I am interrupting our usual worship time this morning. This is somewhat intentional, this is an intentional interruption in what we usually do. We experienced an interruption in our week this last week as we heard the tragic news of Alton Sterling’s death in the early hours of July 5th, and then quickly followed by Philando Castile’s death on the evening of July 6th, and this was followed by the death of five police officers on the bloodiest day for law enforcement since 9/11. One of those officers was a man named Officer Michael Smith, a member at a church in Dallas that my friend helps pastor, a Godly man described by many. The New York Times headline this morning is “America Grieves, Tense and Weary”. I think that very much encapsulates the sentiment that we feel today as a nation, what we feel today in this room. We grieve. We are tense, and we’re weary. We as Christians, we as followers of Jesus are not going to ignore that grief or that tension; that’s not our calling. Silence is often interpreted as passive affirmation by those who are suffering. If you just lost a loved one and your friends don’t reach out to you, that is grievous as we navigate those things. Now I will expand that on a much larger term when it comes to the systems and structure of our nation. Talking about these things doesn’t bring about tension, it exposes tension. Dr. King said it this way: ...we are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.So in light of that tension, that grief, that weariness, I do believe with all of my heart, that the redeeming message of Christianity, the hope of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is the best healing balm there is for all of us. Not just as individuals, but on a corporate, systemic level as well. We as Christians believe that God created humanity with diversity, and this is because God himself is diverse. God has always existed as three persons in one: Father Spirit and Son. And so when he created us in his image he didn’t create one gender, he created two genders. Male and female. Two genders together in his image. Both genders with dignity, as image-bearers who reflect the very image of God.So just as God has always been diverse, so he created us as human beings to represent him in his own diversity. Fast-forward through history to the world marred by sin and self-centeredness. We see that God is not pleased with our sin. God is a god of justice; sin does not go unpunished. But one thing we see all throughout scripture, all throughout the Hebrew Bible, all throughout the Old Testament, one thing that God is most frustrated by is the mistreatment of his image-bearers. He’s against the mistreatment of those that he has given greater dignity to than any in his created order. And so one thing that offends God most is when image bearers are marginalized, when they’re pushed out--when they’re treated as less than image-bearers. All throughout the old testament we see God highlighting that he stands with the fatherless, he stands with the widow, he stands with the poor, the marginalized, the sojourner, the immigrant; he stands with those that are treated with less value, less worth; those who are not given power or dignity. The heart of God is consistently with the marginalised and the oppressed and the disadvantaged of our world. God sides with image-bearers that are not treated with the dignity of image-bearers. To those who follow God, he expects that they have the same heart…Prov 29:7- “A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.” So we should know the rights of the poor, the oppressed, the voiceless, the disadvantaged. Prov 21:13- “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.” If we close our ears to the needs of the poor, the writer of Proverbs here is saying God won’t hear our prayers. Again and again the nation of Israel, the nation of Judah, were judged because of their mistreatment of the poor, the marginalized. Of injustice among them. God expects his people to side with image-bearers who are not treated with the dignity of image-bearers, those who are treated as less than human, those of less value than other humans.So when a father is shot without due process and the right to trial, we must care. When a cafeteria supervisor traveling with his girlfriend and daughter is shot and killed while reaching for his wallet and not being given medical attention, we must care. When police officers who are guarding a peaceful protest and protecting the right of these 800 or so individuals to fulfill their First Amendment rights to gather, to assemble, and they’re shot down by snipers, we must care.No matter the reason or cause behind actions, any image-bearer who is killed should cause us to care. What we witnessed this last week are not one-time issues, not one-time events. This is a tragic trend among us. African American men are more likely to be arrested, incarcerated, executed or murdered than their white peers. According to the FBI, black Americans are disproportionately more likely to be stopped, arrested, and killed by police. Just a 2015 study of last year showed that young black men are nine times more likely than any other Americans to be killed by police officers. When I’m pulled over while driving, I’m concerned about whether or not I’m going to get a ticket. I don’t fear for my life. That’s a sign of privilege for me. The conversations that my friend CJ had to have growing up about what he should do in a similar situation were entirely different from what my parents had to instruct me on. The reality of scripture is that there not only is individual sin, there is corporate sin. Israelites individually sinned, the nation of Israel together also sinned. There is systemic sin, and this here is a systemic issue. It’s not a recent issue, it didn’t start last week. This is generations in the making, centuries in the making. I’ve got to own this, my own generations. I’ve got ancestors on both sides of the civil war. This is generations in the making and this not going to be fixed by some quick, silver bullet. This is a life-threatening wound that needs to be addressed, that needs to be healed. So when we see in all of this, when we see a march just before our service go by, when we see a hashtag flash across our screens saying Black Lives Matter, the reality of scripture is yes, it’s true, black lives do matter. Black lives should be afforded the same worth, value, and dignity as any other image-bearers lives. Without question. In our country they are not, and something here needs to change. And while I can’t possibly feel the pain as sharply as my black sisters and brothers, or those of other racial or cultural minorities, I am absolutely committed to mourning with them, and standing for justice with them. “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.” “A righteous man knows the rights of of the poor, a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.”But can legislation fix this? What about all of this unpunished injustice, generations of unpunished injustice, what about our own hearts’ propensity to selfishness and sin, or to distrust those who are different than ourselves, what about those things? In Jesus Christ justice and mercy meet. God declares all this systemic and individual selfishness and racism, and silent bigotry and mistreatment of others that we do, to be so evil that it demands death. But he loves us so much that he took it upon himself. God set aside his privilege and he entered into our world, dressed like the marginalized and disadvantaged image-bearers that he loves so much. And by his unjust death on our behalf justice is served and we can be forgiven. Ultimately Jesus came to show us that we are all poor, we are all broken, we are all marginalized, we’re all lost and we have to be saved, we have to be saved by someone other than ourselves. Jesus doesn’t just save individuals, he redeems systems and structures and cultures and peoples. It’s through the forgiving death and resurrection of Jesus that all races and socioeconomic levels and cultures can be fully reconciled. We can be made family by the very love of God. One day when Jesus returns and when he makes all things new, we will worship him with every tongue and every cultural expression of music and dancing that the world has ever known. He began our story creating us with diversity and he will love us in the midst of our diversity forever. So we won’t move on as the 24-hour news cycle moves on, as it picks up on other sensational events. We as Apostles Brooklyn will not. We are going to care about Philando Castile and Alton Sterling just as we care about Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, and Akai Gurley, and systemic sin in our city, and our country, and our world, and of privilege, and racial and cultural reconciliation, because if we are saved in Jesus and devoted to our God, we as Christians should care more than anyone else. We have to be more committed than anyone else. So as we continue this long journey by God’s grace I’m going to encourage us with three things:1) We are going to weep with those who weep; we’re going to have compassion. We are going to grieve together. If you don’t feel the pain that so many feel, seek understanding. Ask questions without responding. Listen first. Show compassion and care as Jesus has shown you. Grieve with those who grieve. In the coming months and years we’re committed as a church to continue this. To talk about this. To open doors for conversations for greater understanding and compassion…2) Seek justice. As Jesus set aside glory to come and serve, so we get to leverage our own resources and privilege and lives to meet needs, and give generously, and to love and serve the marginalized, and to love as the gospel empowers. So we must stand with the revealed will of God. Stand with truth, and stand against unjust mistreatment and dehumanization of image-bearers. We’ve got to participate as good citizens who seek the welfare of our city and nation. Legislation can do a lot, we should pursue good justice, but it can’t fix hearts. And so our third thing, and probably our most important thing, is that we’re going to:3) Pray. We’re going to pray for peace and reconciliation between races and cultures and socio-economic levels in our city and nation. We’re going to confess our own apathy or bigotry or divisiveness or prejudice, whatever it is, we’re going to confess that freely. We’re going to seek to forgive those who have sinned against us; we’re going to seek understanding in prayer; we’re going to pray for compassion and love; we’re going to pray for unity within our church; pray for perseverance; to seek justice no matter the cost; pray for transformation among our justice system; pray for protection, and care, and wisdom, and discernment for our law enforcement officers; pray for strength in fighting temptation to be apathetic toward this injustice. So we’re going to start with that now. We’re going to do a corporate lament this morning. Laments are found all throughout the scriptures. They are more than just feeling down, they are sitting in it. It is more than a hospital visit; it is a funeral attendance. So we’re going to start with a corporate lament today. I am going to invite all of us to stand up in this together. This is an opportunity for solidarity among us. Whether this hits close to home or whether this is something that you were hardly even aware of this week we need to be in this together. Father we come to you today with heavy hearts. The killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the subsequent killings of 5 police officers unite our hearts in grief. Forgive our individual sin, our corporate sin, the systemic injustice of our nation and the distrust and division that exists among us. Lord God, heal our world.We look to our own hearts and see indifference, ignorance and fear. We are hopelessly lost apart from your Son.Lord God, heal our broken hearts. Today Christians of all races and cultures will gather in separate churches, engage separate communities and display division instead of expressing the unity that you bring us as one church, one body of Christ united with one Spirit.Lord God heal our broken churches.Father God through your son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit move in our hearts and minds to act justly, love mercy and walk among you. Amen.
