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| Rachel Weeps for her children because they are no more... |
On July 13, 2013, my wife and I celebrated our 11th
Anniversary a week late. Grandma came to visit our children and to watch them
so that we could have a “date night.” We haven’t had one of those in quite a
while! We had a great night. We went out to dinner, went shopping, and hung out
at a bookstore. All in all, we had a very enjoyable evening.
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| George Zimmerman |
My enjoyment came to a quick and abrupt halt at
about 11PM when we got home. I turned on the TV to see if there were any
headlines about the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman Jury Deliberations – I had
assumed they would have been on break, but I wanted to make sure. Suddenly I
heard the words “Zimmerman found ‘not guilty.’”
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| Trayvon Martin |
It’s hard for me to explain my feelings at that
point. Was I angry? Was I sad? Was I surprised? Was I in shock? I don’t know. I
literally couldn’t process my own feelings. I began to pray. It was a sorry
excuse for prayer. But the following Scripture came to me as clear as day. And
God spoke to me that the sermon that I had written and prepared was not the one
to preach the next day. I was to preach on this text, and oh yeah, I was to do
it “off the cuff.” No preparation – Just relying on the Holy Spirit to lead me.
Jeremiah 31:15-17
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
15
Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her
children, because they are no more.
16
Thus says the Lord: Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears; for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord:
they shall come back from the land of the enemy;
17
There is hope for your future, says the Lord:
your children shall come back to their own country.
Some
Notes Before Beginning:
· I am
a white male. I cannot and will not apologize for that. As a human I was
created in the image of God just like every other human of every other skin
color and every other gender.
· Some
will say that as a white male, I have nothing to say on this subject. I believe
all voices should be heard if there is to be justice. If you disagree, that is
your choice. But again, I refer to my first point – we were all created in
God’s image – All of us!
· Trayvon
Martin and George Zimmerman put faces to a larger societal issue. While I may
address them by name, we cannot forget the systematic pitfalls of our justice
system, social system, government, and other systems that keep certain victims
of all races and genders nameless and faceless every day. This particular case
speaks for the whole of American society’s issues when it deals with race.
· I
acknowledge that there are other cases where white people (and people of other
races) have been victims of biased or unfair legal practices. I attended a heart-wrenching
interview where a white male was on death row for 17 years for a murder he did
not commit. He was finally proven innocent. But, with all writing, it is
impossible to address every issue in one article. The injustice upon that man
was horrible and sinful and based upon a lie by police. That however is not the
purpose of this article.
Main
Points: “Principalities and Powers”
The Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman murder trial
was deeply flawed from the night the incident occurred until the jury made its
final decision. Rather than relying on the rule of law, there were too many
incidents of racial profiling, racial stereotyping, and the victimization of a
minor who was essentially convicted with his own murder.
Theologically
speaking, there was no attempt to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Faith was
put in the “power of the gun” and the “idolatry of power” over the Power of
God. Assumptions were made because people from the night of the incident until
the night of the jury verdict forgot that all people are created in the image
of God.
I will make no attempt to analyze this legally
according to the American legal system. The system has spoken. We must remember
that this system and all systems of the world are beholden not to God but that they
belong to the “principalities…powers,…the
rulers of the darkness of this world…spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12 KJV).”
In the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John,
Jesus describes in a very familiar passage to most Christians the road to
salvation: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed,
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17).” Many readers of this
Scripture stop at this point, but if you continue reading, while this does
encompass individual belief, it is not only
about individual belief.
This passage follows John’s themes of “light” and
“darkness” (good and evil). We see
this in the following verses: And this is the judgment, that the light has come
into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. “For
all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their
deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so
that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God (John
3:20-21).”
What this means is that Jesus is the savior not
only of individual believers, but also of sinful institutions, or using the
Ephesians language – the Principalities and Powers.
In order to hope for reform of our Justice system
(or any other system), we cannot leave Jesus out. We must be careful which
Jesus we allow to reform our systems. “Which Jesus?” As any Christian can tell
you, Christ is preached differently in many places. We need to return to the
Biblical Jesus as known to the Church in tradition for the past 2000+ years. We
need to return to the Jesus who preached the “Sermon on the Mount” and meant
every word that he spoke. We need to return to the Jesus who lived, taught, was
crucified, died, was buried, defeated the ultimate enemy – death, and ascended
into heaven.
Only then can we hope for true reform.
Racism
– Profiling – And Loving Your Neighbor
The Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case exposed
a pervasive problem that is ongoing in the United States, and I assume that it
exists in other nations as well, though maybe delineated by different racial or
class barriers. As much as some
want to say that there is no racism, or that it exists only in small pockets in
the US, that statement in itself is a racist statement. That statement takes
the real feelings and real grievances of a people – our neighbors (our
neighbors, no matter what race they are) – and discredits their self-understanding,
history, and present realities as figments of their own imagination. To discredit their belief that they are
victims of racism, people will often give the victims an outlier non-racist
example or a reverse-racist example.
Few will disagree that there are people in all
race categories who are not racist. Few will disagree that reverse-racism
exists (I define reverse-racism as when the minority races, or historically
victim of racism races use the same tactics to victimize a non-oppressive
victim of another majority race or of a race that is associated with being
racist. The victim, however, is by and large innocent of oppression).
