Praying for Peace

My grandfather was a police officer during the 1970’s. He was on duty during many of the civil rights protests in those years. He told me one story about a time when he was keeping the peace during a protest. He and his partner had their car surrounded by protesters. He was stuck. He did not want to drive through the protesters, he just wanted to get home. He called for backup but learned the rest of the officers in their area had already been ordered to return to headquarters. No one was coming to help them. It was just him and his partner. They were surrounded by protesters and had to make it back home alone. Whenever he tells this story, you can still hear the anger in his voice from being left alone and the fear of being left in that situation.

The father of a good friend of mine marched in the civil rights protests during the 70’s. My friend’s father told me a story of being pushed down while he was running away from a line of marching police officers. He soon found himself on the ground, surrounded by police. He was alone and did not know how he would make it back home. When he told me this story, you could still hear the anger in his voice from being left alone and the fear of being in that situation.

Today is Pentecost, a day when we celebrate the start of the church. At that first Pentecost the Apostles spoke and everyone around them heard them in their own language. It didn’t matter where they were from, they were all united by the words that were spoken. Everyone felt included.

People all feel the same feelings: happiness, joy, anger, and fear.

Yesterday a reporter from Wave 3 was shot by police with a pepper spray bullet. People were outraged by this. They assumed that the police were trying to suppress the reporting of this event. People thought that the police were trying to run off the news so that the public would not know the terrible violence they were doing to those masses that were gathered to protest police violence.

Likewise, during the protest in D.C., a reporter from Fox News was attacked and chased away from the event by protesters. People assumed that these protesters ran off the reporter so that the public would not know the terrible violence that they were doing. They assumed that they ran off the reporter so they could steal things and break windows without having their faces on camera.

In reality, I doubt the police officer knew who they fired that pepper spray bullet toward. That officer was probably scared. They had been surrounded for hours by people calling for their head. They were possibly a little angry that they had to be there at all when they would have rather been home with their family.

Those D.C. protesters probably did not plan on running off the reporter. Things are rarely planned in these kinds of gatherings. They often just happen. These protesters were probably scared. They could have been scared at the possibility that what happened to Breonna Taylor and George Floyd might happen to them. They were possibly also a little angry that this is still happening at all.

I have heard many people saying that the protesters causing all the violence are from out of town. Mayor Fisher said that people were getting out of cabs and asking for directions. I heard the same kind of statements from the Mayor of St. Paul and the Mayor of Altana. Maybe this is true, and all the bad actors from these protest are from out of town. It could be that Louisville sends our violent protesters up to St. Paul, then St. Paul buses their violent protesters down to Altana, and finally Atlanta flies their violent protesters up to Louisville.

Or, maybe the simpler answer is that these protesters are not from out of town. Maybe the people breaking windows and taking trays of shampoo from CVS live in our city. Maybe they grew up here. Maybe they played high school basketball here. Maybe they are asking for directions because they live outside of downtown Louisville like most of our city does. Maybe they live in a small shotgun house in one of our working-class neighborhoods. Maybe they got pepper sprayed by a police officer trying to stop them from breaking windows. That police officer probably did not want to do that. They might have become a police officer because they wanted to help people and they did not want to be downtown working a protest. They probably would have preferred to be home. Maybe they also live in one of our working-class neighborhoods in a small shotgun house. Maybe these two people on two different side of the line are neighbors.

At Pentecost, people came from far and wide. The city was full of people from every section of the known world. They could not understand each other because not everyone knew the same native language.

We all come from the same city, but even still we cannot understand each other any better than they could. We are one community. We need to understand why people are angry, why they feel they need to break windows and catch buildings on fire.

We also need to understand that most police are good people who only want to help. Several members of our church are very good police officers. Most do not want to be on that line trying to keep the peace.

We need to use this Pentecost as a time to come together. We have to start speaking the same language because this has been going on for too long.

The two stories that I started this message with are not stuck in the past. Someday, 40 years from now, people will still be telling their children and grandchildren stories about being on both sides of the line during the 2020 protests. They will be talking about the fear and anger they felt, just like the fear and anger both sides felt in the 1970’s.

Let us end this cycle now.

Let us speak with one voice and understand our fellow citizens, as united believers.

Reece's Peaces - January 2020 "It is 2020. Are We Circling the Drain? "

We are finally out of the “aughts,” and the “teens” and are pressing forward into the roaring ‘20s. The year 2020 is shaping up to be a crazy year. Not only does 2020 add an extra day at the end of February, but it also as the audacity to put January 1st on a Wednesday, smack-dab in the middle of the week. Nobody wants to start anything, especially a year on a Wednesday. The lunacy of 2020 doesn’t end with its fixed date structure, but the events taking place in 2020 sure don’t offer any reassurances. The 2020 Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan, even though it refuses to ban the Rising Sun Flag. A flag that was symbol of imperial Japan, flown by Japanese army units as they not only fought our American soldiers but, also invaded and committed war crimes against so many innocent Koreans and Chinese citizens in WW2. Finally, to top it all off, we are gearing up for one controversial presidential election, which is sure to divide our nation even further. It sure seems like 2020 is a year circling the drain.

