take is to meaningfully advocate public positions that demonstrate that you are animated by Kingdom values. Things like holding elected officials accountable for tolerating the decaying and dying neighborhoods that so often are associated with the effects of racism. (Yes, I do know that a lot of problems are related to the behavior of the people who live in those neighborhoods. But it is also the case that because of discriminatory practices generations of people have been raised without actually seeing what the basic way is of living that leads to success. People are designed to learn in community and when there are insufficient examples of successful people to serve as mentors then you have persistent problems that seem insurmountable. Maybe you could mentor someone from a different racial background?) Actively support initiatives that have been demonstrated to alleviate the generational effects of racism. For instance, there are mountains of data that demonstrate programs like HeadStart have greatly improved the long-term prospects for people advancing beyond crippling poverty. 

Another example of something that we can support is criminal justice reform. I know that mentioning this is probably stepping right into the middle of a minefield. However, if you refer to Jesus’ counsel in Matthew 25 He explicitly identifies with the prisoner. One thing that is true in the United States, for all races but particularly people of color, is that our system of justice is lean on rehabilitation and even less on mercy. 

As a society we very rarely consider alternative methods for finding justice such as restorative models of reconciliation between criminals and victims. As a “Christian” nation the United States leads the world in the number of people we have in prisons; and we lead that category by head and shoulders. Think about that for a moment. We have more people behind prison bars here than the next leading nation, which happens to be China, a nation with over three times our population.

These are just a few examples of things that anyone can do that can go a long way toward relieving the hurt that so many people feel in this world. As a follower of Christ, I know full well that all of our problems will not be solved this side of Heaven. The preceding observations are not intended to “fix” anything. They are however examples of being salt and light in a dark world. 

Yes, Jesus is the only one who can heal our wounds and right our injustices but as his brothers and sisters he has called us to show the world his eternal love in a manner that makes sense to the world. If the love of God were only a collection of abstract concepts and platitudes and not coupled with action, then the Cross was a colossal mistake and we are dead in our sins and hopelessly adrift in a sea of hurt.