About Ferguson Missouri

Wrote this September 1 2014...

“I love you. I promise I always will.”

I have not thought it all the way through and I struggle with the social implications of the gospel. The gospel always has and always will have social implications. It will always have an impact wherever questions of ethics and justice are central. It will because, “Justice is what love looks like in public.” ~ C. West. The gospel at its heart declares what God, in his love, has already done for us.  He promises us freedom. “Your seed will crush his head.” (Genesis 3:15) We heard when Jesus proclaims that God’s kingdom has broken in to the one of this world (Mark 1:15). We look forward to experiencing it when God’s hour of judgment of separating good from evil, of setting things right, has come (Revelation 14:6).

The last one is especially poignant in the face of Darren Wilson’s impending trial. If the love of Jesus has saved us from sin and if God promises to one day judge all and perfectly, knowing that God’s love has made these things certain, what should we then do? What should we then pursue? Do we pursue justice in our courts as part of the way we live out being dearly beloved children? Do we pursue a shift in policing as a way of showing the love of Christ to the African-American community in Ferguson and throughout the US of A?

Of course.

I cannot believe that that is all we are to do. As believers in this gospel, I believe that we more than pursue justice according to the law. I believe that we are called to shape the law and its enforcement to prefigure God’s own effective, loving, merciful, and terrible justice. On that day, God will judge all the people. Will we do any less? Can we as Christians listen to only the stories we want to hear and judge from there? Or will we listen to officers who are called to work longer hours, with less pay and benefits, with less support as well as the many men and women who are abused by their anger, brutality, disrespect of law and policy? This process of discernment in the context of law enforcement is deeply needed and will not be quickly done. I believe the church should settle in for the long haul of overhauling the police force. I believe the church should be the place where society is called to hold to the full-story truth.

Judgment done with discernment and love is hard to deny. Discernment made Stephen’s defense undeniable in Acts 7. His love made his death unforgettable in Acts 8. While, the contrasting lack of the same two things condemns that council for as long as the chapters of Acts are read. Let us bear the strain of learning to discern good from evil in America’s police force. All the while remembering, justice on earth is not our end goal.

God himself is our end goal. We were created by, through, and for him alone. Our end goal in pursuing justice in Ferguson is to obey his word, to dwell in his love, to be like him in our love, to point others to him in all that we do. We don’t cry out for justice so that this world might be just, it will always have some injustice somewhere. We cry out for justice in the hopes that another might glimpse his justice. We listen to both sides and the heart of every story so that others might see the character of Jesus. We march with protesters and converse with aldermen so that others might see the hands and feet of Jesus. We write blogs, video blogs, twitter, facebook, google+, vimeo, link-in, and stumble upon that others might read the words, see with the eyes, and hear the voice of Jesus. He is the only life we have to give. In him is the only life we want to live. He is the only sure hope for perfect justice and comfort that we can offer. 

Post Script:

This post starts with the beautifully sung words of Steffany Gretzinger. I was listening to track eight of her album, “The Undoing” on Relevant Magazine’s “The Drop” as I wrote this. The track is about God’s covenant love and is titled “Promise I Always Will.”