Children of God
by Rev. Karen Fitz La Barge June, 1, 2020
As we sit in our comfortable homes watching our television and computer screens, with beverages and snacks close at hand, it is difficult for us to fully comprehend what has happened in our country the last week. — I too watched the video from the Minneapolis street in horror as a police officer refused to remove his knee from the neck of a handcuffed man that he had pinned face down next to his patrol car. –Despite George Floyd himself saying that he could not breathe, despite the constant stream of continued pleas and exclamations from the group of camera wielding onlookers, –including many people loudly calling out to the police that the arrested man was no longer moving or breathing, the police officer’s singular focus on maintaining the pressure on George’s windpipe, and ultimately murdering him on camera, defies our imagination to explain: Why?? —Why are humans so broken and so good at hurting one another? Why do we riot, loot and burn and lynch and murder each other? –As we watch the spark of George Floyd’s death again light the tinder of 400 years of oppression, as we see the anger and pain rise into outbursts and riots across the country, we as followers of Christ turn to our God for comfort and for hope. Is there any good news for us from the church today? Is there any hope for the future in our grief for the complete brokenness of humanity? Yes, yes there is.
As believers living in this unprecedented time of pandemic and racial upheaval and economic injustice, we are called to be the people who use our voices in every language that we know to increase God’s kingdom of love and radical equality and justice for everyone. We are to demand that all of our neighbors be treated equally as God’s children; we are to live and act beyond the stereotypes that we too often accept as labels that we attach to each other. As the world cries out for help in ever increasing screams, let us each speak up boldly for those who are hurting and forgotten. Let all of us, as followers of Christ say:
People of color, we hear your voices crying out in protest and in pain. We pledge to continue to educate ourselves how racism affects your lives in every way and we pledge to do everything we can to undo hundreds of years of systematic racism that are woven into the very fabric of our country. We do this so that we can fully value everyone in our community. We seek to live our lives more like Jesus and to love all people as children of God.
Children of God
