Standing with the "Broken Hearted"

 

            “Lawlessness and rioting” will not be tolerated we are told definitively and authoritatively.  This declaration from national leaders comes as federal troops are readied to deploy oversea?  No!  Federal troops are set to mobilized right here in the United States, on the verge of descending upon Kenosha, Wisconsin to disrupt peaceful protests (and not-so-peaceful gatherings). 

            Why are people protesting?  Another unarmed black man, Jacob Black, was shot by police officers sworn to protect the public.  He was shot seven times in the back!  Black civilians don’t feel protected by law enforcement.  I wonder why?  Could it be because of the strangling of George Floyd?  Or Breonna Taylor, killed in the sanctity of her own home without even a knock on the door?  Those are just the highly publicized cases, and just from 2020. 

            Why aren’t we hearing national leaders say, “The killing of black people by the police won’t be tolerated!”  Is it because certain national leaders have no problem tolerating the killing of unarmed black people? 

            I am the pastor of a multiethnic but majority white church, asking these questions in a church newsletter column.  It makes readers uncomfortable.  It makes white people uneasy.  Uncomfortable and uneasy, people will say, “Don’t bring politics into the church!”  People will tell me, “Support the police!” 

I do support the police, but I also support my black brothers and sister.  I am a white male.  The continued unjust way black people are targeted by law enforcement upsets me so much, I want to protest the established order.  I am upset.  The “law and order” touted by national leaders isn’t working for a lot of Americans. 

            Consider this.  Followers of Jesus don’t consider this issue or the circumstances of our times as Americans. We see the world as Christians. We are, first and foremost, subject to the ways of Christ, baptized of the Holy Spirit, people of the book.  We pray for police officers.  In earnest, we pray for law enforcement officials, presidents, governors, and mayors.  With genuine, Christ-inspired love, we pray.

            But we renounce the strident “lawlessness won’t be tolerated” pronouncement because it drowns out the bigger question, the one we must ask.  How long, O Lord?  How long, in our land, will black and brown people continue to receive such dispassionate, cold treatment from those sworn to protect and care?  That’s what we must ask and keep asking until things change.  In solidarity with people who feel dehumanized by the government and institutions of power, opposing injustice is an expression of our discipleship.

            “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1).  Read Luke 4.  Jesus declared that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.  If we are the body of Christ at work in the world, then we must work to make this promise from scripture a lived reality for victims of injustice. 

            When mothers and fathers of black young people continue to have to fear that encounters with the police could lead to their child’s death, black people are the ‘broken hearted’ this Bible verse means.  We have to hold, comfort, and fight for the broken hearted among us.  We have to oppose and dismantle systems that break their hearts. 

            Protest!  Write or call your congressman/woman & senators (both at the state and national level)!   Vote with justice for the broken hearted on your mind!  I won’t demonize the police.  I know too many good ones whose hearts are on serving and protecting.  I admire someone who is in law enforcement in order to serve.  But followers of Jesus as Christians have to stand up and acknowledge that the systemic forces controlling our nation are still favorable to white people and dangerous for black and brown people.  We have to oppose this unjust reality and work for equity and justice for all.

            Yes, there are some bad actors among the nationwide protests. There are also people who hurt, ‘the broken hearted.’  We stand with them.  Our hearts break with them. We realize from the prophet Isaiah, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that God stands with the broken hearted and weeps with them.  We want to stand where God stands and love as God loves.