When the water you are watching
boil reaches its boiling point too quickly what do you do? Throw in some salt.
Salt reduces the tendency of the water to transform from liquid through
evaporation.
Our nation is very near a
boiling point, a point of permanent transformation. The temperature of the pot
in which we dwell is too high. The heat in this cauldron is destroying psyches and
lives.
How do we become salt? Two actions: listen and speak. We pursue reconciliation through listening, and once we understand, we speak truth to power.
We listen to people of color
explain why they are uniquely offended by the story of the murder George Floyd. If, like me, you are not a person of color,
then you cannot truly understand the visceral response of a person of color to
the 8 minutes 46 seconds of a white uniformed police officer lynching a black
man. The Church needs to become a forum for bringing together people of color
and white people so that the white people can listen and learn.
What does it mean to speak
truth to power? It means that you raise up the voices of trusted leaders like General
James Mattis when he says, "The
Nazi slogan for destroying us ... was 'Divide and Conquer.' Our American answer
is 'In Union there is Strength.' We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis
-- confident that we are better than our politics."
The voice of the Church must prophesy
with words that unify rather than which divide the communities we serve.
It may seem counter-intuitive,
to think that listening and speaking up will reduce our national boiling point.
But, if we do not listen we will never understand the pain which drives the emotions
of people of color. To fail to speak, to
be silent, to play along, to hide behind the fear of being shamed for telling
the truth, allows the pot to boil rather than simmer.
Listening quietly and speaking
boldly are the ingredients, the salt which will keep our nation in a state of
peace rather than allowing it to evaporate before our very eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment