Love Thy Neighbor

Last weekend there were riots in my hometown after the end of a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest.  I watched it all unfold on a live feed from the safety of my home as rioters, who were later identified as out-of-towners not affiliated with the peaceful protest, destroyed our city hall, police department, and damaged several businesses. I’ll be honest, I cried, and I prayed. I prayed all night long. My heart was restless in the days to follow and I continued to pray asking God, “What do I do? What move am I supposed to make?” I received no answer. So, I waited, and continued to pray. Perhaps God wanted me to sit in that uncomfortable feeling, and I imagined how people of color must be feeling, my uncomfortableness must pale in comparison to their experiences. Finally, God answered, “write it out.” My reply was simple, “absolutely not.” I’ve quickly noticed a theme here. God directs me, and I consistently say no. He must be exhausted; however, He was kind and continued to press. “Write it out.”  Finally, I said aloud, “I’m not qualified to write anything about systemic racism in the United States.” And it’s true, I am not. I may be a social worker, I may be of Mexican descent, but I am not black, and I have not grown up with systemic racism being projected at me. I have not grown up afraid or targeted. I am privileged. God replied, “You are qualified to speak for Jesus.” The rest of this post is what came of that, because He was right, as a Christian I am qualified to preach God’s word over the people and proclaim His commands and desires for us. So, I write to you from a Christian perspective.

Through my quest for knowledge of God’s word on this matter, I stumbled across the book “Woke Church,” by Eric Mason. In one of the author’s opening statements he writes, “There’s a tendency to want to gloss over injustices for the sake of unity. However, any authentic attempt to pursue unity and reconciliation must start with truth. The journey towards healing begins with awakening.” As Christians, we are not called to “gloss over” injustices. We are called to bring light to them and address them head on. Ephesians 5:13-16 says, “But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: Wake up sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful, then, how you live- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” As Christians we have been called to walking in the light, to speak truth, to stand up against the injustices of the world, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The Gospel strengthens us through the Holy Spirit to be able to detect injustices within our society that need to be “exposed by the light.” If we simply gloss over the injustice then we are missing out on our calling to shine light into places of darkness for our brothers and sisters and ultimately for God’s glory, we are missing the beat.

God calls on us in yet another way. There are several areas of the Bible that call us to love our neighbor, but we are going to focus on just one passage. In Matthew 22 Jesus was asked which of the commandments was the greatest, the MOST important. Jesus replied “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it; You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” First, we are to love the Lord our God with every piece of our soul. After all, He has made us in His image. In Genesis 1:27 “So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.” Our entire existence is based on the duty of being bearers of God’s image. To carry forth His good works. We are made in His likeness. So, if we are to love God with our whole hearts and be the image bearers He designed us to be, then loving our brothers and sisters of color is not only our duty, but part of our lives’ work. To carry out the second commandment is easy if we are following the first. God intended for us to be in relationship to one another. He did not intend for us to live selfish lives of independence and solitude. He has called us to love each other like we love ourselves. That is a big deal. To love someone as you love yourself is a BIG kind of love, but you must remember, we have a big kind of God. As Eric Mason writes, “God’s intent is for us to hurt with one another, to care about the suffering of one another.” It may feel easy to shut off the television and tell yourself that it’s not your people, not your state, not your hometown, and not your problem. But as a Christian I tell you, it IS your people being killed in the street, because God CALLED them to be your people. As Eric states, “We are all the people of the same Bible. Even though we are in different locations and have different ethnicities. But we have the same blood, the same Holy Ghost, the same Word. And we should be shouting His message from the rooftops.” So now that we’ve confirmed that we are called by God to address injustice, love God, and love one another, but what does that look like in application?

As Christians we should be leading by example, we should be part of the solution that lights the way for, as Eric puts it, “presenting a clear, viable model of the hopes that lies within us,” the hope and love that God has instilled in us as His people. In his book, Eric Mason lays out a great model for Christians to apply; be aware, be willing to acknowledge, be accountable, and be active. As this blog is only meant to be a call to action and a starting point, we will go over a few ways you can apply this model, but this is by no means an exhaustive list of what of how you can make a positive impact.

Be aware: Be aware that injustices are happening, be aware what our role is, and be aware of what God says about justice. The first step to making change is to be aware of what it is occurring.  

Be willing to acknowledge: Be willing to acknowledge the hard truths of what has happened and is happening in our country. Racism is not an easy pill to swallow, and its true acknowledgement comes with pain. Be willing to sit in the pain. Be willing to get uncomfortable. If you’re uncomfortable, imagine how our brothers and sisters of color feel. Now I feel compelled to remind you here, that just because you are acknowledging that another life matters, does not mean you are saying other lives don’t matter. I saw a great example on Instagram yesterday that put it this way: “People who say “Save the Rainforests” aren’t saying, forget all other types of forests, we don’t care about them.” The point here is that we are stepping outside of the self and putting importance on the injustices that people of color experience, we are putting ourselves in the backseat and allowing someone else’s life to be important too.

Be accountable: Use this opportunity to step into God’s calling for you to be a light in the world and the salt of the Earth. Eric states, “We need to be known for speaking the truth to one another in love so that we can deal effectively with the problems of race and injustice in the church and in the world.”

Be active: This is where my expertise most definitely ends. Yes, I am a social worker, yes, I am a Christian, but I am not the expert in what our brothers and sister of color need. THEY are. So, listen. Research. Ask questions. and help where you feel called to help. Sign petitions, vote, protest, donate to organizations who support racial justice such as the George Floyd Memorial Fund, the Black Visions Collective, or Campaign Zero. Use your voice to advocate on your social media, educate yourself on systemic racism by reading books such as The New Jim Crow, Woke Church, or Between the World and Me. Attend meetings, have conversations, ASK people of color what you can do and how you can support them (because again, I am NOT the expert here), and for heaven’s sake don’t forget to pray.

In closing, I’ve heard people asking “where is God in all of this? IF He is God, if He is who He says He is, then why isn’t He doing anything? “My friends, HE IS HERE. He is in the cries for justice. He is in the midst of the peaceful protestors, holding their hands. He is in the social media posts of pure black, as people mute themselves and their own agendas to listen to our brothers and sisters of color. and He is in our difficult conversations. He is working THROUGH US and it is our responsibility as His image bearers to respond and advocate. So, let’s go out into the world and do God’s work. Let us be His children and represent Him well to the world. And most importantly, let us love one another as we love ourselves.