What The Church Can Take Away From State vs Zimmerman

July 13th is a day that race relations stock plummeted. Why? Because a court case released their verdict on a Saturday night that set social media ablaze. Everybody had something to say, both in favor of the court’s ruling and in opposition. But here is what I believe the Church can extrapolate from the case.

Why Do We Buy What Media Sells?

The media outlets sold America a bridge in Idaho, and the majority of its viewers bought it. It took so well that no one would even dare to think up a return policy. Here stood this (Black) African-American teenager just minding his own business having left a corner store to purchase items that “they” typically buy in the hood, and up comes this (White) Hispanic-American just looking to start some trouble, and he found it. Pretty soon, this tragedy was a clarion call between the timeless people groups one more time, whites versus blacks. Before Zimmerman was arrested, the tension was brewing into a solid boil. When there’s tension in the air like that, it has the propensity of seeping into every fabric found in every house, church, business, court room, and political office.

How All Knowing Do We Think We Are?

When facts are presented, and holes in mixed in there, do we really have to fill in those blank spots in some absolute certainty, or can we attempt a reasoned explanation leaving room for other possibilities to be presented and even be swayed by them? This is the million dollar question right here. Over the last year or so, and especially during the trial, many commentators attempted to play God and act as if they know without a shadow of a doubt what happened that night. Guess what? You are not sovereign. Your friends aren’t sovereign. People who have your skin tone aren’t sovereign. People who don’t have your skin tone aren’t sovereign. Not to mention that the news anchors are not now and never will be sovereign. This sovereign aura that we can sometimes carry around with us with inevitably create a sovereign-subject relationship with people, especially those who aren’t intelligent enough to be on our plane of thinking.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Let’s not act as if racism isn’t an issue that’s swept under some invisible rug every chance God’s people are confronted with it. In fact, some just clearly ignore it. Others just cast thousands of ‘woe is me’ upon themselves. Neither is a solution, nor does it point the redeemed to the redeemer. It’s nigh time we take this ever-penetrating gospel to the harder moral and theological areas in our life.

It’s also time the Church start speaking about people groups the way the Christian Scriptures do. In Acts 17, as Paul is preaching to the people in Areopagus, he clearly states that from one man (Adam) stems the entire human race. This is huge. Cross-cultural sweeping. The ramifications of this text extend to how we see ourselves and how we classify ourselves. We are of the same race! That’s what Paul is saying. Because we all come from the same person, we have the same roots. Let that sink in. We were all created by God; we are of the same race; we have the same roots. Paul is also saying that the racial distinctions that we use to profile people into and out of an accepted group doesn’t hold water in the eyes of God.

What Is It We’re Looking For?

Is a guilty verdict the ultimate means? If Zimmerman was found guilty and sentenced to life, would race relations be ‘on the right track’ to being solved? I highly doubt that. If Zimmerman was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years, would race relations be worse off? Again, I doubt that. I do believe that most blacks expected and so badly desired a guilty verdict, but what would that solve in light of the main issue that’s buzzing across America. The ‘salt and light’ people are full of folks taking sides with and against their brethren. This ought not be. We must remember that we are not of the world, and the means which the world goes about dealing with this verdict ought not mirror what the Church does. Instead, we ought to love on people who don’t understand the plights of black youth, while listening to the many other sides.

Who Will Right All These Wrongs?

Before we jump into the easy A answer to this question, let’s stop and consider our answer first. God sent Jesus to die for the sins of those who repent of their former life and believe in what Jesus accomplished on the cross. God then adopts these people into his family known as the covenant community. Revelation speaks of this family being made up of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation! Jesus calls this family to impact the world by their message (gospel) and means (living).

So we are commanded to confront the world and allow our godly influence to right some wrongs in our societies. However, Jesus will ultimately right them by destroying the wicked when he returns for the second time. Jesus isn’t coming to hold hands and sit folks down for some roundtable discussion….he’s coming to judge the wicked and gather the redeemed.

When Will The Real Fruit Standup?

If we’re called to labor alongside believers who don’t get it, when will get to laboring? If we’re called to be patient with those inside the body who just don’t get it, when will our test of patience begin? In other words, Jesus told the Church that we would suffer, so let’s expect it. And because we’ll suffer, we can joyously cherish in and be strengthened by our Lord and God, Jesus. It’s time for our faithfulness to Jesus and our commitment to the gospel to branch out into our fruitfulness.

Conclusion

Should a 17-year-old kid be dead right now? No. Was God sovereignly controlling that situation? Yes. Can we make sense of these two questions? Of course. From our point of view, which is highly limited, a kid died before his time due to racial profiling. Newsflash – we all are guilty of racial profiling. Blacks profile Blacks; White profile Whites; Hispanics profile Hispanics, and so on. The issue must not be that a non-black man killed a black man. Why? Because black on black crime is entirely rampant and we rarely hear from the Sharpton’s and Jackson’s of the world when those death tolls mount up week after week. The issue is about, in my opinion, fairness. To which I say…be careful what you ask for. The only thing that’s fair is the fair that comes to town, and even that will cost you. But our estimation of fairness is entirely too subjective to be used as a measuring stick. We are better off using God’s objective measuring stick which applies to all mankind that he has created. So we start with God, with God’s view on mankind, with God’s holy and complete measuring stick, with God’s sending of Jesus to destroy sin and save creatures, and with God’s holy adoption program of the redeemed into one family. I pray the Church can benefit from this article.

#sovereignty #race #God #Jesus #Gospel