Complicity
by Martha Bourlakas
Today is a horrifying day. It is impossible and
un-Christian and inhuman to move past it without acknowledging and
understanding what happened. Today, we are eye-witnesses to the murder of Jesus
Christ, and we are complicit because we are the descendants of this human
family. In Psalm 22, we hear a cry, a scream: My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
Hearing someone else’s screams, pleading in agony, is painful, and causes us to
turn our heads, cover our ears. We say, I wasn’t there! I never would have been
part of the mob! I never would have watched while Jesus died on the cross!
Can’t we just focus on the resurrection? The glorious resurrection will come,
but we are not there yet. Today, we are at the scene of violence, despair, and
death, and we must attend.
Lynching—mob
murder used to terrorize an entire race of people— occurred throughout the
South and Midwest in the years of Reconstruction, following the Civil War. The
Equal Justice Initiative, www. eji.org, has to date completed the most
extensive research on lynching in America. EJI Director, author, and attorney
Bryan Stevenson wrote, “We cannot heal the deep wounds inflicted during the era
of racial terrorism until we tell the truth about it.” When we read about
lynchings or see pictures, we turn our heads, avert our eyes. We say, I wasn’t
there! I never would have been part of the mob! I never would have watched
while a human being was lynched! But we did watch. From the Lynching in America
report: “At these often-festive community
gatherings, large crowds of whites watched and participated in the Black
victims’ prolonged torture, mutilation, dismemberment,
and burning at the stake.”
I pray my white, Southern ancestors were not
eye-witnesses to murder. I pray their strong faith led them to speak out
against such atrocities. But I don’t know. I pray we are evolving as humans,
that our faith is helping us strive for justice and to respect the dignity of
all human beings. But I witness our ongoing, entrenched racism. I know I have
benefitted from that racism. I know my silence and passivity are part of my
complicity. I looked away from the video of the murder of George Floyd. I averted
my eyes, covered my ears.
Thanks be to God,
the mutilated body of Jesus Christ does not remain on the cross. We live and
move toward justice through the Resurrection. Today, though, we must listen to
the cries of Jesus, look straight into the eyes of evil and hatred, acknowledge
our complicity, ask for forgiveness, and become better, Easter people. Let us
pray we remember we are beloved descendants of one family of God, ancestors of
all who will follow.
Living
Well Through Lent 2021
Copyright
©2021 Scott Stoner.
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