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.