It’s Sunday. That means that Christians around the country are heading to church for the first time since 9 people were murdered during a Bible study at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It has been almost 48 hours since I heard about it, and to explain to you what I’ve been feeling is next to impossible. I’ve got all the normals for you: sadness, despair, anger, bitterness, hopelessness, fear. But there is something more, something outside of the ordinary reaction that I can’t seem to put my finger on.
What I can tell you is that one of the first questions that popped into my head was “Where were You?” And as hard as I tried to stop myself from thinking it, it just kept coming. “Where were You when he walked through Your doors, into Your sanctuary? Where were You when he pulled that trigger? Where were You as those nine people were bleeding on the floor? Where were You when they used Your words to justify slavery? Where were You when they burned Your cross on our lawns? Where have You been? Where are You right now and WHY won’t You fix it?”
The intersection of race and Christianity in America is an interesting one. Southern white Christians spent their free time justifying slavery and genocide through the gospel. And while some Northern white Christians were abolitionists who aided runaway slaves, most of them sat by idly because it didn’t affect them. The black church has always been a pillar of strength and progress. Which has also continually made it the focus of white hate. And from what I’ve read, Mother Emanuel has been at the center of that since it was founded in the 1790s.
I’m sure there are choruses of “We Shall Overcome” and Bible passages about love and forgiveness being shouted from the mountaintops (again). I fully expect there to be people who will cross the threshold of a church for the first time in a long time today. I imagine that priests, pastors and reverends will take the time to recognize the nine people who were murdered while worshipping our Lord and Savior. Everyone will pray and talk and sing and cry. Some will toss some money around. But no one will actually DO anything.
And while the Mother Emanuel community will grapple with continued mourning, the rest of America will go back to “normal” life. People will throw around phrases like “gun control” and “mental illness,” then it’ll get added to the list and we’ll just keep going. Another mass murder. Another hate crime. Just another.
I will never claim that I know a lot about the Bible. But here’s what I do know: Jesus is NOT a fan of how we’re living. Americans are quick to look around at other people’s cultures and tell them how wrong their ways of life are. But seldom do we stop and say, “wow, we’re really screwing this up.” Actually, let me rephrase that. We SAY all kinds of things. We just never do anything about it.
Acknowledgement is not enough. Matthew 5:16 says Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Where are our good works? I’ve been looking at the States from the outside for a good chunk of time now. And it seems like every time I turn around, the divides that have wreaked havoc on our country since its inception are slowly widening. And while we spend plenty of time figuring out whether the dress is blue and black or white and gold (side note: no one cares), we spend very little time creating a living wage or stopping sex trafficking inside our borders. Or, ya know, stopping young, white men from feeling so damned privileged that they go on shooting sprees in a South Carolina church. Basically, what I’m saying is, there ain’t much good to see.
Jesus was an activist, people. He said stuff that others didn’t want to hear, that went against the status quo. He rocked His people and His culture. He called them higher. Challenged them to do better. It wasn’t comfortable. I mean, we all know how that ended for Him. But that’s the kind of light He wants us to be. That’s the kind of change He wants us to make.
So, where were you? Where were you when the office bigot made that racist joke? Where were you when your buddy catcalled the girl walking down the street? Where were YOU when the people around you tried to take Jesus out of the room, out of the country, out of the world?
We are the keepers of God’s light on earth. That’s a BIG deal. Luke 12:48 says From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. Because God has given us such an important gift, He requires more from us. We don’t just get to sit back and accept the status quo because it’s comfortable or because it’s easier. We’ve been called higher. If we are truly followers of the Lord, we must step out into the uncomfortable and challenge ourselves. We must rock our culture and our people. We must be His light and make His change.
