Peace in the Pain

The Bible, I believe, calls us to be purveyors of peace in the power of the Spirit.  Hebrews 12 says
this:
14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:
15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled...

We have access to the presence of God, Who will produce peace in our lives - it is truly a powerful force, a peace, as Philippians 4 says, that passes all understanding.  We receive this peace through our relationship with Christ, and therefore we have peace with God - what kept us separated from Him has been taken away!   And, when we, full of the Spirit of God and walking in His peace, walk into situations of tension and conflict, can be powerful ambassadors in expressing the character of God and bringing peace between those who are apart.

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There's a passage in Colossians chapter 3 that can teach us how to live, even when we experience
conflict:
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,
10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Human beings are prone to war and conflict - why?  Because we are sinners and desperately in need of a Savior.

The questions have been raised this week about two shootings in our country - in Baton Rouge, LA and St. Paul, MN, where African-American men were shot at close range by white police officers. And, last night, at a protest that occurred in response to those incidents, snipers opened fire and at least 12 police officers and 2 civilians were wounded, and 5 police officers lost their lives.

Cultural commentator Jim Denison offers these thoughts from Dallas:

As a longtime Dallas resident, I can tell you that our city is shocked and in mourning. The violence that is escalating across the world has come home. Now we are faced with a choice. We can let this horrible tragedy polarize us, turning the shooting into a racial conflict that will escalate and beget more violence. That's just what those who terrorized our city want us to do.

Or we can go into Dallas today in confidence, grateful to live in this great city and thankful for the police officers who risk their lives every day for us. We can pray passionately for those who were attacked and for their families, asking God to give them the strength only he can provide. We can come together as one, determined that those who terrorized our city will not win and resolved to fight racism and anything else that would divide us.

He then quotes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."  Denison closes by saying, "Our God who is love (1 John 4:8) calls us to love each other, to grieve with each other, and to stand with each other."

In a previous column, written after the Baton Rouge incident, Denison had offered a number of provocative questions.  In the article, he stated:

• There are nearly seven times as many black adult males in prison as white adult males.
• Quartz reports that black people are three times more likely than white people to be killed by police.
• According to a Pew Research Center report, eight in ten blacks say black people are treated less fairly than whites in dealing with police.

These are the facts, and while it can be important to analyze why things are the way they are, we can also talk about ways we can move forward.  

I came across an article from recent Meeting House guest Dr. George Yancey at TheStream.org.  In it, he called for a Christian version of Black Lives Matter.   He wrote:

Make no mistake that Black Lives Matters is dealing with legitimate problems. For instance, black men are much more likely to be killed by the police while unarmed than whites. Whether this is due to violence in black ghettos, latent racism, conscious racism or some complex social amalgam of these and other factors, this is a problem people of goodwill want to solve.

Another challenge: The police are used like a taxing agency in some poor minority communities.

In other words, he says that "... the law enforcement system in many poor communities across America do press their police force into behaving as a taxing agency, an agency that exacts a highly regressive tax that falls hard on the poor and often less well educated. A disproportionate number of those communities are black communities."

He continues, and I think it is important that we grasp this:

I find myself frustrated when my white Christian brothers and sisters ignore the real concerns many blacks have, missing the authentic complaints amidst the extreme rhetoric on race coming from the far left. Attempts to impose a color-blind ideology in light of the realities that blacks face do not help us overcome racial alienation. Our racial struggles have not ended simply because we have a black president, and I would love to see everyone of goodwill being proactive in dealing with the continuing legacy of racism.

He says that "Christians should be at the forefront to reverse the effects the historical sin of racism has had on our country. We fail in our values when we follow the lead of others rather than forge ahead towards a true racial healing."

The response to what we have seen this week has been the opening of wounds that have not gone away in our culture.  There is distrust of police by many in the African-American community, and it's important that community policing efforts continue to show a sensitivity to that attitude that exists. I have had guests on my program, black men, that related how they have experienced unpleasant treatment at the hands of law enforcement officials, and that has helped me to understand just a little what it is like to be an African-American man in America.

But, we recognize that law enforcement has a calling - to protect the citizenry, to serve the public, to respond to emergencies, and I would dare say, to keep the peace.   There are so many outstanding police officers across our nation, and it is important that we let them know how much they are appreciated; they put their lives on the line every day.  You can't characterize the whole profession by some of the unfortunate situations that have occurred.

For Christians who are processing this information, we have to ask how we can respond.  And, the first answer is to pray.   The Reconciled Church earlier this week announced a new prayer initiative. We can pray for peace.

We can also take steps to pursue peace.  I believe the Church, the body of Christ, is in a strategic position like never before to take the initiative to promote racial healing.  It's been pointed out to me that the Black Lives Matter movement is unique because it is a movement of African-Americans that, unlike the Civil Rights movement, did not occur in the church.   So, as Dr. Yancey says, while it has noble goals, spiritual dynamics need to be put into place to see permanent change take place.

We have the unique opportunity in these times to be agents of peace, ambassadors for healing in the name of Jesus Christ.  We can demonstrate the peace of God that passes understanding, and we can work to bring people together.  Through Christ, we can be facilitators of a greater level of communication and empathy with one another.