The problem with these examples are that a). They
are not helpful to the overall dialogue in ending racism, b). They are most
often used to defend a position that further dialogue is not needed by implying
that while racism may exist in isolated cases, it is not a pervasive problem (a
false claim), and c). They are outliers – they are exceptions to the rule –
Yes, they exist, but they are not the norm. In cases where they may be the
norm, they are often used in ways that fail to take data and statistics and
other scientific and psychological standards into account.
For example: Let me elaborate on point c). When a Black person is
accused of a crime, before his/her trial, some in the public often cite
statistical facts that urban Blacks are more likely to commit crimes than urban
Whites. This fails to take into
consideration several factors: First – the demographics of urban areas, Second
– the lack of meaningful job opportunities for Blacks in urban contexts, and
Third – the systematic housing system that puts people of poverty in “out of
the way” and sub-standard housing, thus creating a generational disease of
poverty not only in money but also in mind and spirit and hope.
Interpreting the Scripture from Jeremiah 31 cited
above, racism in the United States (and for the remainder of this article, I
will focus solely on the United States) is the root cause that causes mothers (and
fathers) to weep because their “children are no more.” Racism kills. Racism denies. Racism
stops certain people created in the image of God from reaching their fullest
potential.
While Trayvon Martin was killed literally by the
gun of George Zimmerman, it was racism that was the initial cause of his death.
Racism causes people to profile. Profiling is assuming that because someone
looks different, he/she is more likely to commit a crime. Profiling is sinful
because to our Creator we all have the same image – the Creators image.
Christians are called to love our neighbor as ourselves (I will repeat these
two Biblical statements frequently because they are fundamental to this issue).
Simply put, while we do all look different, that is to be seen as part of the
diversity of Creation, not as a curse – it is a blessing. In Genesis 1, after each day of Creation,
God said either “It is good,” or “It is very good.”
We do, however live in a fallen world. We cannot
deny that. Sin surrounds us. Even the most devout Christian is a sinner. That
however does not negate that God’s Creation is still good. What we have done to
God’s Creation is NOT good, but Creation itself is good. Humans are sinners,
but the Created Human (the material Human) is good.
When we profile and assume the worst in someone
before we see them do anything wrong, we are sinning. When we judge someone
based on their race, their clothing, their hair, their looks, and such, we are
profiling. It is completely impossible to know the content of one’s character
without knowing the person!
That means that we must accept people of
different races and people with other differences as equals. How many times did Jesus (a Jew) go
into the land of Samaria (enemies of the Jews in Judea, but yet worshippers of
the same God – Yes, this is a very simplistic explanation of a Samaritan). Of
course, Jesus was profiled, but he did not profile. In fact, Jesus made a
Samaritan the hero of his “Parable of the Good Samaritan.” The very parable of
being a neighbor uses the enemy of the person asking, “Who is my neighbor?” to
be the neighbor. That is radical
acceptance!
The Martin/Zimmerman Trial put faces to a
pervasive problem of NOT being neighbors. Though Martin and Zimmerman are not
unique examples, they were thrust into the public eye and demonstrated it for
us. This behavior happens every day. People are profiled because of race,
social class, appearance, and so forth. Negative assumptions are made because
of these factors before a person is even known. Christians must call this what
it is – Sin.
Rachel’s
Children
Returning to the Jeremiah Scripture with which I
began, Rachel is weeping because her children are no more. They are gone. They
are dead. Ironically, this passage comes in the midst of a chapter of celebration
as Israel’s exiles in Babylon celebrate that they will return home after 70
years of being hostages.
Rachel is the “Mother of the Jews” and by virtue,
the “Grandmother of Christians” (if we metaphorically understand Mary, the
mother of Jesus to be the “Mother of Christians”). Rachel weeps because of what has happened to her children.
Mothers and Grandmothers and Fathers and Grandfathers and all Family weep
because death takes away their children. Death takes many forms. Death can be
actual death – heart stopping, lung stopping death. Death can also be found on
either end of hatred. One cannot be fully alive if one hates or is the victim
of oppressive hatred. Sin is
death. If one sins, one cannot fully live. Rachel is weeping and she refuses to
be comforted. There is no comfort when injustice, death, and sin prevail and
remain strong.
God, through Jeremiah says that the enemy does
not have the last word! There is hope! With God there is always hope! Maybe I
should rephrase that and say there is promise
of redemption! With God there is promise!
There is reward for our work – the work is tough, but there is a reward, and
our children will come back! God has promised!
So, do not stand idly by and say that racism and
profiling are too tough to combat! When naysayers attack, it is but a bump in
the road. When people say that the job is too hard and can’t be won, remember
we do not fight alone! We are merely the instruments – God is the one who does
the work! The road to peace and
love across the racial divide will be difficult, but there are bridges being
made. There have been bridges built already. Those bridges will turn into
roads, and those roads will turn into permanent land.
I can speak from personal experience. I have
personal friends across the racial divide. We have had much different
experiences and continue to have them, but when we are together, it is not
white and black together, it is friends (who happen to be white and black).
Friendship defines us.
We can all make small steps, and those small steps
are important, but we must all work to make the large steps in making our
communities and nation abhor racism. We must all work together, not out of fear
or guilt, but out of love of neighbor, to make us all one. We are all one in God’s eyes – Let it
be so in our own eyes!
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