Then again, the outlook on January 1st, 1920 looked equally bleak. It too was a leap year that started on a Wednesday. The 1920 Olympics in Belgium, likewise, had the shadow of a World War hanging heavy above it. Germany, Hungary, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire were all banned from taking part in the Olympics because they were part of the Central Powers in WW1. Finally, the cherry on top was the 1920 presidential election. It was a nasty event that divided a nation still trying to put itself back together. Warren G. Harding campaigned on a “Return to Normalcy” saying that America needed to set back the clock to a time before Wilson was president.

2020 to some people may seem like it will be a no-good rotten very bad year. Much like 1920 seemed. However, 1920 wasn’t that bad of a year. Things got better, bit by bit. In 1920 the divides in the world started to smooth over. The 1920s were known as the roaring twenties for a reason. It was a prosperous time. 1920 was not a year of circling the drain, but a year of crawling back out of it. 2020 may not look so bright and shiny to you right now, but it has all the makings of a good year. The years we should hold some concern for are like 1929… the ones that start too good to be true.

Peace, Ben

Mike's Manna January 2020 - Happy New Year, Child of God!

Did you know that New Year’s Day is the one holiday that is almost universal? It is the world’s most observed holiday.

I trust you’ve made your New Year’s resolutions, one of which is to be in worship each week. I won’t ask you if you’ve resolved to lose the weight you gained between Thanksgiving and Christmas, or if you’re planning on joining a health club, or if you’re going to run five miles a day. Five miles, by the way, is my total aggregate of a lifetime of running.

Ed McManus has some words of comfort for those of us who are setting resolutions: “Don’t worry about [keeping] those 2020 News Year’s resolutions,” he says. “You only have to deal with them until February and then you can give them up for Lent.”

Resolutions are good, especially when we need to make some changes in our lives. I heard about one poor guy who dialed his girlfriend and got the following recording: “I am not available right now but thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. Please leave a message after the beep. If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes.”  While at times unpleasant, change is good.

In writing the Prologue to his gospel, the Apostle John chose to emphasize the future, not the past—possibilities, not regrets. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… to all who received God, to those who believed in God’s name, God gave the right to become children of God…” (John 1: 1, 8). What a positive theme for this New Year! The prologue to John is focused not on what we have been, or even what we are now. Rather it’s focus is on what we can yet be: “Yet to all who received God, to those who believed in God’s name, God gave the right to become children of God….”

Isn’t that what we really want as we begin this New Year -   to know deeply in our hearts that we can be more than we are today?  That we have a right to become children of God? Isn’t it exciting to know that we can live the next 365 days confidently aware that our life matters and that God is with us?  That we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us?

We all have unrealized potential. We are children of the dust who have the potential to be children of the Divine. When each of us came into this world, we were given an amazing amount of potential.

I once saw a young man pedaling around a college campus on a bicycle, wearing a T-shirt printed with the message: “I’m going to be a doctor.”  There was also a sign on the back of his bicycle, proclaiming, “I’m going to be a Mercedes.” There’s a young man who understands his potential.

Notice, the text doesn’t say that Christ came into the world so that we can improve our I.Q. or that we will be able to run the 440 in record time. It says that whoever receives Christ and believes on his name has the potential to become a child of God. What does that mean? It means that you and I have the potential to be like Christ. We have a potential within our hearts and souls for peace, a potential for joy, a potential for hope, a potential for love, a potential for forgiveness that is greater than we can possibly imagine. Think about that!  We no longer need to live lives filled with inner conflict, anger, resentment, fear, hatred, guilt or rejection. By the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we can become new people, God’s people.

Sometimes personal epiphany happens dramatically, but more often it happens very slowly over time. Regardless, you and I can be more than we are. It doesn’t depend on our background; on our physical or mental limitations. It doesn’t even depend on our age. We may find themselves slowing down physically, and even mentally, but there is no need to slowdown in our efforts to be children of God. This is a gift that never fades nor ever fails.

The right to be children of God is not something we earn. It’s a gift from a loving, merciful God. Note again John’s words: “To all who received God, who believed in God’s name, God GAVE the right to become children of God.” It’s not a matter of how often we come to God’s house; it’s not how often we read our Bibles; it’s not how often we pray. As important as all those things may be, we can’t earn the right to be children of God. It’s a gift.

So, Happy New Year, Child of God!  Boldly walk into 2020, aware of who we are, and to Whom we belong.

Agape, Mike