As I write this, the news is ablaze with the report: a black man has been shot by a white man.

And this was no mere “white person”.  This was a police officer.  The response was immediate and extreme.  The officer was fired and people began protesting.  We’re not even sure it was actually motivated by white/black issues, but to hear the reports and read social media, it is about color of skin.  Don’t get me wrong, to watch the video footage, it looks cold and cruel.  It seems like it was a pointless attack.  In the end, I hope the truth is revealed and justice is served.

This isn’t about police verses everyone else.  I’m very thankful for those behind the shield who bring a level of order to chaos in society.

This isn’t even about red, yellow, black, or white—even though grasping today’s subject would explain a lot.

This is about the chaos in society we all experience every day.  There are pockets of so-called goodness that tend to go viral because it’s just so odd for something good (in any sense) to occur.  We’ve been conditioned to distrust everybody.

Why do we have ethnic preferences?
Why do we distrust people different from us?
Why are we generally incapable of seeing our world from any other perspective than our own?

We (humans) are broken.
We build society.
Society is broken.

We don’t much care for taking the rap for entire cultures and societies but as members of “Adam’s race”, we have to own it.  We’re sinners and we do sinful things.  Our world is sinful and does sinful things.

But as followers of Jesus, it is different.  Jesus prayed in John 17:14–19:

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

I believe the church is the hope of the world.  I base this statement on this: when Jesus left, He left His church as His representative in His absence and told us to change the world.  As Christians, we are not told to be part of the world.  On the contrary, Jesus declares we are no more part of the world than He is.

So why do we tolerate injustice against others?

Why aren’t Christians standing up for those without a voice?  For those without the “backpack of privilege”?  For those who are deemed guilty until proven innocent?

Where is the church?  Where are we?  Where are you?  Where am I?

If you’re still with me (and I truly hope you are), we’ll spend the next several weeks working through ways we can answer the call to change not just individuals, but our society.  After all, life is precious and if anyone should be defending life, it’s those who’ve been granted new life and raised from death.