What captures my attention most often is what is wrong with the world: The craven and the cruel, the unjust and the outrageous, the hypocritical and the corrupt. But there is a still small voice echoing across history with a different message. And every now and then you can hear it speak clearly. This time through a bereaved brother who has chosen to follow Jesus...
This video clip has been posted millions of times by the time I write this. Many people love it and find it inspirational. Some people find it noble, but worry that it could serve to legitimate the systemic exclusion and oppression and violence that continues to be performed against people of color in this culture. And still others find this act of forgiveness reprehensible: A betrayal of the man who was killed, and an accomplice to the system that seeks to do the same to other black men. I occupy an uncomfortable middle ground in which I find this a beautiful example of how Christ's Love can be enacted, while also knowing that black lives matter, and we must change our social systems and norms to embrace and protect those who have been historically oppressed and excluded, by fully recognizing each other's voice and vote in our shared culture.
At another level, this dualistic cultural reaction fascinates me. There is a side in this culture which claims to be about racial reconciliation, compassion, and inclusion. And when a concrete act of forgiveness and reconciliation happens to "the wrong person" it is derided, mocked, and rejected. And then there is a side in this culture which stresses justice as retribution, "law and order", and maximal consequences to "offenders". Yet, when forgiveness is politically expedient to their ideological narrative, they embrace it and praise it. Neither of these political sides seem to actually care about the people involved, or anything beyond scoring points to accumulate more power for their side in the culture war. Both sides seem to be, in St. Paul's words, "a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal", devoid of Love.
Sometimes, when forgiveness happens, the "wrong" people get forgiven. That forgiveness is really inconvenient to the kinds of ideology we want to push, and the kinds of people we want to see rewarded and punished. Forgiveness can seem weak, and futile, and not politically expedient, and total trash. But it is a weakness that leads to a resurrection, a futility that overcomes the powers of the world, and trash that is actually the Pearl of Great Price. So, until someone rises from the dead who preaches the gospel of "might makes right", I will have to follow the guy who actually did rise from the dead proclaiming the Gospel of forgiving others as we have been forgiven.
And because I follow that guy, I also think he teaches us some things that are not politically expedient to the other side of this culture war. He teaches us that all people deserve "daily bread" because they are children of God, regardless of their ability to "earn" it. He teaches us that healing and medical care are deserved by every person made in God's image, and not a function of the "market". He teaches us that all people are worthy of respect and dignity, love and care, inclusion and compassion, regardless of whether they are part of "us" or one of "them", no matter who we think "us" and "them" are. He teaches us that the goal of society is to "put down the sword", not to spread an empire by force or coercion. And this vision, inspired by the resurrected Jesus, leads us to a politics and a social praxis that is quite different from either major corporate-controlled political machine which has been driving this culture into the ground for the last half century.
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