“And I will be content in every circumstance...Jireh you are enough.” This is the refrain of the song "Jireh" by Maverick City Music. As I sit listening to the closing arguments of the Derek Chauvin trial for the murder of George Floyd, with this song playing in the background, I can’t help but feel the weight of how far from the truth that refrain must seem to so many Black and brown people in the U.S. who are hurting at this moment. As we as a nation sit, again poised and praying for justice to be brought about through a system that is inherently unjust, having been created for the sole purpose of policing Black bodies, I ask myself, what sense does it make to put our hope in a system that is highly effective at doing exactly what it was created to do? I’m reminded of a quote by Trevor Noah only a few nights ago, “we keep talking about cops as bad apples, but my question is, where are the good ones? It’s not just bad apples, the whole tree is rotten.” And I have to agree with this statement. The bible says in Luke 6, that a tree will be known by its fruit. How should America be known? What is the fruit of our red, white, and blue tree? I was recently asked what makes me American and my only response was that I was born in this country and so by law, I am American. The question was changed to, “so what makes America America?” And honestly, all I could think of were things that are not positive- and I don’t think that is bad. The bible says that God disciplines those he loves, should it not be the same with our nation?
As the church, we can no longer sit back, close our eyes, and simply say the Gospel is the great equalizer and if we just look at the Gospel there will be racial reconciliation in our nation. The church, by sitting silently by, is just as complicit in the harm being perpetrated on Black bodies in this nation as those who handed Jesus over to Pilate to be crucified. Think about it, if the voice of the church is loud enough and able to mobilize with enough force to influence Supreme Court rulings in relation to abortion or same-sex marriage, why do we not do the same in relation to the indiscriminate misuse and murder of Black and brown bodies? We have the power of the Gospel and the force of the almighty God behind us, yet for some reason, the white evangelical church has decided that unborn bodies are more important to God than those already out of the womb. Let me be clear, God did not decide this, the white evangelical church did. It may be disturbing for some to see that clear delineation of where I am calling in (calling in rather than calling out, because I am inviting the white evangelical church to join in the conversation rather than pushing it out for its harmful views) the harm that is coming from inside the body of Christ, but I firmly believe in the scripture that calls us as followers of Christ to call one another in when we see someone living in sin; “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone, if he listens to you you have gained a brother. But if he does not listen, take two or three others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses (Matthew 18:15-16).” This is where the white evangelical sits with the Black and brown people of the US.
The killings of 13-year-old Adam Toledo and 20-year-old Dante Wright should break the heart of the church because it breaks the heart of our God. “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belong the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:14).” These two young lives lost at the hands of those who pledged to protect and serve should bring outrage in the Kingdom. As believers, our anger, when righteous, is a powerful tool. When writing to the church in Ephesus, Paul tells the people to “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil (Ephesians 4:26).” Notice, Paul does not tell the people to never be angry. He tells them to be angry and to not sin. There is an anger that is righteous. We see Jesus exhibit this kind of anger when he finds that the Temple courts have been turned into places where people seek profit over praising the King (John 2: 13-17). Not only does Jesus get angry, but he goes so far as to use violence to clear the courts- making a whip of cords to drive those guilty of perpetrating the injustice out of the space. Have we as the church yet gone so far to protect the lives of Black and brown people who are made in the imago Dei? We have not.
Being a Black woman I am forced to recognize that in the eyes of the God I serve, first, I am his beloved, his child; but to those in this nation who proclaim to also be his children, my brothers and sisters, the truth is, I am not God’s child first, I am Black first. So what does this mean for the fractured body of Christ in America? For me, it means the searing pain of knowing that while my God is a God of justice, the God of the oppressed, the God who allowed evil humanity to murder his fully innocent son on the cross, the God who made me and loves me, the evilness of this world may, just like it did to the life of my Savior, take the life of my brown-skinned future husband, father, brother, son, or even my own. So what does that mean for me as a Christian navigating this country as a Black woman? It means that the truth of the Gospel is even more salient for me. It means that I CANNOT place my hope in anything in this world. It means I know justice does not reign here- that this is not the land of the free and the home of the brave. It means that I must choose to hold on to the reality that my citizenship is in heaven because the nation that holds it in this world does not offer me the protections of citizenship. So I look to my God as the only place of safety, fully recognizing that if He allowed his son to take on the cross by the hands of man- just as he had the power to save Jesus, He has the power to save me. But just as Jesus suffered and died a slow painful death of asphyxiation, a death mirrored in the slow painful death by asphyxiation suffered by George Floyd, my God may allow my life on this earth to end in injustice. But I choose to believe that as his word promises, my God will contend with those who contend with me, he fights against those who fight against me (Psalm 35:1).
In the Old Testament, God promises his people that He will intervene and that leaders who oppress and harm others will be punished. And my God does not lie (Numbers 23:19). So as I watch the closing arguments of this trial that seems so much greater than a trial for an officer, but one for the heart and soul of those in power in our nation, I do not have hope that in this life there will be justice for George P. Floyd. My hope that things will get better no longer exists, but in its place is the trust that although the justice system of this nation is broken, the ultimate and infinite justice of my God will reign and accomplish its purpose for his glory. The bible promises that in this life there will be suffering, but it also calls followers of Christ to take heart because Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33); that means that these light and momentary afflictions, though they feel neither light nor momentary, are preparing an eternal weight of glory for those who choose to trust that God is still in control and will bring about the ultimate work of justice (2 Corinthians 4:17). So though I am angry, though I am hurting, though I do not see a light at the end of the tunnel in my human capacity, I can believe that as Maverick City says, I know what my God has spoken, and He has declared that justice will win, and That. Is. Enough.